A lot of organisations are doing far more to support their people than they realise. They have an EAP, mental health sessions, wellbeing champions, flexible working policies, leadership programmes, engagement surveys, values, manager toolkits, benefits platforms and perhaps even a wellbeing calendar. On paper, that is a lot of activity. But despite all of this effort, many still struggle to answer one simple question: what does good actually look like here?
Not in a generic sense. Not copied from another company. But here, in this organisation, with this workforce, this culture, these pressures, these roles, these leaders, these expectations and this pace of change.
That is where best practice frameworks become so useful. External frameworks, such as the London Healthy Workplace approach, can provide a helpful structure for assessing and improving workplace health. But the real opportunity is to design a framework that fits your organisation.
At Ridgeflow Performance, this is increasingly the work we help organisations do. Not just running wellbeing sessions or leadership workshops in isolation, but helping organisations define the conditions that allow people to perform well, stay healthy and feel supported. This means bringing together culture, leadership, ways of working, performance and wellbeing into one practical model that leaders, managers and teams can actually use.
Moving beyond “more initiatives”
One of the biggest challenges I see is that organisations often respond to staff feedback by adding more. More webinars, more resources, more awareness days, more campaigns and more signposting. Sometimes that is useful, but often employees are not asking for more “stuff”. They are asking for work to work better.
They want clearer priorities, more realistic workloads, better conversations with managers, stronger psychological safety, less ambiguity, better support through change, and a culture where people can challenge, recover, focus and perform without constantly running on empty. A clear framework helps make this practical. Instead of asking, “What wellbeing session should we run next month?”, the conversation becomes: what are the conditions people need to be at their best here, and how close are we to creating them?
Defining what good looks like
In elite sport, performance environments are rarely left to chance. Teams define standards, clarify behaviours, review recovery, improve communication and build the habits that influence performance over time. Workplaces need the same level of clarity.
A useful organisational framework might include:
- Leadership and culture
- Mental health and resilience
- Physical health foundations
- Workload and ways of working
- Psychological safety
- Manager capability
- Organisational support
- The physical working environment
The exact categories will depend on the organisation, but the point is to create a clear, shared understanding of what good looks like.
At Ridgeflow Performance, we help organisations develop practical frameworks that define what drives performance and wellbeing within their specific context. The aim is not to create a conceptual model that sits in a slide deck, but something leaders and teams can actually apply. It should help managers assess where their teams are now, identify gaps, and understand what needs to improve.
Baseline before you build
Most organisations already have data. Engagement surveys, pulse surveys, exit interviews, absence data, EAP usage, health insurance data, focus groups, manager feedback and anecdotal insight. The problem is rarely a lack of data. It is often a lack of structure for making sense of it.
A clear framework gives you that structure. Rather than looking at survey results as a long list of separate issues, you can map the data against the conditions you are trying to create. You can see whether the challenge is primarily around leadership capability, workload, communication, role clarity, manager confidence, access to support, recovery, belonging or something else.
This has been particularly important in our work with large, multi-country and multi-role organisations. For ASICS EMEA, we analysed the needs of retail, wholesale and warehouse staff across countries, looking at areas such as organisational and manager wellbeing support, feedback culture, collaboration, mental and social readiness, physical readiness, financial readiness and manager confidence in driving team performance.
From there, we developed tailored strategies for each division, as well as a broader baseline action plan that included training, e-learning, policy suggestions and targeted support.
We have seen the same principle apply in other complex environments, including global organisations with staff working across labs, manufacturing, supply chain and office roles. In those contexts, different teams often need different types of support because of their culture, job role and working environment. This is why a generic wellbeing strategy often struggles.
Better support, not just broader support
A strong framework allows organisations to provide better support, not just broader support. The point is not to do everything. The point is to do the right things, in the right places, for the right reasons.
In practice, that might mean manager training, targeted resilience and energy management support, policy or ways-of-working adjustments, improved visibility of existing support, practical team frameworks, or peer support and champion networks. The strongest approaches balance speed, structure and flexibility: taking visible action early while continuing to refine the longer-term roadmap as the data becomes clearer.
This is where Ridgeflow Performance can add real value. We can help organisations build the framework, make sense of the data, create the roadmap, deliver targeted training, support leaders and managers, and then continue to re-measure and adapt the approach over time. It is not about parachuting in with a generic wellbeing programme. It is about helping organisations create a practical, evidence-informed approach that fits the reality of their people and their work.
Managers are one of the biggest levers
Any framework that does not involve leaders and managers will struggle. Managers are often the point where strategy becomes reality. They influence workload, tone, expectations, communication, psychological safety, performance conversations and whether people feel able to ask for help before they reach crisis point.
Across multiple Ridgeflow projects, managers consistently emerge as one of the biggest levers for both performance and wellbeing. Even where managers are generally supportive, they may lack specific skills in areas such as mental health, workload management, difficult conversations, feedback, prioritisation or supporting people through change.
Leadership and wellbeing cannot be separated. A manager does not need to become a therapist, but they do need to understand how to create the conditions where people can perform well, raise concerns early, recover properly and stay engaged during demanding periods. Leaders also need to model the standards they want to see. Culture is not what is written in a document. It is what gets tolerated, repeated, rewarded and role-modelled.
Making measurement meaningful
When you have a framework, measurement becomes more meaningful. Instead of simply measuring whether people attended a session or liked a webinar, you can start measuring whether the organisation is moving closer to the culture it wants to create.
Are managers more confident having difficult conversations? Are people clearer on priorities? Are high-pressure teams receiving the support they need? Are workload and pace being discussed more openly? Are people reporting better energy, resilience, belonging or psychological safety? Are performance and wellbeing being spoken about together rather than as separate agendas?
This is where a framework helps organisations move from good intentions to evidence-informed action. It creates a baseline, guides implementation and gives you something to re-measure against. It also helps organisations spot pressure points across functions, geographies or job types, so support can be targeted where it is needed most.
From initiative to operating model
The organisations that do this well move beyond standalone wellbeing activity. They embed the framework into leadership expectations, team routines, performance processes, internal communications, policy decisions, onboarding, manager development and ongoing measurement. At that point, wellbeing is no longer seen as a set of optional extras. It becomes part of the operating model.
That is the real value of a best practice framework. It helps organisations bring together the human and performance sides of work. It helps them understand current state, define future state, take informed action and keep improving. Not by copying what another organisation does, but by asking the more useful question: what are the conditions our people need to be at their best here?
Once you can answer that clearly, you can baseline it, measure it, support it and improve it. And that is when workplace wellbeing stops being a calendar of initiatives and starts becoming a genuine performance and culture strategy.If you are exploring how this could work in your own organisation, particularly across different countries, roles or working environments, I would be very happy to have a conversation about what a practical framework, baseline and roadmap could look like in your global context. Use my scheduler link here or visit the Ridgeflow Performance Website.
About the author:
Khalil Rener is the founder of Ridgeflow Performance and a top-tier leadership consultant, performance coach, and wellbeing expert. With a BSc and MSc in Sport and Exercise Science from Loughborough University, his work focuses on applying the principles of elite sport to help people and teams thrive at work. Khalil has supported organisations including DP World, Novartis, the NHS, Deloitte, NatWest, Sport England, and many more—from global companies to schools, councils, and frontline teams. His breadth of experience spans industries, team sizes, and career stages, from senior leaders to students and early-career professionals.
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