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Les Mills New Zealand is one of the country’s best-known names in fitness, with clubs nationwide serving more than 50,000 members of all ages and stages. Its workforce includes around 350 employees across club management, reception, sales, facilities and a National Office, along with more than 750 contractors working as Personal Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors.
The business runs on a single purpose: “We make humans fit for life”, with physical wellbeing treated as the cornerstone of overall wellbeing. Despite this focus, Les Mills had never offered an EAP. Better holistic wellbeing support was something workers regularly asked for in engagement surveys, but finding a solution that worked for both employees and contractors wasn't straightforward.
In 2024, after scoping a range of providers, Les Mills partnered with Clearhead.
"We knew it was a gap for us, but it was complex as we wanted to find a solution that could support both employees and contractors at an affordable price."
Lara Paterson, Les Mills New Zealand
Being able to direct our people, who can get a lot of their information from unverified social media sources, to something that is research and science backed, with experts is really beneficial to managers and the People Team.
The wellbeing experts backing their own team
When wellbeing is your business, your own people expect the same level of care you deliver to customers. With a team that lives and breathes wellbeing, any solution had to be evidence-based, easy to access, and genuinely useful.
That is a big part of why Clearhead stood out. A fellow New Zealand-owned organisation, it offered the combination of evidence-based support and accessible technology Les Mills was looking for, at a time when budgets were tight.
"We make humans fit for life. That means more than helping people stay physically active. It means creating an environment where mental wellbeing is also valued and supported."
I feel really good about the fact that we have something across our whole workforce.
A digital-first solution for a young (and young at heart), nationwide workforce
Les Mills’ employee workforce is 58% Gen Z, spread across clubs nationwide rather than concentrated in one city. For a lean people team, finding a solution that their people could access themselves, online, was the right fit. Clearhead’s self-service booking lets team members browse therapists and book privately, without having to make a phone call, giving them quick access to support when they need it.
There was another benefit, too. With many younger team members turning to social media and AI for answers, a library of resources that is research-backed and safe gives the people team somewhere trustworthy to point them.
It has been the right choice for us… something to offer our people that feels fair, that’s affordable when budgets are tight, as well as being the right solution for our workforce in terms of that technology.
Timely critical incident response
One of the most distinctive things about wellbeing at Les Mills is how the business frames its own risk. A gym isn’t a construction site, but with tens of thousands of members of every age and fitness level, club teams handle more genuine emergencies than a lot of other workplaces, from cardiac events to serious injuries.
Frontline team members occasionally have to respond to distressing situations, and then may need support themselves. This is where Clearhead becomes part of the organisation's response, not just another wellbeing benefit. In 2026, the business drew on a Clearhead critical-incident package and debrief to support a club team through a serious incident. In that instance, a manager who had been reluctant to seek counselling found it genuinely valuable. Clearhead also gives the People Team a practical tool to reach for in difficult moments.
"Our teams occasionally face challenging and traumatic situations. Having immediate access to professional support means we can respond quickly and make sure our people feel looked after."
Something for the whole workforce, not just part of it
With both employees and a large contractor team to cover, Les Mills was clear that wellbeing couldn't be an employees-only benefit. At the same time, it had proved difficult to find an EAP provider that could offer the full range of support to both groups in a way that was reliable and verifiable.
Clearhead made it possible to offer something to everyone, affordably. Therapy access is lightly differentiated between employees and contractors, while the wider library of resources is available to everyone and feeds straight into the monthly Kaimahi Connect newsletter, which reaches everyone, including contractors. Building awareness across such a dispersed, often part-time team is a deliberate, ongoing focus.
