Firms focusing on wellness, like The Breakers, can earn 10 per cent more on the stock market / photo: The Breakers Palm Beach
Investing in the wellness of staff isn’t just the right thing to do – it also boosts business performance, according to a study claiming to be the world’s largest dataset about workplace wellbeing. The Global Work Wellbeing Report 2024 looks at details from more than 25 million international respondents gathered by jobs platform Indeed between October 2019 and December 2023.
Business imperative Analysts at the UK’s Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre (OWRC) confirmed what most of us already believe – that happier employees are linked to increased productivity and improved workforce retention and attraction. “Employee wellbeing is no longer nice to have. It’s a business imperative,” reads the report.
New research from McKinsey echoes these findings, emphasising that workplace wellness is a non-negotiable investment (see www.spabusiness.com/workwell).
On top of this, however, OWRC researchers also concluded in a sub-study, Workplace Wellbeing and Firm Performance, that businesses with top wellbeing ratings have higher valuations, stronger profits and better returns on assets.
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, OWRC director and professor of Economics at Saïd Business School explains that these companies don’t just thrive – they outperform the market.
“This is something we’ve now shown to be the case in both hard financial metrics as well as stock market performance,” he says, adding that employee satisfaction and wellbeing levels can serve as a predictor of a company’s success.
Stock market Off the back of the research, Indeed created an index of the top public companies for work wellbeing. Over a 3.5 year period Work Wellbeing 100 companies performed better in the stock market than those in major indexes like the S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite and Russell 3000. It observed that an annualised return from the wellbeing portfolio increased by 53.3 per cent, compared to 47.9 per cent (S&P), 40.8 per cent (NASDAQ) and 40.1 per cent (Russell).
OWRC’s report also reveals that the state of work wellbeing has declined since the pandemic. This presents a huge opportunity for the wellness industry to step in.
De Neve and his colleague George Walker explore the financial power of corporate wellness further in their newly-launched book Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters.
photo: GWS
"Employee wellbeing is no longer nice to have. It’s a business imperative" - Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2025 issue 1
Editor's letter: Auto spas
Fully automated, self-service spas are set to enter the market, presenting a disruptive opportunity for investors and operators
Spa People: Christian Louboutin
The fashion designer teams up with his personal trainer to create a Brain Edit retreat at his hotel in Portugal
Spa People: Julien Alfred
Exercise, endurance and resilience are the focus of a programme being led by Olympic 100m winner Julien Alfred at BodyHoliday in St Lucia
News report: Emerging economies
Two fresh GWI reports highlight the potential of the wellness markets in the Maldives and Saudi Arabia
Interview: Paul Hawco
Katie Barnes talks to the man heading up wellbeing at Banyan Group as it prepares to open its 100th resort and reports a 16 per cent rise in revenue
Wellness design: Design of the times
Sixteen experts share their insights on how wellness design can be used to create more impactful and profitable spas in a new white paper by Accor
Opinion: High leverage learning
What three skills do people need to master to future-proof their spa careers? Jeremy McCarthy reports
Spa tourism: Hot on the trail
A famous pilgrimage route and natural hot springs are being combined in an innovative tourism package in Spain
Opinion: Beacons of light
As cities in the US start to hire chief wellness officers, Mia Kyricos reveals what this means for our sector
Sponsored: 111SKIN - Winning formulation
111SKIN’s spa/clinic concept is making waves globally – backed by a combination of medical expertise, intuitive partner support and potent products
Product focus: AI and robot massage
Spas around the world are starting to offer AI massage. We highlight the different types of equipment coming to market
Menu engineering: At your service
A dedicated brain health facility at Kamalaya and a menopause package by actor Naomi Watts feature in our programming pages this issue
Finishing touch: Big business
Companies investing in workers’ happiness outperform other portfolios in major global stock markets, according to new research
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Firms focusing on wellness, like The Breakers, can earn 10 per cent more on the stock market / photo: The Breakers Palm Beach
Investing in the wellness of staff isn’t just the right thing to do – it also boosts business performance, according to a study claiming to be the world’s largest dataset about workplace wellbeing. The Global Work Wellbeing Report 2024 looks at details from more than 25 million international respondents gathered by jobs platform Indeed between October 2019 and December 2023.
Business imperative Analysts at the UK’s Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre (OWRC) confirmed what most of us already believe – that happier employees are linked to increased productivity and improved workforce retention and attraction. “Employee wellbeing is no longer nice to have. It’s a business imperative,” reads the report.
New research from McKinsey echoes these findings, emphasising that workplace wellness is a non-negotiable investment (see www.spabusiness.com/workwell).
On top of this, however, OWRC researchers also concluded in a sub-study, Workplace Wellbeing and Firm Performance, that businesses with top wellbeing ratings have higher valuations, stronger profits and better returns on assets.
