Workplace Wellbeing Reimagined: The Unknown Unknown

Organisations invest heavily in wellbeing. Employee Assistance Programmes, occupational health, private medical insurance, mental health support, resilience training. Sophisticated provision intended to keep workforces well and productive. But presenteeism persists. Absence rates climb. Turnover costs accumulate. Despite this investment, the outcomes organisations want to prevent continue to occur. 

What many organisations do not recognise is that loneliness forms part of what is driving these outcomes. Loneliness costs UK employers £2.5 billion annually through lost productivity and staff turnover, yet it rarely appears on risk registers and sits outside clinical language. According to the Campaign to End Loneliness, over one in four UK employees report feeling lonely. The effects of this are already visible in workforce data, even if the cause has not been clearly identified. Loneliness sits between "I'm fine" and crisis. It creates costs that wellbeing investment was intended to prevent but is not designed to address. 

This is not because existing provision is inadequate or poorly designed. It is because loneliness does not present in the terms those services are structured to recognise. Employee Assistance Programmes address issues that meet defined thresholds. Occupational health focuses on the impact of work on health and health on work. Private medical insurance treats diagnosed conditions. Mental health support requires individuals to identify as unwell. Loneliness does not arrive in any of these forms. 

It affects focus, judgement, and attention long before anything looks clinically wrong. When someone is lonely or distracted by what is on their mind, they remain present at work but are not working at full capacity. Focus drifts. Mistakes become more likely. Sustained strain accumulates. Over time, this surfaces as sickness absence, burnout, or withdrawal from work. By that point, organisations are responding to outcomes rather than addressing what caused them. The Institute for Public Policy Research estimates that poor workforce health now costs the UK economy £103 billion annually, with £25 billion of that attributed to presenteeism. Separately, the New Economics Foundation and the Co-operative Group estimate that loneliness costs UK employers £2.5 billion each year. These are not marginal figures. They describe persistent organisational costs that continue despite significant investment in wellbeing provision. 

Loneliness does not respect age, role, or apparent engagement. Research shows elevated loneliness among mid-career employees, including individuals in their thirties who appear busy and productive. Loneliness can be situational, linked to life transitions such as parenthood, bereavement, or relocation, or it can build gradually over time. The ageing workforce includes over 1.3 million people aged 65 and over who remain in employment while navigating bereavement, shrinking social networks, or transitions away from full-time work. The sandwich generation includes around 2.4 million UK employees supporting dependent children and elderly parents while working full time, often under sustained pressure. Hybrid and remote workers may experience reduced day-to-day contact and limited informal interaction, despite remaining present and productive on paper. Loneliness rarely prompts someone to seek formal support at the point it emerges. Its effects accumulate gradually until they are reflected in workforce outcomes that look like something else entirely. 

This is where the gap sits. Organisations have invested in wellbeing infrastructure, but that infrastructure operates within narrow constraints. EAPs wait for people to raise their hand. Occupational health responds to visible struggle through management referral or monitors specific regulatory risks through health surveillance. Neither model captures the drivers of presenteeism because those drivers are not medical conditions requiring clinical intervention, not performance issues triggering management concern, and not occupational hazards requiring statutory monitoring. They are life transitions, relationship breakdown, loneliness, and caring responsibilities that pull capacity away while remaining outside every reporting system. The fact that loneliness is not measured does not mean it cannot be addressed. It means it requires a different kind of response, one that brings what has been invisible into view. 

Sacana provides one-to-one conversations delivered by trained Matrons, following a clear, codified conversation structure. These conversations are non-clinical and are not designed to diagnose, assess, or treat. The aim is to meet individuals where they are. Conversations are guided by what is on the individual's mind at that moment. There is no set agenda and no requirement to frame experiences in clinical or wellbeing language. Matrons use active listening to ensure individuals feel heard, understood, and taken seriously. This matters because loneliness is often less about having no one to speak to, and more about not feeling seen or listened to. 

Structured conversation creates the signal that has never existed. When someone connects regularly with a trained Matron, those conversations generate visibility into precisely what organisations have been unable to count. The interaction itself becomes the measurement tool, creating data on the experiences that sit beneath presenteeism but have remained unknown because no system was designed to see them. For the first time, organisations gain access to information that allows them to understand not just how many people are absent, but what is affecting the capacity of those who remain present. 

Providing a consistent, structured space for conversation allows pressure to be expressed rather than carried. This supports focus and capacity at work before difficulties escalate into absence or disengagement. Sacana is designed to sit alongside existing provision rather than replace it. EAPs remain appropriate for clinical need. Occupational health continues to fulfil its statutory function. Sacana operates where loneliness is present but formal intervention is neither needed nor appropriate. Access is available via mobile app, web browser, or integration with existing benefits platforms or intranets without additional logins or system training. 

Loneliness represents a modifiable workforce risk with economic consequences. When loneliness affects focus and judgement, the effects show up as presenteeism, increased error, prolonged absence, and eventual attrition. These costs are well recognised but often poorly attributed. Replacement costs for experienced staff commonly start at 50 per cent of salary, while presenteeism represents a substantial and persistent cost to UK employers. Addressing loneliness earlier provides organisations with a way to influence these risks before they crystallise into absence or exit. 

By the time loneliness shows up as illness or extended absence, the opportunity to intervene has already passed. Addressing loneliness earlier is therefore not a wellbeing add-on. It is about reducing harm, protecting health, and responding to a workforce risk that sits outside what organisations currently see or count. That is why Sacana exists. 

Talk. Connect. Thrive. 

Jane Prentice 
Commercial Director 
jane.prentice@sacana.com 
www.sacana.com 

References 

Campaign to End Loneliness (2023). Loneliness and the Workplace 
Office for National Statistics (2023). Loneliness, UK: Age and Life Course Analysis 
BBC Radio 4 / Wellcome Trust (2021). The Loneliness Experiment 
Carers UK (2022). Sandwich Caring Across the UK 
Perlman, D. & Peplau, L.A. (1981). Toward a Social Psychology of Loneliness 
Holt-Lunstad, J. et al. (2015). Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality