Does Your Company Need a Chief Performance Officer?

By Bode Bamkole

Here’s a slightly controversial thought.

Should companies have a Chief Performance Officer?

Not someone responsible for sales targets.

Not someone managing financial forecasts.

And not another executive whose job is to squeeze more productivity out of employees.

I’m talking about someone whose responsibility is to help people perform at their best, physically, mentally and financially, over the long term.

Because the more I think about how companies approach employee wellbeing, the more I wonder whether we’re solving the right problem.

Or whether we’ve built an entire industry around wellbeing without properly deciding who’s accountable for it.

Let’s start with something that isn’t particularly controversial.

Employee wellbeing matters.

Physical health matters.

Mental health matters.

Financial wellbeing matters.

And when those things deteriorate, there are consequences.

People take time off work.

They experience burnout.

They struggle with stress.

Their performance suffers.

Sometimes they leave their jobs entirely.

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive publishes data on work-related stress, depression, anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders, demonstrating the scale of health-related challenges in the workplace.

Initiatives such as Keep Britain Working have also brought renewed attention to the relationship between health, employment and economic participation.

So the argument that employee health matters isn’t exactly groundbreaking.

Most organisations already understand that.

The more interesting question is:

If employee wellbeing is so important, why is responsibility for it often so fragmented?

Think about how wellbeing works inside a typical organisation.

There might be an employee benefits team.

Someone in HR responsible for wellbeing initiatives.

A mental health champion.

An occupational health provider.

A learning and development programme.

A manager who’s particularly passionate about fitness.

And perhaps a calendar of activities throughout the year.

Mental health awareness sessions.

Wellbeing weeks.

Fitness challenges.

Financial education workshops.

Team-building events.

All potentially valuable.

But who’s bringing everything together?

Who’s deciding what the organisation actually needs?

Who’s assessing whether the initiatives are working?

And who’s responsible for changing the approach if they aren’t?

In some organisations, those responsibilities are clearly defined.

In others, wellbeing becomes something people support alongside their actual jobs.

It’s important.

People care about it.

But it’s not necessarily anyone’s primary responsibility.

And that creates a problem.

When everyone supports wellbeing but nobody owns the outcomes, it’s easy for activity to replace progress.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with a wellbeing calendar.

In fact, I think having regular opportunities for employees to move, connect, learn and recover can be incredibly valuable.

But a calendar isn’t a strategy.

Running twelve wellbeing events doesn’t automatically mean you’ve improved employee wellbeing.

Offering a meditation app doesn’t necessarily address an unsustainable workload.

And organising a fitness challenge won’t fix a workplace culture where employees feel unable to take breaks.

These things can help.

But they need to exist within a bigger picture.

What problem are we trying to solve?

Who are we trying to support?

What barriers are employees experiencing?

What does success look like?

And how will we know whether anything has improved?

Without those questions, it’s easy to end up with a collection of well-intentioned initiatives that don’t necessarily connect to one another.

Here’s where my thinking changes.

In sales organisations, we have sales enablement.

People whose job is to help sales teams improve.

They look at training.

Processes.

Tools.

Skills.

Coaching.

And the systems that support better performance.

In other parts of a business, we have learning and development teams.

We invest in helping employees acquire new skills and adapt to changing expectations.

Increasingly, companies are also appointing leaders responsible for AI adoption and digital transformation.

Why?

Because these things matter to the future performance of the organisation.

So here’s my question.

If people are a company’s most valuable asset, why wouldn’t we apply the same level of attention to helping them perform sustainably?

Not just professionally.

Physically.

Mentally.

Financially.

Because those things aren’t separate from someone’s working life.

They’re part of it.

I don’t necessarily think every organisation needs a new C-suite position.

For many businesses, that would be excessive.

But I do think there’s an argument for a clearly defined performance function, potentially sitting within the People or HR team.

Its responsibility would be simple:

Create the conditions that help employees stay healthy, develop and perform sustainably.

That could involve several areas.

Making movement, physical health and recovery more accessible.

That might include workplace fitness initiatives, ergonomic support, partnerships with health providers or opportunities for employees to be more active.

But it would also mean understanding the physical demands of different roles.

Someone working at a desk has different needs from someone working in a warehouse.

A useful programme should reflect that.

Supporting psychological health and creating an environment where employees can manage the demands of work.

That means looking beyond awareness sessions.

Workload.

Management practices.

Access to support.

Psychological safety.

And whether employees feel comfortable raising concerns.

Importantly, it also means recognising when the workplace itself is contributing to the problem.

Financial stress doesn’t disappear when someone arrives at work.

And employers are increasingly recognising that financial wellbeing is part of the wider employee experience.

Education, access to appropriate resources and support with understanding financial benefits can all have a place.

Not because employers should manage people’s personal finances.

But because financial pressure can affect people’s wellbeing.

