A quick summary:
Employee wellbeing metrics show how your people are doing and whether your support is working. Sickness absence is the most common way organisations judge their wellbeing activity, but it's a late signal: by the time it rises, people are often already struggling. A balanced set mixes three kinds of measure:
- Early signals, such as survey scores, stress indicators, and benefit take-up
- Outcomes, such as absence, turnover, and presenteeism
- Context, such as absence reasons and team-by-team patterns, so you know where to act
Among organisations with wellbeing activity, 74% use sickness absence rates to judge it, making it the most common measure in the CIPD's survey. It's easy to see why. Absence data already exists, it's simple to count, and finance understands it. You don't need a new system or a new survey to report on it.
The catch is timing. Absence tells you about problems that have already happened. Someone may have been struggling for weeks before they take a day off. Others keep coming in while unwell, so their struggle doesn't show up in absence data at all.
That's why a useful wellbeing dashboard goes beyond absence. It adds early signals that show where pressure is building, while there's still time to help.
Here are the employee wellbeing metrics worth tracking, how to measure each one, and how to turn the numbers into action.
What are employee wellbeing metrics?
Employee wellbeing metrics are the measures that show how your people are doing and whether the support you offer is working, from survey scores and benefit take-up to sickness absence and staff turnover.
They fall into two groups, and you'll want both. Leading metrics, like survey scores, stress indicators, and benefit take-up, change early and point to where pressure is building. Lagging metrics, like absence and turnover, confirm what's already happened.
Leading metrics tell you where to act. Lagging metrics help show whether acting worked.
Wellbeing metrics are different from return on investment (ROI). Metrics track how people are doing. ROI puts a pound value on the change. If you need the finance case, our guide to measuring the ROI of wellbeing programmes covers it.
Which employee wellbeing metrics should you track?
Track a small, balanced set: wellbeing survey scores, work-related stress indicators, benefit take-up, sickness absence and its reasons, presenteeism, and staff turnover. Together they show both early warning signs and outcomes, so you can act before problems grow.
1. Wellbeing survey scores
A short, regular survey is one of the most direct ways to hear how people feel. Ask the same few questions each time, about energy, stress, workload, and whether people feel supported, so you can track the trend.
2. Work-related stress indicators
HSE's Management Standards Indicator Tool is a 35-question survey about working conditions known to be potential causes of work-related stress. It covers the six areas of HSE's Management Standards, including demands, control, and support. It's a ready-made way to track the work-design side of wellbeing.
3. Benefit take-up and usage
Track how many people use their benefits, how often, and for what. Low take-up can mean a benefit isn't relevant, isn't well known, or is hard to use. Usage by category also shows where needs are growing, such as mental health or financial support.
4. Sickness absence rate
Absence rate is days lost ÷ working days available × 100.
For context, the UK sickness absence rate was 2.0% of working hours in 2025, with an average of 4.4 days lost per worker. Track both the rate and how often people are off, because frequent short absences can signal a different problem from one long one.
5. Absence reasons
Reasons tell you where to focus. Nationally, in 2025, minor illnesses accounted for 30.4% of sickness absence occurrences, musculoskeletal problems for 14.6%, and mental health conditions for 8.9%. If your mix looks very different, that's worth exploring.
6. Presenteeism
Presenteeism means working while unwell and not at your best. It won't appear in attendance data, so measure it with a survey question about how productive people have felt compared with usual. Our guide to absenteeism and presenteeism explains the difference.
7. Staff turnover and retention
Turnover is leavers ÷ average headcount × 100.
Track voluntary leavers separately, and add a wellbeing question to exit interviews so you can see whether wellbeing played a part.
How do you measure employee wellbeing?
Combine three sources: anonymous surveys for how people feel, HR data for absence and turnover, and benefit usage data for what people actually do. Then compare results over time and across teams.
Start with what you already hold. Absence, turnover, and benefit data usually sit in HR, payroll, and provider systems. Our guide to auditing your benefits data in an afternoon shows where to find it.
Then add the human side. Run a short pulse survey every quarter and a fuller survey once a year. Regular one-to-ones fill in the detail that numbers can't, and our guide to running a wellbeing one-to-one gives managers a simple structure.
