Chief Hydration Officer: systemic wellbeing or perk?

On Tuesday, I’ll be volunteering at the Aussies as “Chief Hydration Officer.” A perk? It’s a workplace essential. In an environment like the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships (known as The Aussies) with heat, pressure, long days and intense teamwork, hydration isn’t a perk; it’s a system. It’s planned, resourced, and continuously maintained because performance and safety depend on it.

And it’s a useful way to think about workplace wellbeing.

A lot of organisations are still operating in “perk mode”: Offering benefits that support people after the strain shows up.

But the shift happening now is toward something more fundamental:

Designing conditions that sustain people in the first place.

Surf Life Saving is a good example of that shift.

Beyond the competition and elite athletes and the weekend visible volunteer roles on the beach, they’ve introduced structured peer support, ensuring members are proactively checked in on after critical incidents, with clear pathways to further help if needed. Whether people are coping with a traumatic event or struggling with mental health, services are designed to help guide people into finding the right support: guidance, resources, pathways to professional help, peer support, and crisis services.

Peer Support Officer’s (PSO’s) are trained volunteers who provide confidential, emotional, and psychological support to fellow members following traumatic incidents, critical rescues, or general high-stress situations. They act as “first aid” for mental health, helping members navigate the emotional aftermath of incidents and connecting them with professional help if needed. PSO’s provide support via telephone or in person assist members in returning to a pre-incident level of functioning and coping in their lives. They schedule a follow up call or in-person support 7 days after and 14 days after the incident.

Not just the organisational fallback of outsourced EAP.

Genuine connection with peers. Built-in support for a high-pressure environment.

PSO’s are provided with ongoing training, formal debriefs and support (I’m currently completing my PSO training) to ensure they are fully supported. The same principle applies in organisations. Wellbeing isn’t what you offer on the side. It’s how work gets done. The question isn’t: “Do we have wellbeing benefits?” It’s: “Have we built the systems that make those benefits less necessary?”

Curious whether your organisation is operating in “perk mode” or “system mode”?

Practical actions for moving from “perk mode” to “system mode”

Organisations don’t shift to systemic wellbeing by adding more programs. They shift by redesigning the conditions people work in. Some starting points:

1. Start with psychosocial risk, not programs

Before introducing new wellbeing initiatives, identify what is creating strain:

• excessive workload
• role ambiguity
• exposure to conflict or trauma
• lack of recovery time between high-intensity work periods

Managing psychosocial risks is now a core leadership responsibility under Australian WHS legislation.

2. Build peer support capability, not just access to EAP

Surf Life Saving’s PSO model works because support is:

• local
• trusted
• trained
• structured
• followed up

In organisations, peer support systems need not just goodwill:

• training
• supervision
• escalation pathways
• ongoing capability development

3. Equip leaders to recognise early warning signals

Leaders influence wellbeing more than any single program. Capability areas include:

• recognising overload before burnout appears
• responding to critical incidents
• creating psychologically safe conversations
• supporting recovery after peak demand periods

4. Design recovery into work, not around it

Hydration works at the Aussies because it’s planned into performance conditions. Workplaces can do the same by:

• scheduling decompression after peak projects
• reducing unnecessary administrative load
• protecting focus time
• designing sustainable work rhythms across the year

5. Measure wellbeing the same way you measure performance

System-level wellbeing includes tracking indicators such as:

• workload sustainability
• psychological safety
• engagement and meaning at work
• retention risk
• leadership capability

This is where frameworks such as PERMA-H+ help organisations move beyond activity tracking to measuring conditions that support sustainable performance.

I’ll be refilling water stations on Tuesday. A small role in a much bigger system. But it’s a reminder that sustainable performance — on the beach or at work — rarely comes from perks. It comes from what’s designed, maintained, and taken seriously every day. If your organisation is investing in wellbeing, the real question isn’t what programs you offer. It’s whether the conditions people work in are designed to sustain them.

That’s the shift from perk mode to system mode.

Moving from wellbeing programs to wellbeing systems

Many organisations are investing in wellbeing. Fewer are designing the conditions that make wellbeing sustainable. Mitchell Services works with organisations to strengthen wellbeing as a leadership, culture and work design capability; not just an initiative. Typical starting points include:

Psychosocial risk diagnostics
Identifying the structural conditions influencing workload sustainability, psychological safety and recovery capacity.

Leadership capability for wellbeing
Supporting leaders to recognise early warning signals, respond to critical incidents, and create environments where people can perform sustainably.

Peer support system design
Developing structured internal support capability similar to Surf Life Saving’s PSO model, with training, escalation pathways and follow-up systems.

PERMA-H+ wellbeing measurement
Embedding meaningful wellbeing indicators alongside performance and workforce sustainability metrics.

Workforce sustainability strategy
Aligning wellbeing with retention, engagement, safety and organisational performance outcomes.

If your organisation is reviewing whether it is operating in perk mode or system mode, Mitchell Services can help you assess where wellbeing is already working and where stronger design may be needed.

Learn more:
https://mitchellservices.net.au/wellbeing/