Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Work is no longer tied to a single location; many employees now split their time between home offices, company headquarters, and coworking or third spaces. As the workforce becomes more flexible and distributed, the meaning of workplace wellness is evolving, thus raising a fundamental question for employers, HR leaders, and workspace operators alike: who holds ultimate responsibility for wellbeing in a hybrid environment?
Once seen as a standalone benefit or group of benefits, wellness is now recognized as a comprehensive framework of support integrated into the workplace experience. The global corporate wellness market is projected to double by 2031, growing from approximately $57.18 billion in 2023 to $109.71 billion.
This growth is being driven by two key factors: a stronger recognition of wellbeing as a central driver of sustainable performance and retention, and the rapid adoption of digital, data‑driven wellness tools.
In this context, coworking spaces are also redefining their role in supporting employee wellbeing. Many are positioning themselves as community-led environments that cultivate connection, autonomy, and support. This evolution prompts another important question: where do employer responsibilities for wellbeing end and coworking operator responsibilities begin? Are both addressing the same challenges, or do they serve fundamentally different needs?
As work locations and work-life boundaries increasingly blur, employers, HR leaders, and workspace operators must clearly define their respective roles in supporting wellness for hybrid workers.
The Changing Landscape of Workplace Wellness
Workplace wellness is entering a new phase. Research from Wellhub (a global corporate wellness platform, formerly Gympass) highlights a clear move away from superficial benefits toward holistic support that addresses the whole person. Mental health remains central, but it is now integrated with other dimensions of wellbeing, including physical activity, sleep quality, stress management, financial health, and social connection.
Employees increasingly expect programs that deliver sustainable, daily, evidence-based practices to support regulation, recovery, and resilience — rather than sporadic or symbolic gestures.
Initiatives that reinforce hustle culture, impose rigid routines, or rely solely on devices to manage self-care are increasingly seen as counterproductive and are falling out of favor. At the same time, personalization and practicality are becoming key trends.
Today’s employees value choice and flexibility over one-size-fits-all programs. While digital access to fitness, mindfulness, and therapy tools is now expected, the real differentiator is how effectively these resources are implemented and integrated into employees’ daily work routines.
Wellness budgets are coming under greater scrutiny as well, with leaders expected to show tangible returns in areas such as engagement, retention, and performance. Tools such as interactive health kiosks, which collect anonymized data on sleep, stress, and blood pressure, can inform strategy and show the impact of wellbeing initiatives. Investment in wellness is most effective when it is strategic, targeted, and aligned with employees’ real needs.
Wellhub highlights that effective wellness programs address multiple interconnected dimensions, and neglecting one area can undermine progress in the others. These dimensions include:
- Physical health: Access to fitness and movement options, nutrition guidance, and preventive care that supports long-term wellbeing rather than short-term performance gains.
- Preventive mental health: Proactive support, including trained mental health first aiders, to prevent issues before they escalate.
- Inclusive support: Addressing diverse needs such as menopause support, caregiving flexibility, and neurodiversity accommodations ensures wellbeing is relevant for all employees.
- Mental and emotional wellbeing: Accessible counseling, proactive stress management, and workplace cultures built on psychological safety.
- Financial wellness: Financial education, debt advice, and flexible pay options, recognizing the link between financial stress and performance.
- Social connection: Intentional team-building, mentorship programs, and community experiences are particularly important in hybrid settings to counteract isolation.
To gain insight from someone with lived experience of embedding wellness into an organization, Allwork.Space spoke with Ndeshi Shipanga, Head of People Experience at Anything is Possible — an independent, award-winning U.K. and South African-based Data, Tech, Media, and Creative agency. Shipanga underscores that baseline wellness can no longer be limited to symbolic gestures. While these offerings still have their place and are appreciated, she believes effective wellness today requires a more proactive and integrated approach.
“We are proud to empower all of our teams through genuine autonomy, offering flexible working policies and inclusive benefits designed to support everyone through every life stage,” says Shipanga. “These help our people manage the real-world stresses of daily life.”
