Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
CEOs deal with many challenges, but apparently their overall health and fitness isn’t among them. Some 93% of CEOs surveyed by corporate wellness platform Wellhub rate their overall well-being as excellent or good.
In contrast, the same study, released earlier this year, finds that only 63% of employees are equally satisfied with their well-being.
The wellness conundrum
“Wellness is complex, and it’s expensive,” says Cesar Carvalho, founder and CEO of Wellhub, which offers fitness and wellness benefits to employers. Thanks to their status and income, Carvalho notes, CEOs generally have the wherewithal to focus on their health and fitness.
“You can push meetings around, cancel meetings, reschedule stuff,” he says, noting that he is able to start his day after getting his kids on their school bus.
But, he notes, “CEOs take for granted that other people also have that same flexibility,” which may explain another CEO-employee well-being gap: Nearly all C-level executives surveyed by Deloitte believe employees credit leadership with prioritizing worker well-being. However, survey data shows that less than two-thirds of employees believe executives care about it, and fewer than six in 10 say their company embeds well-being into company culture.
“The problems this disconnect creates are huge,” Carvalho says. Employees will leave companies if they feel management doesn’t care about their health, for example. On the flip side, companies that prioritize employee health and fitness tend to outperform the broader market.
Wellness in the new year
Not surprisingly, Carvalho thinks the new year is an opportune time for executives to make wellness affordable and accessible for employees, calling the Monday after New Year’s Day—in this case, January 5—the “Black Friday of wellness.” He says that companies launching wellness benefits in January see adoption at rates five times higher than companies introducing such benefits at other points in the year.
Beyond offering benefits, including reimbursing classes, therapy, and gym memberships, CEOs can play a role in closing the executive-employee wellness gap by creating a culture where employees feel comfortable talking about their well-being. That means sharing aspects of their own wellness journey, too. “When CEOs share their examples and their stories, they’re showing [employees] that well-being is not a perk; it’s a business imperative,” Carvalho says.
What will your company’s wellness plan look like in 2026?
How is your company encouraging employee wellness? Please share some of your best perks and practices at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I hope to feature some of the most compelling examples in a future newsletter.
Read more: wellness at work
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- Gen Z workers are depressed and need support
- The most innovative companies in wellness and personal care