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Written by Sally Lovett, Founder of Stretching the City. Based on 18+ years delivering workplace wellbeing across UK graduate schemes, internship programmes and early careers cohorts. The first 100 days of a graduate scheme are quietly the most important 100 days of a professional career. This is when the identity forms. The habits set. The …

Movember falls across the whole month of November, with International Men’s Day inside it on 19 November. For UK employers, it’s the biggest annual men’s wellbeing moment — and increasingly, the moment organisations move beyond fundraising and moustaches into the workshop investment that actually shifts men’s mental health, prostate cancer awareness and suicide prevention capability. …

If you’ve heard that “menopause action plans” are becoming a legal requirement, the reality is a little more nuanced — and getting the detail right matters. Here’s a plain-English guide to what’s actually changing, who it affects, and what to do now. Is there really a “menopause action plan law”? Not quite as a standalone. …

The 2027 wellbeing awareness days calendar your HR team will actually use. Every key mental health, women’s health, men’s wellbeing, awareness month and global health day across the year — with practical planning ideas, and links to the workshops, keynotes and events that bring each campaign to life in your workplace. Download the 2027 Wellbeing …

Burnout in your team is rarely sudden. Generally, the people most at risk slide gradually from “fine” to “struggling” to “burning out” over weeks or months — and importantly, the signs are often visible long before anyone in HR registers them. However, modern workplaces have made burnout harder to spot: hybrid working hides the day-to-day …

After 15 years of walking into workplaces with our Stretching the City team, we’d started to notice a pattern that wouldn’t go away. The yoga class was full. The mental health workshop landed beautifully. The mindfulness programme delivered exactly what HR had asked for. And yet, in the conversations that happened around the sessions — …

Menopause now affects more of your workforce than ever before. Specifically, around 13 million people in the UK are peri- or post-menopausal at any one time, and most experience symptoms that shape how they feel and perform at work. Here’s a practical guide for UK employers — what menopause looks like in the workplace, what …

Workplace wellbeing amongst managers is often discussed in terms of programmes, benefits and initiatives. Organisations introduce wellbeing weeks, mental health resources or employee support programmes. These can all play an important role. But research consistently points to something far more influential: The behaviour and capability of managers. Managers shape the day-to-day experience of work. They …

Across industries, organisations are rethinking how they support people at work. Conversations that once focused on wellbeing initiatives or employee benefits are increasingly shifting toward deeper questions about leadership, organisational culture and sustainable performance. Leaders are recognising that workplace wellbeing is no longer simply a programme delivered by HR — it is increasingly a conversation …

Updated June 2026 Nutrition and Hydration Week 2027 (15-21 March) is becoming more than a calendar entry. For many organisations, Nutrition & Hydration Week has historically sat quietly in the wellbeing calendar — a helpful awareness moment, but rarely a strategic priority. That’s changing. As work has become more cognitively demanding and the boundaries between …

Over the past decade, workplace mental health has become one of the most talked-about topics in organisational life. We now have awareness weeks, wellbeing calendars, mental health champions, toolkits, webinars, lunch-and-learns, apps, surveys, posters, pledges and policies. Most organisations can confidently say they “take mental health seriously”. And yet, many leaders and HR teams quietly …

For years, workplace performance has been framed around productivity, output and resilience. Work harder. Do more. Push through. But in 2026, a different narrative is emerging, one shaped not by wellness trends, but by performance science. In high-performing organisations, the real differentiator is no longer how hard people work, but how effectively they recover. In …

Why one-off wellbeing activity isn’t enough (and what works better) Workplace wellbeing has never been more visible. Most organisations now run some form of wellbeing activity. From Mental Health Awareness Week and wellbeing webinars, to resilience sessions, yoga classes, inclusion events and leadership talks — wellbeing is firmly on the agenda in many workplaces. These …

For many organisations, workplace wellbeing has become increasingly busy. Workshops, awareness days, webinars and initiatives are often delivered with genuine intent — responding to real challenges around stress, burnout, inclusion and performance. Yet despite this effort, many organisations still report frustration: activity is happening, but lasting impact feels harder to achieve. What we’re seeing more …

Workplace Wellbeing Has Changed – Delivery Must Catch Up Workplace wellbeing has never been more important — or more complex. Hybrid working, global teams, back-to-back virtual meetings and rising mental health pressures have fundamentally changed how employees experience work. Yet many wellbeing strategies are still built around outdated delivery models: one-off in-person workshops, limited reach, …

Why This Toolkit Exists Time to Talk Day (5 February 2026) is a brilliant annual reminder that mental health conversations matter — but many managers and teams still aren’t sure how to start them. This toolkit is designed to bridge that gap. Rather than raising awareness (this blog covers why the day matters), this toolkit …

Have you ever been so absorbed in a task that time seemed to disappear? You look up from your screen and realise an hour’s flown by, yet you feel energised, not exhausted. That mental state has a name: Flow. 🧠 What is Flow? First defined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow describes that feeling of deep …

How to Support Women at Work: An International Women’s DayGuide That Actually Lands By Sally Lovett · Founder, Stretching the City. Updated for International Women’s Day 2027. Most International Women’s Day events at work don’t land. They get planned with the best of intentions: a panel, a poster, a guest speaker on Zoom, a cupcake …

(📥 Free downloadable guide included) If you’re building your 2026 workplace wellbeing sessions calendar, you already know how fast the year fills up – Mental Health Awareness Week, World Sleep Day, Stress Awareness Month, Menopause Month, International Men’s Day… the list is long. Knowing which awareness dates exist is only step one. The real challenge …

BUILDING WELLBEING: WHY CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES MUST PRIORITISE MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH IN 2025 The UK construction industry is the backbone of national infrastructure, building the homes, transport systems, offices, and public spaces we rely on every day. But behind the steel, scaffolding and machinery lies a workforce facing unprecedented wellbeing challenges. Construction workers endure long …

Corporate events have changed. Conferences, leadership summits and company away days are still designed to inspire ideas, spark conversations and bring people together. But the reality of modern work means that many attendees arrive already carrying a high cognitive load. Packed agendas, constant meetings and information overload mean that by the time people sit down …

Why creating safe, supportive teams could be the key to reversing the UK’s ‘worklessness’ crisis. Britain’s productivity problem is now a wellbeing problem. The recent Keep Britain Working Review has made it clear: the UK is facing a worklessness crisis, fuelled by poor workplace health, stress, and fear. More than 1 in 5 working-age adults …

The first few weeks of January can feel like a paradox. We arrive back at work full of good intentions, new planners, new priorities, new energy… and yet, it often takes just a few days for the inboxes, deadlines and darker days to erode that motivation. In wellbeing terms, January is a “high-risk, high-opportunity” month. …

Workshops ignite change, but what happens after the session ends? We’ve all seen it: An inspiring wellbeing workshop sparks great conversation, but within weeks the energy fades. Notes get buried, new joiners miss out, and wellbeing momentum can stall. That’s why forward-thinking organisations are shifting towards recorded wellbeing training, a flexible, accessible and cost-effective way …