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, OWRC director and professor of Economics at Saïd Business School explains that these companies don’t just thrive – they outperform the market.
“This is something we’ve now shown to be the case in both hard financial metrics as well as stock market performance,” he says, adding that employee satisfaction and wellbeing levels can serve as a predictor of a company’s success.
Stock market Off the back of the research, Indeed created an index of the top public companies for work wellbeing. Over a 3.5 year period Work Wellbeing 100 companies performed better in the stock market than those in major indexes like the S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite and Russell 3000. It observed that an annualised return from the wellbeing portfolio increased by 53.3 per cent, compared to 47.9 per cent (S&P), 40.8 per cent (NASDAQ) and 40.1 per cent (Russell).
OWRC’s report also reveals that the state of work wellbeing has declined since the pandemic. This presents a huge opportunity for the wellness industry to step in.
De Neve and his colleague George Walker explore the financial power of corporate wellness further in their newly-launched book Why Workplace Wellbeing Matters.
photo: GWS
"Employee wellbeing is no longer nice to have. It’s a business imperative" - Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2025 issue 1
Editor's letter: Auto spas
Fully automated, self-service spas are set to enter the market, presenting a disruptive opportunity for investors and operators
Spa People: Christian Louboutin
The fashion designer teams up with his personal trainer to create a Brain Edit retreat at his hotel in Portugal
Spa People: Julien Alfred
Exercise, endurance and resilience are the focus of a programme being led by Olympic 100m winner Julien Alfred at BodyHoliday in St Lucia
News report: Emerging economies
Two fresh GWI reports highlight the potential of the wellness markets in the Maldives and Saudi Arabia
Interview: Paul Hawco
Katie Barnes talks to the man heading up wellbeing at Banyan Group as it prepares to open its 100th resort and reports a 16 per cent rise in revenue
Wellness design: Design of the times
Sixteen experts share their insights on how wellness design can be used to create more impactful and profitable spas in a new white paper by Accor
Opinion: High leverage learning
What three skills do people need to master to future-proof their spa careers? Jeremy McCarthy reports
Spa tourism: Hot on the trail
A famous pilgrimage route and natural hot springs are being combined in an innovative tourism package in Spain
Opinion: Beacons of light
As cities in the US start to hire chief wellness officers, Mia Kyricos reveals what this means for our sector
Sponsored: 111SKIN - Winning formulation
111SKIN’s spa/clinic concept is making waves globally – backed by a combination of medical expertise, intuitive partner support and potent products
Product focus: AI and robot massage
Spas around the world are starting to offer AI massage. We highlight the different types of equipment coming to market
Menu engineering: At your service
A dedicated brain health facility at Kamalaya and a menopause package by actor Naomi Watts feature in our programming pages this issue
Finishing touch: Big business
Companies investing in workers’ happiness outperform other portfolios in major global stock markets, according to new research
Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa, the spa business with more than 650 locations across
the US and Canada, has appointed franchise expert Carrie Walsh as CEO as the company plans
to expand.
Synergy – The Retreat Show, the global trade show for retreats, has launched a global research
initiative that will provide insights into the retreat sector from both consumer and industry
perspectives.
The Wellness Tourism Association (WTA) has published a non-regulatory global industry
framework designed to ensure the retreat market offers responsible experiences.
A new survey of UK and international spa practitioners shows that stress, burnout and
wellbeing concerns have caused one in three respondents to consider leaving the industry.
The UK's four Chief Medical Officers have published a refreshed edition of Physical activity
guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report, updating the evidence that underpins the nation's
physical activity recommendations and placing greater emphasis on strength, balance, reducing
sedentary behaviour and, for the first time, supporting people taking weight loss medications.
Anna Bjurstam has left her role as Wellness Pioneer at Six Senses Hotels and Resorts and
launched a new wellness, longevity and “consciousness consultancy” called Wahayla.
Fairmont Cheshire, The Mere, has opened today (10 July) in the Northwest of England
with a
1,715sq m Fairmont Spa that has been designed using a ‘Wellness without Walls’
concept.
Wellness hotels generating less than US$1 million (€932,700, £785,200) – or 10 per cent of
total revenue from wellness and leisure – recorded the strongest RevPAR and TRevPAR growth
in 2025 across categories when compared with 2024, according to the latest Wellness Real
Estate Report by RLA Global, produced in partnership with P and L benchmarking firm HotStats.
In the fast-paced world of fitness and wellness, where high-intensity workouts push us to
our limits and the sweat pours, the importance of efficient recovery cannot be overstated. [more...]
+ More featured suppliers
COMPANY PROFILES
Trybe Trybe was founded back in 2020, and the past five years has seen Trybe become the fastest growing al [more...]
