A wellbeing champion programme can lose momentum quickly when it starts with a vague brief: “encourage people to look after themselves”. The strongest wellbeing champion programme examples give volunteers a defined role, practical activities to promote and a clear route for employee feedback. They make wellbeing easier to access during the working day, rather than asking champions to become counsellors, clinicians or event planners.
For UK employers, the right programme depends on workforce size, working patterns and available space. A single-site office may benefit from regular on-site sessions, while a dispersed or hybrid team may need digital learning supported by local advocates. The common requirement is low friction: employees should be able to take part without lengthy booking processes or uncertainty about what is on offer.
What a wellbeing champion should do
A wellbeing champion is an employee who helps colleagues notice, understand and use the organisation’s wellbeing support. They are not responsible for diagnosing health issues, giving medical advice or managing a colleague’s personal situation. Those boundaries need to be explicit from the start.
In practice, champions can share campaign information, encourage attendance, collect informal feedback and signpost people to the right internal or external support. They can also identify barriers that HR may not see, such as shift patterns that exclude people from lunchtime sessions or remote employees who feel left out of office activity.
Give each champion a manageable time commitment, such as one or two hours a month. Provide a named HR or People contact, simple briefing materials and an agreed escalation process for concerns. A programme built around goodwill alone can create pressure for volunteers and inconsistent delivery across teams.
7 wellbeing champion programme examples
1. Know Your Numbers health check days
Health checks are a useful starting point because they give employees a personal, immediate reason to engage. Champions can promote the event in advance, explain what will be measured and reassure colleagues that participation is voluntary and individual results are private.
An on-site health screening kiosk can measure height, weight, BMI, blood pressure, pulse and body fat percentage in minutes, with an instant printed results sheet. It removes the need for an appointment schedule, which can increase uptake in busy workplaces. For employers, anonymised usage data can provide a practical indication of participation where this has been agreed and managed appropriately.
Champions should focus on encouraging employees to understand their measurements, not interpret them clinically. The printed results should direct anyone with a concern to a GP, pharmacist or appropriate healthcare professional. This approach supports preventative action without presenting workplace screening as a substitute for medical care.
2. A monthly movement prompt
Movement campaigns work best when they fit the actual workplace. A warehouse team may prefer short stretch breaks at shift change, while office staff may respond to desk mobility sessions, walking meetings or a weekly yoga class. Champions can test the preferred format with their own teams rather than assuming one activity will suit everyone.
Set one simple monthly theme, such as easing back stiffness, building a walking habit or taking regular screen breaks. Champions can share the timetable, encourage managers to protect time for participation and collect feedback afterwards. The aim is not to create competition for its own sake. It is to make regular movement feel permitted and practical.
On-site classes are particularly effective where employees struggle to make time before or after work. For hybrid workforces, pair live sessions with recorded guidance or concise training so that location does not determine access.
3. Mental health awareness with clear signposting
Champions can play a valuable role in reducing silence around stress and mental health, but they need careful guidance. A campaign might include a mental health awareness webinar, manager communications and a short champion briefing on how to listen without taking ownership of a problem.
Provide champions with approved signposting for the employee assistance programme, occupational health, HR contacts, emergency support and local services where relevant. They should know what to do if someone appears to be at immediate risk, rather than trying to manage a serious situation alone.
Keep the language practical. A message about recognising early signs of stress, taking a break and seeking support is often more useful than a broad statement about wellbeing. Champions can also feed back on recurring pressures, such as workload peaks or unclear priorities, so that leaders can address causes as well as symptoms.
4. Sleep and recovery campaigns for demanding teams
Poor sleep affects concentration, mood and recovery, yet it is often overlooked in workplace plans. A short campaign can combine a webinar on sleep habits with weekly champion prompts on wind-down routines, caffeine timing, screen use and consistent sleep schedules.
This is especially relevant for teams managing long commutes, travel, shift work or periods of intense delivery. However, avoid presenting sleep as a matter of personal discipline alone. Champions should gather feedback on work factors that make recovery difficult, including late meetings, out-of-hours messages and unpredictable rotas.
The useful measure is not whether every employee reports perfect sleep. It is whether employees had accessible information, felt able to participate and identified practical changes they could make.
5. Nutrition support without judgement
Nutrition initiatives can attract strong interest, but they can also feel intrusive if the message is centred on weight loss. Position the campaign around energy, concentration and accessible choices. Champions might promote a nutrition webinar, share practical food ideas for office days and ask catering or facilities teams whether healthier options are readily available.
For multi-site employers, champions can identify local differences. One site may have a staff canteen, while another relies on nearby shops or vending provision. A centrally designed campaign should allow room for these realities.
Keep communications inclusive. Employees have different budgets, cultures, health needs and relationships with food. The purpose is to offer credible information and choices, not to monitor anyone’s diet.
6. Wellbeing weeks with one activity per day
A wellbeing week can generate attention, but only if it has a clear structure and does not become a crowded calendar of optional events. Champions can support one focused activity each day: health screening on Monday, a movement session on Tuesday, a stress webinar on Wednesday, a financial wellbeing session on Thursday and a feedback prompt on Friday.
This format gives employees several ways to take part without requiring them to attend everything. It also creates useful data. Track registrations where applicable, kiosk usage, attendance, repeat participation and short feedback responses. Compare activity across sites and working patterns, but avoid treating low attendance as a failure before checking whether the timing and communication were suitable.
Relaxa can support this type of programme with on-site health screening, workplace sessions and online learning, allowing employers to combine a visible event with resources that remain available afterwards.
7. A champion-led listening loop
The most sustainable example is not a single campaign. It is a regular listening loop between employees, champions and programme owners. Ask champions to submit a short monthly update: what colleagues engaged with, what questions came up, what prevented participation and what should be tested next.
Keep the reporting light. A one-page template is usually enough. HR can then spot patterns, such as strong demand for lunchtime sessions, confusion about mental health support or reduced access for night workers. Share back what has changed as a result. When people can see that feedback leads to action, champions are more likely to stay engaged.
How to set the programme up for consistent delivery
Start with a small network that reflects the workforce, rather than recruiting as many champions as possible. Include different departments, seniority levels, locations and working arrangements. Volunteers need credibility with their colleagues, but they also need manager support to use work time for the role.
Give them a short induction covering programme aims, confidentiality, boundaries, inclusive communication and signposting. Agree which activities they will promote over the next quarter, who owns logistics and how feedback will be collected. For an on-site screening day, for example, confirm the available space, power supply, staff communications, installation arrangements and who will be on hand to welcome employees.
Measure a mixture of reach and usefulness. Attendance and kiosk usage show whether people could access the activity. Feedback shows whether it was relevant. Repeat participation is often a stronger sign of value than a large turnout at one launch event. It also helps to record operational issues, because a popular session that is difficult to organise every month may need a different delivery model.
Avoid asking champions to prove that wellbeing activity has directly reduced absence or improved productivity in a short period. Those outcomes are influenced by many factors. Focus first on what the employer can reasonably control: awareness, access, participation, confidence in support and employee feedback.
A wellbeing champion programme earns trust when employees can see a simple promise being kept: useful support is available, participation is straightforward and feedback does not disappear into a spreadsheet. Start with one practical activity, make it easy to join, then let champions show you what will make the next one more relevant.