Beyond Perks: Building a Culture of Employee Wellbeing in the UAE

To increase staff well-being, organisations in the UAE have provided benefits such as gym membership programs, flexible working hours, and free snacks; however, burnout has become a prevalent issue. The truth is obvious: perks will not help with the well-being challenge. The movement towards investing in wellbeing in policies, leadership behaviours, and organisational culture is necessary as we approach 2025.

The multicultural and rapidly developing workforce in the UAE positions it to be at the forefront in this area, but structural changes are needed to succeed. Understanding women's health, caregiving requirements, accountability of leaders, and the voice of employees will also play a key role in employee wellbeing trends 2025 and creating genuinely sustainable workplaces.

Why Employee Wellbeing in the UAE Needs a Reset

Employees in the UAE face the same pressures as those in every other country in the world accelerating digitalisation, the strain of hybrid work, and rising living expenses. However, there are some other regional considerations:

• Expat-Heavy Workforce: Most workers are distant from their families, and their mental health and caregiving issues are different.
• Cultural Diversity: 200 plus nationalities means that health needs are diverse, and the solutions should be different.
• Rapid Expansion of Business: Hopefully, the well-being is being pushed into the background due to the performance pressure created by the fast-paced business development in the country.

Corporate investments notwithstanding, surveys indicate that more than 60 per cent of workers in the UAE report experiencing burnout at least once a quarter. The well-being agenda should be transformed into systemic solutions rather than isolated ones.

From Perks to Policy: Embedding Wellbeing in Structures

The introduction of wellbeing into organisational policies will be one of the most important changes in employee wellbeing trends 2025. This implies going beyond the optional programs to structural guarantees.

• Compliant Work Arrangements: Document Hybrid and Work-Remote arrangements as a policy, rather than a manager's prerogative.
• Leave Policies: To include mental health, parental, and non-maternity caregiver leaves and paid leave.
• Office Policy: Set an hourly cap on meeting hours per week or require no meeting days to combat computer burnout.
• Health Insurance Story: Add mental health, women's health, and preventive services as an extension of employee health benefits.

Policies bring uniformity, minimise prejudice, and transform wellbeing into an organisational focus rather than a peripheral activity.

The Role of Managers: From Task-Drivers to Wellbeing Leaders

Policies give shape, but it is the managers who make the day-to-day work experience of employees. Sadly, not all managers share the view that well-being is an HR duty. This mindset must shift. Organisations will be required to train and assess managers on how they should support wellbeing in 2025. Key expectations include:

• The Empathetic Check-Ins: Weekly one-on-one meetings, during which the conversation is based not on performance but on workload, stress, and well-being.
• Flexible with Practice: Mindful of limits to working time, in hybrid working times.
• Inclusive Leadership: Multicultural awareness of cross-cultural and gender specific well-being needs.
• Role Modelling: The ability to demonstrate balance through taking breaks, using leave, and sending no late-night emails.

With managerial accountability as part of performance reviews, organisations make wellbeing a collective responsibility, not something that can be disregarded as a luxury.

Women's Health and Caregiving: Expanding the Wellbeing Agenda

Women and their health and caregiving requirements have been one of the neglected issues as far as workplace wellbeing is concerned. This is no longer a choice in the UAE, where women are taking a progressively significant role in the economy; it is a necessity.

Organisations that think ahead are increasing the benefits to cover:

• Menstrual and Menopause Support: Women can take leave, work on flex, and have their health paid for.
• Parental Leave for All Genders: Parents must be stimulated to adopt proactive caregiving roles by granting equal parental leave.
• Childcare and Eldercare Assistance: Co-operation with the caring services, subsidies, or in-house services.
• Return-to-Work Programs: Special consideration of long-out-of-the-workforce women with caregiving needs.

By the way, the integration of such measures enhances well-being, in addition to fostering employee loyalty and promoting gender inclusion, which is a core part of the Vision 2030 agenda in the UAE.

Listening to the Employee Voice

Without listening to the employees, it is impossible to build a culture of wellbeing. However, in many cases, well-being programs are formulated top-down with little or no input from the employees.

Future-proof successful organisations will implement practices that include:

• Pulse Surveys: The survey on stress, workload, and satisfaction is a periodic survey that is anonymous.
• Wellbeing Councils: is an employee-managed consortium that provides advice to the leadership on wellbeing initiatives.
• Data Transparency: following the publication of the wellbeing survey outcomes and specifying the course of action.
• Two-Way Communication: Areas where employees would be able to voice their concerns directly to the leadership without intimidation.

When organisations co-create wellbeing strategies with employees, they make certain the strategies are relevant, trusted, and effective.

Technology as an Enabler, Not a Substitute

The UAE leads the digital transformation sector, and technology will be a key element in promoting employee well-being trends in 2025. But it should be aimed at facilitating human contact, not subsuming it.

Examples include:

In addition, AI-based intelligence can notify potential burnout signals in work patterns.

• Digital Wellbeing Platforms: Centralised applications which provide employees with access to mental health resources, medical benefits, and training.
• Virtual Therapy and Coaching: We offer Multilingual confidential services everywhere.
• Workload Dashboards: Helping managers to see how deeply a team is overburdened, as well as to redistribute activities fairly.

However, organisations are not supposed to rely solely on technological solutions. Well- being is still driven by human leadership, empathy, and trust.

Conclusion: From Initiative to Culture

The future of wellbeing in the UAE is to go beyond perks. Free meals and gym memberships are a bonus, but not alternatives to policies, leadership practices, and accountability systems that ensure that employees are not burnt out.

Incorporating wellbeing into the very fabric of organisations, including policies that facilitate flexibility and caregiving, leaders who lead by example, and employees whose voices influence decisions, will make UAE firms prepared to meet the requirements of 2025 and beyond.

Well-being in the UAE needs to shift from perks to policies, leadership, and a cultural shift. Tuscan Consulting assists organisations in developing sustainable wellbeing strategies that are future-ready.