Keep definitions consistent. If you change how a question is worded or how absence is counted, the trend breaks, and you lose the comparison.
What are good benchmarks for employee wellbeing metrics?
UK sickness absence was 2.0% of working hours in 2025, or 4.4 days per worker, on ONS figures. Benchmarks vary by source, so compare yourself mainly with your own baseline over time.
Absence shows why. ONS puts the UK at around 4.4 days per worker, based on the Labour Force Survey, a national household survey. The CIPD's employer survey puts it at 9.4 days per employee a year. Both are valid. They measure in different ways, so the gap is a reminder to compare like with like.
For how people feel, Gallup's UK data is a useful reference point. Only 10% of UK employees are engaged at work, and 46% felt stress during a lot of the previous day.
If you'd like to know the signs to look for in individual employees, our guide to the signs employees are unhappy at work walks through them.
How often should you review employee wellbeing metrics?
Check benefit usage and sickness absence monthly, review your full set of wellbeing metrics quarterly with the people who can act on them, and run a fuller survey and reset priorities once a year.
This rhythm keeps the work light and the data useful:
The times in the table are rough guides. If you're building the wider plan these metrics feed into, see our guide to creating an employee wellbeing framework.
How do you turn wellbeing data into action?
Look for patterns in your wellbeing data across teams and over time, pick the one or two that matter most, act on them, and tell people what changed. Then watch the same metrics to see whether the action worked.
Patterns matter more than single numbers. A rise in stress scores in one team, alongside falling benefit use and more short absences, tells a clearer story than any one figure.
Heka makes the usage side easier to see. Heka's live data shows HR what people actually use, beyond sign-ups, so you can spot trends and make informed decisions. On Heka, 93% of users use their benefits every quarter, and over 80% of usage is for preventative health.
One caveat: metrics show patterns across groups, so treat them that way. Report survey results in groups large enough that nobody can be identified, and be careful how you read a single number. A falling absence rate is less reassuring if presenteeism is rising at the same time. Read the metrics together, and pair them with real conversations.
Where to start
The best wellbeing metrics give you time to act. Sickness absence is the most common way organisations judge their wellbeing activity, used by 74% of those with wellbeing activity, but it only shows problems once they've arrived. Add early signals, such as survey scores, stress indicators, and benefit take-up, alongside outcomes, such as absence, turnover, and presenteeism. Review them on a steady rhythm, and you'll see where to help sooner.
Heka gives every employee the right benefit, at the right time, and shows you what your people actually use. See how Heka works, or book a demo to see Heka's live data for yourself.
Frequently asked questions about employee wellbeing metrics
What is the most important employee wellbeing metric?
No single metric tells the whole story, which is why it's best to track a small set together. If you can only start with one, run a short, regular wellbeing survey, because it can pick up problems earlier than absence or turnover. Pair it with your absence rate, which you probably already hold, so you can see both early signals and outcomes.
How do you calculate staff turnover rate?
Divide the number of leavers in a period by the average number of employees over that period, then multiply by 100. For example, 12 leavers in a year with an average headcount of 150 gives a turnover rate of 8%. Track voluntary and involuntary leavers separately, because voluntary turnover is usually the clearer signal for wellbeing.
What questions should a wellbeing survey include?
Keep it short and consistent. Good questions ask how people rate their energy and stress levels, whether their workload feels manageable, whether they feel supported by their manager, and whether they know what support is available. Add one open question about what would help most. Asking the same questions each time lets you track the trend.
Is it legal to track employee wellbeing data?
Usually, yes, if you follow UK data protection law. Health information is special category data under UK GDPR, so you need a lawful basis and an additional condition to use it. Collect only what you need, explain why, and keep it secure. Anonymous surveys and grouped reporting reduce the risk. If you're unsure, check with your data protection lead before collecting anything new.
How is measuring wellbeing different from measuring ROI?
Wellbeing metrics track how people are doing, through measures like survey scores, absence, and benefit take-up. Return on investment (ROI) goes a step further and puts a pound value on changes in those measures, then compares it with what your wellbeing programme costs. A common approach is to review metrics monthly or quarterly and calculate ROI once or twice a year.
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