She also advocates for regularly listening to teams, reviewing and refining your approach, and consistently finding better ways to support employees. As the company continues to expand and its workforce spreads across locations, she expects things will continue to change.
“Our role is shifting,” Shipanga explains. “We aren’t just managers; we are curators of connection. With a distributed workforce, such as ours, we prioritize building dedicated hubs and shared digital and physical spaces that drive collaboration and help teams work better together. Centralizing resources on accessible platforms and empowering local champions to provide peer-to-peer support is no longer just a ‘nice to have’; it’s a necessity to ensure every team member feels seen and valued, regardless of where they are based.”
Shipanga’s perspective makes clear that workplace wellness is now integral to organizational strategy. In hybrid and distributed environments, employers must provide accessible, meaningful support for every employee.
How Employers Should Address Workplace Wellness in 2026
Employers must recognize that workplace wellness is most effective when it supports both business goals and the real needs of employees. Mental health support (including access to counseling and preventative resources) is now a baseline expectation rather than a competitive advantage.
Flexible work policies that allow autonomy and promote work-life integration are essential components of wellbeing. Today, employees expect wellness to be embedded into their work experience, not a bonus perk.
Research from Yardi Kube highlights what employees expect from workplace wellness in 2026, reflecting a clear desire for support that goes beyond traditional perks such as gym memberships or ad hoc programs. Key priorities include:
- Mental health as a baseline: Accessible resources for stress management, counseling, and proactive wellbeing, not only reactive support during crises.
- Flexibility and autonomy: Control over hours, location, and workloads, supported by policies that protect work-life balance.
- Personalized and meaningful benefits: Tailored offerings, from financial guidance and sleep support to customized fitness options.
- Inclusive, culturally embedded wellbeing: Programs woven into organizational culture, supported by leadership, and supporting psychological safety rather than existing as stand-alone initiatives.
- Burnout prevention: Structural solutions, such as workload design, leadership training, and built-in recovery time, recognize burnout as a systemic issue rather than an individual failing.
Rising screen fatigue and digital stress from constant access to multiple platforms have created new challenges for employers. Organizations can support healthy habits by providing access to fitness, recovery, and health coaching platforms — without mandating participation.
Approaches such as tracking health patterns (sleep, stress, and digestion), incorporating daily recovery breaks, and setting built-in boundaries to reduce digital stress can all support sustainable habits and self-regulation, rather than one-off perks or reactive programs. Integration is essential: wellness offerings should fit naturally into employees’ daily routines, whether they are on-site, remote, or hybrid.
Patagonia is an American outdoor apparel company known for its sustainable practices, environmental activism, and employee-focused workplace culture. Employees at the company also benefit from a fully integrated wellness approach. From fitness stipends to healthy meals at headquarters, the company invests in holistic wellbeing, reflecting its belief that thriving employees drive a thriving, sustainable business.
Patagonia serves as a strong example of how wellness can be embedded into everyday work rather than treated as a standalone perk.
Some organizations that previously offered wellness as a structured, time-limited benefit have come to realize that doesn’t work. For example, Nike discontinued its annual Wellness Week and replaced it with continuous engagement throughout the year. Nike’s shift in approach acknowledges that rest and recovery must be sustained and contextual, not limited to isolated events.
These organizations recognize that workplace wellbeing functions as an ecosystem rather than a standalone perk, positioning them to better support their people, retain talent, and future-proof their workplaces.
The Role of Coworking Spaces in Workplace Wellness
Coworking spaces are becoming more widely utilized by employees of larger companies, increasing their role in supporting modern work patterns and the employees who are trying to adapt to them.
In coworking environments, wellbeing is closely tied to workplace design. Members now expect spaces that work with, rather than against, their natural rhythms — reducing cognitive strain, limiting sensory overload, and creating conditions that support focus and overall wellbeing.
Features such as abundant natural light, ergonomic furniture, biophilic design, and opportunities for movement and social interaction can positively influence mood, concentration, and recovery, complementing other wellness initiatives offered by employers or the coworking community.
