Hiring Healthy: How Employee Wellbeing Affects Recruitment and Retention

Wellbeing has become an important factor in a candidate’s decision-making process, and for many, it’s right up there with salary and progression. UK employers that treat it as an afterthought are finding themselves at a disadvantage in an increasingly competitive hiring market, particularly in tech and digital.

It’s not just about perks. Today’s professionals are paying close attention to how businesses really treat their people, and what steps they’re taking to support physical and mental health across the board.

Candidates Are Asking the Right Questions

When we speak to tech professionals across the UK, developers, consultants, PMs, they’re asking more than just “What’s the salary?” or “Is it remote?” They’re asking:

• “Do they offer mental health support?”
• “Are people expected to work outside of hours?”
• “How often do people actually take time off?”
• “What’s the team’s workload like right now?”

And they’re not afraid to walk away if the answers don’t sit right.

Businesses that provide a genuine culture of wellbeing—not just box-ticking benefits—are consistently attracting stronger candidates, faster.

Retention Starts with Culture, Not Counteroffers

Burnout is one of the biggest drivers of employee turnover in tech. Long hours, pressure to overdeliver, unclear boundaries, it adds up. And in the UK, where 1 in 6 workers experience mental health issues related to stress, this isn’t a minor issue. It’s costing businesses thousands in recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity.

We’ve seen clients retain talent longer when they:

• Actively encourage time off and downtime
• Build flexibility into contracts and schedules
• Provide access to therapy or wellbeing resources
• Normalise conversations around mental health
• Stop glorifying “busyness”

Companies that don’t adapt are left constantly rehiring and losing reputation along the way.

What Employers Can Do Right Now

You don’t need a flashy wellbeing programme to compete, just genuine action. Here are four places to start:

1. Review Your Benefits with Fresh Eyes
   Consider: are they useful, accessible, and clearly communicated?
2. Model Healthy Working at the Top
   If leadership sends emails at 10pm, the team will feel pressure to match. Culture is top-down.
3. Make Flexibility Real
   Remote/hybrid working isn’t enough. Flexibility also means trust, autonomy, and understanding individual needs.
4. Shout About It
   If you’re doing great work on wellbeing, let it show in your employer brand. Candidates want to hear it.

Final Thoughts

Supporting your team’s health isn’t a bonus, it’s a baseline. In tech recruitment, wellbeing has become one of the clearest indicators of whether a company is worth joining, or leaving.

Put simply: the healthiest companies make the best hires, and keep them.

Hiring in the D365 space?
Let Shape IT Recruitment help you attract talent that values more than just a payslip.