After a month of settling into my new role at Epassi UK, I swapped my desk for a lanyard and notebook for a day in London at the Employee Engagement Summit 2025. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed being out and about, talking to a host of existing customers as well as some future customers too!
Back in the office, here’s what stood out from those conversations;
Forget free fruit and token yoga classes: wellbeing isn’t window dressing anymore. From Amazon to Zoopla, organisations are treating employee mental and physical health as the business-critical infrastructure that it is.
Inevitably, there was plenty of chat about AI, and yes, it’s smart. It can automate surveys, personalise comms, and a load more. The truth is, no number of algorithms can replace the power of human understanding (at least not yet). The most moving sessions focused on empathy: listening properly, showing up with care, and creating safe spaces for people to be… well, people.
One theme kept bubbling up: belonging. Whether it's a running club, a Slack channel for pet photos, or a shared wellbeing goal, connection matters. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it must be genuine.
We’ve seen it firsthand at Epassi UK through initiatives like Big Team Run. Shared movement builds shared sense of purpose.
(If you’re wondering how to build that sense of community, we might have just the thing.)
If you want to attract (and more importantly, keep) great people, one-size-fits-all benefits aren’t going to cut it. The world has changed and so have expectations.
Employees want to shape their own wellbeing, not tick a corporate box. At Epassi UK, we give people options, from gyms to health checks to spa days. No two people are the same, their benefits shouldn’t be either.
The best talks didn’t just tell us about culture; they showed us what it feels like. Kindness, curiosity, autonomy, the kind of values that aren’t plastered on posters, but quietly lived out when the Wi-Fi drops and the coffee machine breaks.
Culture can’t be copied, and it definitely can’t be forced. But it can be nurtured, One real conversation at a time.
If you’re looking to drive meaningful employee engagement in 2025, start with what matters most: people. Lead with care. Listen like you mean it. Let the trends and tools follow.
Huge thanks to the brilliant speakers, organisers, and fellow attendees at the summit. Let’s keep building workplaces worth showing up for.