Humans are an extraordinary species. The recent 2024 Olympics and Paralympics in Paris demonstrated what’s possible when driven teams unite in pursuit of excellence. Sport is a big business, where athletes, governing bodies, and funding organisations sustain their success by winning on the field. Behind every athlete, a multidisciplinary team – including physiologists, psychologists, nutritionists, and data scientists – plays a pivotal role in achieving high performance.
At ART Health Solutions, we evolved from supporting elite athletes to helping organisations improve their workplace strategy, employee wellbeing, and overall performance, using the same core principles: Data, Science, and Evidence. By applying lessons from high-performance sports environments and using our expertise to quantify what was once unmeasurable, we’ve helped clients gain a competitive edge across areas such as talent attraction and retention, reduced absenteeism and presenteeism, and increased productivity.
So, what strategies from the world of sport can be applied to the workplace to drive similar success?
Building a High-Performance Workplace Culture
A healthy work environment is crucial for productivity – 96% of employees agree. It’s important for businesses to understand what drives a supportive work culture and what makes it thrive.
Too often, the responsibility for workplace health and experience falls to a single department. But to have the greatest impact, buy-in from the entire organisation is essential. Just like in sports, where every department and team member works toward a shared vision, creating a high-performance culture in the workplace requires a multidisciplinary approach. When everyone contributes, the result is a healthier, more productive work environment.
A Sporting Approach to Problem Solving in the Workplace
In sports, getting to the root cause of problems and testing solutions quickly is critical. Take an injured player, for example – identifying the underlying issue and testing potential fixes in a fast cycle is essential to getting them back on the field. Time away from the game costs both money and success.
Similarly, in the workplace, whether it’s dealing with presenteeism or an employee on sick leave, addressing the root cause rather than just the symptoms is crucial to minimising lost productivity and ensuring employee wellbeing. This evidence-based, proactive approach – where innovation and rapid testing are key – can transform the work environment and is the foundation of a high-quality workplace experience. By understanding the root causes of organisational strategy, wellbeing and experience challenges, we can implement, test, and measure approaches that drive real, measurable success.
Pursuing Competitive Gains Through Workplace Innovation
Workplaces orientated around health and providing the best possible employee experience can significantly boost productivity and reduce turnover, saving businesses up to £122,000 annually. We understand that transforming your workplace can feel like a big investment, but a ‘marginal gains’ approach – popularised in sports – shows that small, continuous improvements can lead to major performance enhancements.
By making minor adjustments, such as environmental changes or introducing new workstyles, you can achieve significant gains in productivity. A great way to explore these improvements is by repurposing small spaces in your office as ‘living labs.’ This allows you to test these changes in a focused environment before rolling them out across the organisation.
Your People: The Ultimate Asset
In both business and sport, employees are the most valuable asset. Based on the UK’s average salary, the cost of staff turnover is estimated to be between £14,800 and £22,200 per employee, depending on role and industry. One of the best ways to retain employees is by prioritising their health and wellbeing. In fact, 71% of employees want to work for a company that promotes a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing.
In sports, we often hear about the ‘team behind the team,’ where every detail of an athlete’s training is personalised to optimise performance. While it might seem challenging to replicate this in the workplace, significant improvements can be made by understanding your employees’ needs. Just like a coach knows what their athletes need to succeed, prioritising your team’s health and happiness will boost overall organisational performance.
Bridging the Gap Between Sport and Work
The connection between work and sport is clear. Both strive for performance, and in both, people are our most valuable asset. To optimise that performance, we need people who are happy, healthy, and thriving.
By applying lessons from the world of sports – like building a high-performance culture, valuing people, pursuing continuous gains, and solving problems effectively – we can transform workplaces. Are your people set up to thrive, or are you missing out on potential gains?
We know it can be difficult to get started, but we’re here to help you on your way. Book a free discovery call with me here
Joe Kupusarevic
Joe Kupusarevic is the Product Manager at ART Health Solutions, where he leads the consultancy service. With a background as a sports scientist, Joe has worked with professional teams and athletes, applying data-driven strategies to enhance performance. Now, he helps organisations improve their workplace strategy, experience, and wellbeing. Joe takes pride in delivering innovative, evidence-based solutions that drive real results, ensuring best-in-class service for every client.
