The pressure to get ESG right is mounting. But while environmental metrics get the headlines and governance gets the legal sign-off, the “S” — the social part — is where most organisations stumble. Especially when it comes to employee wellbeing.
Not because HR teams don’t care. But because wellbeing is often boxed into benefits or engagement programs, while ESG sits in a separate strategy deck entirely.
That gap is costing credibility, resources, and outcomes.
If you’re leading HR in a regulated, high-exposure industry — think healthcare, utilities, logistics, or financial services — wellbeing isn’t just a culture issue. It’s a business risk. And unless your ESG framework explicitly reflects that, the strategy isn’t complete.
Here’s what that misalignment looks like in practice — and what to do differently.
The Disconnect: When ESG and Wellbeing Run in Parallel
Let’s start with a scenario you’ve probably seen.
Your sustainability team is building the ESG report. HR is asked for data on engagement scores and EAP usage. A few stats get dropped in. The report moves forward.
Meanwhile, you’re deep in trying to manage burnout, role creep, attrition in critical roles, and quiet pushback from managers who say, “We just don’t have time for another wellbeing webinar.”
Same organisation. Two strategies. No real crossover.
This isn’t just inefficient. It’s a missed opportunity to:
- Justify investment in wellbeing using ESG priorities
- Back ESG claims with tangible employee outcomes
- Demonstrate how internal health connects to external credibility
Without integration, your ESG strategy starts to sound like a PR document. And your wellbeing strategy gets stuck in pilot mode.
Why the S in ESG Needs to Start Inside
You can’t claim social responsibility if your people aren’t okay.
Yet too many companies define the “S” by their volunteer days or DEI training. These matter — but they’re not the full picture.
A social strategy that doesn’t account for:
- Psychological safety
- Access to flexible and fair working conditions
- Chronic stress and workload management
- Equitable access to benefits and support
…is missing the point.
And investors, regulators, and employees are starting to notice.
In high-pressure industries, this gap becomes even more critical. For example:
- In utilities, workforce fatigue has operational risk implications — it affects safety, maintenance quality, and response time.
- In financial services, ESG disclosures are expected, but internal employee wellbeing often contradicts the external messaging.
- In healthcare, burnout and attrition are systemic issues, not just individual ones — and ignoring them undercuts patient safety and care delivery.
What You Can Do Differently (Without Waiting for a New Budget)
No HR team has the luxury of building new frameworks from scratch. But better alignment doesn’t have to mean more headcount or software. It just means rethinking what’s already in play.
1. Move from Reporting to Strategy Contribution
If ESG is owned by sustainability or legal, don’t just feed them data — shape the agenda. Ask:
- Which internal health indicators are tracked in ESG?
- Are we measuring actual employee wellbeing outcomes or just outputs?
- Are wellbeing efforts framed as material to business sustainability?
Add indicators like:
- % of roles with sustainable workload targets
- Access rates to mental health resources, not just availability
- Uptake and effectiveness of manager training on psychological safety
These are all measurable, relevant, and tie directly to the “S.”
2. Frame Wellbeing as Risk and Value — Not Just Culture
Executives back what they can quantify.
So move the discussion from “our people are tired” to:
- What are our top 5 attrition risks — and how many link to wellbeing?
- How much operational downtime is tied to absence or burnout in critical roles?
- Where does fatigue compromise compliance, service, or safety?
In heavily audited industries, the link is even sharper. Your ESG disclosures are only as strong as the workforce stability behind them.
Use that leverage.
3. Audit Gaps Between ESG Claims and Internal Reality
This doesn’t need to be public-facing. But if you’re claiming leadership in social responsibility and your frontline team is quietly cycling through five-day stretches without breaks — something’s broken.
Run a basic cross-check:
- Do environmental commitments align with policies that support employee health? (e.g., reducing travel, but increasing remote work pressure)
- Are your social KPIs visible internally, or just on your ESG deck?
- Are managers supported to deliver on wellbeing, or just told to care more?
Even a short audit helps surface contradictions that can damage trust — or open doors for smarter alignment.
Examples of What Real Alignment Can Look Like
A logistics firm in APAC built wellbeing goals directly into its ESG scorecard. Not just EAP access, but time-to-resolution for stress-related cases and safety incident recovery tracking.
A financial services company shifted its ESG training to include not just ethics and climate risk, but also wellbeing ownership for people managers — tied to appraisal.
A utility player updated its internal audit process to review how shift schedules impacted not just compliance, but fatigue-related incidents — and fed that back into their ESG risk disclosures.
None of these moves required a complete overhaul. But they reshaped how wellbeing was viewed: from a support service to a strategic enabler.
Final Word: If You Don’t Integrate Wellbeing Now, ESG Will Keep Skimming the Surface
The real issue isn’t that companies don’t care about wellbeing. It’s that many haven’t yet positioned it where it belongs — inside the business’s strategic and reputational core.
HR leaders don’t need to reinvent the ESG wheel. But they do need to own a bigger part of it.
Wellbeing is not a support function. It’s a strategic risk control, a culture signal, and a measurable asset in every ESG framework that matters.
And if you’re not making that connection yet, now’s the time.