This is where everything comes together.

Are people recovering properly?

Do they feel supported?

Are managers equipped to lead healthy teams?

Are employees developing?

Is the organisation creating an environment where people can perform consistently without burning out?

Rather than treating each initiative as a separate activity, someone would be responsible for understanding how they contribute to the wider employee experience.

This is probably the biggest challenge with the idea.

Because if you’re going to create a performance function, you need to be able to demonstrate its value.

And that’s not straightforward.

You can’t simply give someone a revenue target.

Nor should you measure employee wellbeing by how many hours people work or how much output you can extract from them.

That would defeat the purpose.

But there are indicators organisations can monitor.

Sickness absence.

Employee retention.

Engagement.

Work-related stress.

Participation in relevant programmes.

Employee feedback.

Access to support.

And potentially changes in productivity, where those measures are appropriate and meaningful.

None of these metrics tells the whole story.

A reduction in sick days, for example, isn’t necessarily positive if employees are simply coming to work while unwell.

And increased participation in wellbeing events doesn’t automatically mean people are healthier.

That’s why the role would need to look at multiple indicators rather than chasing a single number.

The objective wouldn’t be to prove that every workshop generates a financial return.

It would be to understand whether the organisation is creating healthier, more sustainable working conditions.

And to improve the approach over time.

Possibly.

And that’s a fair criticism.

Many organisations already have Chief People Officers, HR Directors, occupational health teams and dedicated wellbeing professionals doing important work.

I’m not suggesting those roles are ineffective.

Nor am I arguing that we need to invent another job title for something that already exists.

My question is about emphasis and accountability.

What happens when we stop treating wellbeing primarily as a collection of employee benefits and start treating sustainable human performance as an organisational priority?

Would that change how programmes are funded?

How initiatives are selected?

How managers are trained?

How outcomes are measured?

And who is responsible for making improvements?

Maybe the answer isn’t a Chief Performance Officer.

Maybe it’s a Head of Human Performance.

Maybe it’s an expanded responsibility within an existing People function.

The title is less important than the principle.

Someone should be responsible for connecting employee wellbeing with the conditions that allow people to perform sustainably.

There’s an obvious risk with this idea.

If companies start talking about employee performance instead of employee wellbeing, people could reasonably ask whether the real objective is simply to get more work out of them.

And that’s a legitimate concern.

A performance function shouldn’t exist to pressure employees into becoming more productive at the expense of their health.

It shouldn’t turn exercise into another corporate obligation.

Or make employees feel that their physical health, mental health or personal finances are being monitored by their employer.

Employee privacy and autonomy would have to remain fundamental.

And the organisation would need to be willing to address difficult structural problems.

Because sometimes the answer to poor wellbeing isn’t another workshop.

It’s reducing workloads.

Improving management.

Changing expectations.

Or giving people more control over how they work.

If a performance function can’t challenge those things, it risks becoming another layer of corporate wellness theatre.

And nobody needs more of that.

At OGO, we talk about treating life like sport.

And one of the things sport teaches you is that performance doesn’t happen in isolation.

Training matters.

Recovery matters.

Nutrition matters.

Mental preparation matters.

Your environment matters.

And the way those things interact can determine whether you perform consistently or eventually break down.

Now, employees aren’t professional athletes.

And workplaces shouldn’t expect them to be.

But the principle still applies.

People don’t arrive at work as isolated units of productivity.

They bring their physical health.

Their mental health.

Their financial pressures.

Their relationships.

Their energy.

And everything else happening in their lives.

If organisations genuinely believe their people are their most valuable asset, it seems reasonable to ask whether they should take a more coordinated approach to supporting them.

Not simply because it’s the right thing to do.

But because healthy, capable and supported employees are fundamental to building sustainable organisations.

I’m not convinced every business needs the title.

But I am increasingly convinced that more businesses need the responsibility.

Someone who can look beyond individual wellbeing initiatives.

Connect physical, mental and financial wellbeing.

Work across departments.

Understand the needs of employees.

And help the organisation build a culture where sustainable performance is taken seriously.

Because there’s a big difference between having a wellbeing programme and building an organisation that genuinely supports wellbeing.

And perhaps the next step for corporate wellness isn’t another benefit, event or initiative.

Perhaps it’s giving someone the responsibility, resources and authority to make the whole thing work.

At OGO, we believe life is sport.

We work with organisations to make movement, recovery, connection and wellbeing a more meaningful part of working life.

Through corporate wellness experiences, team activities and wellbeing resources, we help businesses create opportunities for their people to connect, recharge and perform.

Whether you’re planning a wellbeing calendar, organising an all-hands or looking to bring more purposeful wellness experiences into your workplace, we’d be happy to explore what’s possible.

Explore OGO’s corporate wellness experiences and start building a more active, connected workplace.

Cover photo by #WOCinTech Chat / Unsplash.