The 5 Wellness Personas Shaping Employee Engagement in 2025

Creating a wellness strategy that drives meaningful participation requires understanding who you’re designing for. Based on McKinsey’s 2025 consumer segmentation outlined in their 2025 Future of Wellness Survey, there are five dominant wellness personas. You likely have each one in your workforce. Tailoring your approach to meet these unique mindsets can drastically improve engagement, satisfaction, and outcomes.

Share of consumers: 25% | Market spend: 40%+

Digitally fluent and wellness-obsessed. They seek out science-backed, high-quality solutions and love trying the latest in functional nutrition, tech, and wellness innovation.

Workplace strategy: Offer on-demand tools, personalized coaching, wearable integration, and advanced wellness education.

 Share of consumers: 11% | Market spend: 15%

– Passionate about fitness and results-driven. Once they find something that works, they stick with it.

Workplace strategy: Provide structured fitness challenges, loyalty rewards, and elite-tier options (e.g., studio partnerships, sports nutrition).

Share of consumers: 20% | Market spend: 13%

– Practical and consistent. They prioritize clean eating, vitamins, and daily activity but avoid trendy solutions.

Workplace strategy: Keep offerings simple and accessible. Emphasize quality, consistency, and ease of use.

Share of consumers: 24% | Market spend: 22%

– Interested but overwhelmed. They often experience stress, low motivation, or chronic health challenges.

Workplace strategy: Focus on low-barrier entry points, motivational nudges, social support, and easy wins.

Share of consumers: 20% | Market spend: 10%

– Disengaged and price-sensitive. They view wellness as a low priority unless it directly affects their day-to-day functioning.

Workplace strategy: Introduce wellness passively (e.g., workplace ergonomics, stress-reduction signage) and incentivize participation with tangible rewards.

Recognizing these segments can help organizations shift from pushing wellness broadly to pulling employees in with offerings that resonate. A personalized, data-informed approach increases not only participation but also long-term behavioral change.

For this year and beyond, winning wellness strategies will be grounded in empathy, insight, and segmentation.

If you’re exploring where to take your wellness strategy for 2026, we’d love to collaborate.

📩 Connect with us: info@healthbreakinc.com

Source for both articles: McKinsey & Company, “The $2 Trillion Global Wellness Market Gets a Millennial and Gen Z Glow-Up,” May 2025.