So they do what most people do. They Google.
Suddenly they are overwhelmed. Frameworks, toolkits, thought leadership, webinars. Most of it built for large organisations with specialist teams and budgets that simply do not exist in an SME. It’s difficult to know what is credible, and even harder to know what will actually work in practice.
- What genuinely helps in an SME?
- What scales down?
- What will not create more work?
Doing It Alone and Wondering If You Are Doing It Wrong
There is a quiet loneliness that comes with being the person responsible for wellbeing.
Hours are spent creating documents, pulling together policies and plans, trying to make sense of best practice, without knowing if any of it is right. There is no easy way to sense check. No clear benchmark. No space to ask the honest questions.
They would love to know:
- Are other organisations dealing with this too?
- What have other SME HR leaders actually tried?
- What has been tested in practice, not just talked about in theory?
Instead, it often feels like guesswork. And that brings pressure.
There is a constant worry about overstepping. About saying the wrong thing on sensitive wellbeing topics. About doing something well intentioned that turns out to be unhelpful or even risky.
No Time, Less Budget and a Moving Goalpost
Wellbeing rarely comes with protected time.
It is squeezed in around everything else, picked up and dropped as new issues emerge. Budget constraints mean trying to do more with less, while enterprise solutions feel out of reach or poorly suited to SME reality.
At the same time, the landscape keeps changing.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 raises new questions about employer responsibility and wellbeing.
There has been a steep increase in Employment Tribunal cases involving neurodiversity.
The Get Britain Working white paper adds another layer of complexity to how wellbeing, work and responsibility are connected.
Trying to stay on top of all of this, while feeling confident that your organisation’s approach is up to scratch, can be exhausting.
Fragmented Efforts and the Challenge of Being Taken Seriously
Often, wellbeing ends up fragmented.
Good intentions, but no clear direction. Initiatives that do not quite connect. A sense that things could be better, but without the time or space to step back and build something more joined up.
Data can be difficult to gather and even harder to analyse in a meaningful way. Without clear insight or peer comparison, convincing leadership that wellbeing matters and deserves attention can feel like pushing uphill.
What HR Professionals and Wellbeing Champions Keep Telling Us They Actually Need
What comes through again and again is not a lack of care or commitment.
It is a lack of practical support.
Support that looks like:
- Starting with resources that have already been tested by other SMEs
- Having time and space to think strategically with peers facing the same challenges
- Being able to ask, “Has anyone dealt with this?” and get real answers quickly
- Clear, accessible guidance on wellbeing topics like mental health, menopause and neurodiversity
- Confidence that the information you are acting on is grounded in 12+ years of real wellbeing experience
Why We Created the Altruist Wellbeing Forum
The Altruist Wellbeing Forum has been created for HR professionals and wellbeing champions who don’t want more noise. They want clarity, credibility and connection.
It is a space designed to bring together practical templates you can actually use, peer led strategy sessions rooted in SME reality, a supportive community where you are not navigating this alone, and trusted guidance on the thorniest wellbeing issues.
All in one place.
If this case study feels familiar, it is because it has been built from real conversations with people doing this work every day.
👉 Join the waiting list for the Altruist Wellbeing Forum and be part of a community shaped around real challenges, real constraints and what genuinely helps.
You do not need another thing on your to do list.
You need support that fits the role you are already carrying.