The next level of coworking wellness focuses on partnerships that actively enhance wellbeing, including on-site or nearby fitness access, nutritional initiatives, wellness events, quiet zones, and community-building activities that reduce isolation. The rise of coworking as a third place means these spaces increasingly serve independent workers, remote employees, and small teams (who may lack robust employer-led support).
Strategic partnerships illustrate this potential: for example, collaboration between ClassPass, a subscription platform for fitness and wellness experiences, and WeWork allows members to use ClassPass credits to book fitness classes, gym visits, and wellness experiences directly through their workspace membership.
These developments reflect how many coworking and flexible workspace providers are increasingly positioning themselves as wellness enablers, not just workspace providers.
To gain further insight into the role of coworking spaces in workplace wellness, Allwork.Space spoke with Vika Zhurbas, Founder of Tech Connect and a community and coworking expert. Zhurbas emphasizes that coworking spaces are evolving to support wellbeing, but in ways that differ from traditional assumptions. She notes:
“I would say coworking centers are becoming community hubs first, and only then potential wellness hubs,” Zhurbas explains.
In her view, the core wellbeing needs of employees in traditional offices and coworking communities do not fundamentally differ — mental health and stability remain the top priorities.
Zhurbas believes the difference lies not in what people need, but in how those needs are addressed. Coworking spaces can respond with greater flexibility, testing formats, and adapting offerings quickly based on actual usage, whereas traditional employers often operate at a slower pace and have more formalized programs.
“Wellbeing today is less about ‘activities’ and more about mental clarity, emotional support, and human connection — especially in a very distracted […] society,” she observes. “When coworking spaces focus on community, trust, and psychological safety, wellness follows naturally.”
However, Zhurbas cautions that many coworking spaces still confuse wellness with “nice ideas,” such as offering yoga or massages without consistency, or adequate infrastructure. Effective wellbeing initiatives require intentional design and operational embedding, not symbolic gestures.
Overlap, Gaps, and the Case for a Distributed Wellness Ecosystem
One of the key insights for 2026 is that employer-led and coworking-led wellness initiatives are not competing approaches — they are complementary. Employers are best positioned to provide structured benefits, long-term mental health support, and policy-driven protections. Coworking spaces, by contrast, excel at enabling healthy daily habits, fostering social connection, and offering flexibility in how and where people work.
Challenges emerge when responsibilities are unclear. Employees can fall through the gaps when employers assume flexibility alone is enough to support wellbeing, while coworking operators regard wellbeing as solely an HR responsibility.
Forward-thinking organizations are closing this gap through partnerships between wellness platforms and flexible workspace providers (such as the previously mentioned WeWork/ ClassPass collaboration), creating more seamless access to support across different locations.
“Sometimes a trusted external partnership and a voucher system is far more effective than offering wellness inside the coworking space itself,” explains Zhurbas.
Zhurbas notes that while responsibility for wellbeing ultimately rests with the individual, employers and coworking operators share an important collaborative role. When companies provide coworking memberships, they are responsible for selecting spaces that genuinely support wellbeing, monitoring usage, checking in regularly, and maintaining communication with community managers.
“HR teams and coworking community managers should be in regular contact, exchanging feedback and adapting programs to real employee needs — not assumptions,” Zhurbas advises.
Zhurbas believes that in this model, community-led wellbeing becomes a competitive advantage when operators actively engage members, track participation, and adapt based on real feedback rather than assumptions.
She notes that treating wellbeing programs like any other service (researched, tested, measured, and refined) ensures they address genuine needs and build trust within coworking communities. Spaces that consistently follow through stand out not because of the volume of initiatives they offer, but because members feel supported and connected in their daily work lives.
The Takeaway
Effective wellness for hybrid employees requires coordination between employers and coworking space providers, rather than overlapping or disconnected efforts.
As work becomes increasingly decentralized, wellness strategies must adapt by embedding initiatives that are meaningful, measurable, and aligned with both employee engagement and performance. Organizations that prioritize mental health, flexibility, personalization, systemic support, and integrated physical wellbeing will build healthier, more resilient workplaces.
In 2026, workplace wellbeing needs to be proactive, inclusive, and embedded into everyday work.
