Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore managers' understanding of workplace health promotion (WHP) and experiences of WHP activity within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a Health and Social Care Trust area of Northern Ireland. The paper aims to focus on engagement with activities within the context of prevention of ill-health and health protection, lifestyle issues and working culture and the environment as defined in the Luxembourg Declaration on WHP. Design/methodology/approach: A Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological methodology is adopted, using in-depth telephone interviews with a purposive sample of 18 SME managers. Data are analysed using Benner's strategy for data analysis. Findings: "Levels of awareness of WHP activity" are revealed as a central theme and interpreted as "high awareness activities," including the need to: preserve and protect employee health and safety, prevent ill-health and injury and promote employees' quality of daily living, and "low awareness activities," including the provision of training and development, human resource management and environmental considerations. Originality/value: An "Iceberg" model, grounded in the data, draws attention to the limited awareness of what constitutes WHP activities and the untapped meaningfulness of organisational and environmental activities. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)