Workplace wellness has been around for decades but is still often reduced to a tick-box exercise. Life insurance, private healthcare, free fruit and gym discounts are all perfectly valid benefits, but they’re safety nets, not performance drivers. The real opportunity lies in treating wellbeing at work as a direct, measurable application of organisational effectiveness, not a footnote in a HR policy.
A company that wants to perform at its best cannot afford to treat wellbeing as optional. Yet most still do. There is also a persistent mindset where long hours equal productivity, translating into late-night emails, early starts and always being ‘on’. Ignoring wellbeing in this context is fast becoming an active and escalating business risk.
Hidden inefficiencies
I used to undervalue rest and recovery. I’d be in bed at 11 pm and up at 4 am and I thought that I was doing well because I was getting through the day. I used to say, “I sleep well, I’m good.” Then I started tracking it properly and interrogating the data and found a very different story. Today, if my sleep score isn’t where it needs to be, I’ll go back to sleep. What felt like laziness before is now a vital performance tool and that mindset shift influences how I show up as a leader every day.
The biggest change needs to happen here: treating sleep, nutrition and exercise as core performance elements that directly influence how employees show up to work. None of this is new; it’s just rarely put into practice with any real discipline. Equally, it has to be optional – you can’t start telling people what time to go to bed at or how to live their life. The trick is to educate, guide and make the link to performance crystal clear.
Some employees will buy into it; others won’t, and that’s okay. Some are focused on sustaining performance in their current role, while others are actively seeking opportunities for progression. Both approaches are valid, but they require different levels of support. More responsibility brings more pressure and that’s where resilience comes into play.
There’s a strong parallel with physical training. Progression doesn’t come from immediately lifting the heaviest weights; it’s built gradually by starting light, getting your form right and making incremental increases. The same applies in the workplace. Moving into a more demanding role requires the capacity to handle greater pressure and that capability needs to be developed in a structured way. You can’t just throw people in at the deep end and expect them to cope.
Driving adoption
This approach only works if it’s driven from the top down. An apprentice waxing lyrical about protein shakes won’t shift behaviour – that has to come from leadership. If you’re a leader and talk about wellness but never switch off and the management team consistently operates in a state of burnout, that becomes the workplace culture. Setting clear boundaries and prioritising rest and recovery change that dynamic. It’s not about lowering standards; it’s about helping people to perform better.
The rise of AI will only intensify this. As technology takes over repetitive, process-driven tasks, human performance becomes more valuable. Skills such as communication, relationship-building, judgement and problem-solving will increasingly differentiate individuals and businesses. All of them depend on mental clarity and energy – in other words, wellbeing. Businesses have a choice: continue with outdated models based on hours and stress levels or rethink how to help teams perform at their best.
For me, it’s all about the basics, which are worth repeating: sleep, exercise and nutrition. Nail those and everything else improves. Getting those right also feeds into better day-to-day management because when you’re on top of your own wellbeing, you’re more likely to notice when someone else isn’t.
One-to-ones, for example, shouldn’t just be routine exercises – people need a safe space to speak up and managers need to be able to spot the early signs of burnout. Often it’s subtle – a shift in tone or communication that feels ‘off’. Too often, these signals are missed until performance drops or problems escalate.
Delivery matters
Talking about wellness without following through is worse than not addressing it at all. If you set expectations and then fail to meet them, employees will simply disengage. If you’re going to commit to workplace wellness, ensure that it’s consistent and visible. At OO Group, it’s becoming embedded in our DNA: not a one-off initiative or a campaign, but how the business operates day in, day out. We’re still learning and haven’t cracked it yet, but we’re already seeing the benefits through lower sickness rates, stronger engagement and improvement in overall team output and performance.
Wellness at work may remain a bit like Marmite – some will love it, others will hate it – but the trajectory is unmistakable. It is fast becoming a defining characteristic of high-performing companies.
Ensuring employees are provided with the tools to perform at their peak isn’t just generosity; it’s a sound business strategy. No matter what the size of your business, done properly, workplace wellness is not a compliance exercise or a ‘nice-to-have’; it is a genuine competitive advantage.
Matthew Phauré is CEO of OO Group. The accompanying photo was taken in the OO Group office gym, following his transformation from 30% body fat to sub-8%.
