I raise a simple question to all leading organisations that rely on their people for their performance…

How much do you think your critical metrics surrounding talent attraction, employee retention, innovation, collaboration, and productivity could rise if you were to increase the health of your workforce by just 1%?

Most leaders, when answering this question, will of course naturally jump to a very narrow definition of health, which is the misconception that the health of a person is almost entirely based on physical qualities. However, to give you the best chance to get the answer to my question right, any leader asking themselves this question needs to understand that the word health is much broader than it seems, and it includes the likes of mental, social, emotional, financial, and coherence health. It might sound vast, but we have an easily digestible, complimentary deep dive into it, which you can download for free by clicking here.

So, the answer to how much your critical metrics could rise is not clear-cut, as it depends on the industry, sector, and geographical location in which you are situated. However, the data is out there, and it is overwhelming that as the health of the workforce decreases, so too do the critical performance measures of your organisation. Thankfully, the opposite case is also true, because as the health of the workforce increases, so too do the critical performance measures. 

But the major problem is, many leaders and organisations do not know how to accurately measure the health of their workforce, but we do. If your organisation is still stuck in simply measuring engagement in 2025, then it might be time for you to consider a new, more up-to-date approach that encapsulates all areas of health, and truly showcase the benefits of a 1% increase in health.

To explain that benefit, if I gave you the choice of taking 1000 euro right now, or one cent right now which will double itself every day for 30 days, which would you choose? Many will go for the 1000, but the smart people go for the one cent which ends up growing to far more than 1000 euro, and are often shocked to see what it becomes – 5.3 million euro, and that right there is the true power of exponential growth.

And that exponential growth, a 1% change snowballing into something colossal, is the same for the health of your workforce, as these elements are used again and again in their working day, including the likes of levels of energy, rest, recovery, diet, support, self-efficacy, alignment, flow, fitness, connection, and control, which all directly affect overall performance.

These facts are supported by a recent McKinsey report and a recent study by Oxford University.

Now, the time has come to measure what matters and maybe your organisation might be lucky enough to be certified as a Healthy Place To Work and you too can join the 1% club.