This study summarizes the existing literature on Mindfulness‐Based Interventions (MBIs) and their effect on employee well‐being criteria and extends it by testing MBIs against a Mindfulness‐Based Strengths Program (MBSP). Given that extant MBIs focus on restoring well‐being, our first hypothesis was that MBIs would perform better on reducing negative emotional states than on promoting wellbeing. To test our first hypothesis, we conducted a second order meta‐analysis, which summarized 13 first‐order meta‐analyses comprising 300 intervention studies (k = 311). As expected, MBIs had a large effect on the reduction of negative emotions (g = −0.74), which in turn was stronger than its effect on well‐being (g = 0.58). Then, we conducted a follow‐up field experiment, comparing how an MBSP intervention performed against an MBI on employee well‐being criteria. Our second hypothesis was that an MBSP would outperform an MBI on increasing employee well‐being criteria. To test our second hypothesis, we randomly assigned health care professionals of a small Spanish healthcare organization to either an MBSP or an MBI intervention group. We measured employee well‐being, before and after the intervention, using two well‐established measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well‐being. Our results show that both interventions were successful and had a large effect on both well‐being criteria. Further, as predicted, the MBSP group reported higher absolute scores of well‐being than the MBI group.