At this year’s World Of Business Ideas forum (WOBI) our GM Rebecca Moulynox hosted a panel with Hope Lawry from MoneyMe and Rebecca Smith from Swisse Wellness, two organisations featured as Best Workplaces in Australia 2025.
Their conversation revealed how the companies winning in today’s market are building cultures where trust, innovation, and employee wellbeing create sustainable competitive advantages.
Why Employee Recognition Drives Real Results
Traditional bonuses have their place, but Australia’s best workplaces take it further than monetary benefits but giving experiences. MoneyMe’s Quarterly Champions Programme identifies four champions each quarter through peer nomination and voting: Champion of Success, Champion of Champions, People’s Champion, and Innovation Champion. The reward a fully paid overseas trip for the entire cohort. When the FY25 champions returned from Vietnam, Hope noticed something remarkable: “They came back more connected and engaged than ever. Some were emotional because they thought this was once in a lifetime and they got to do it through work.”
Swisse Wellness’ Level Up Board sends team members who demonstrate exceptional innovation to destinations like Milan, Paris, or Portugal every six months, plus an additional week’s holiday. What makes this powerful? It’s open to everyone. Product development, marketing, operations, any role can earn recognition.
While not every organisation can fund international trips, the principle is universal: experiences create emotional connections that traditional rewards cannot match.
How Trust-Based Leadership Unlocks Innovation
Swisse Wellness’ transformation demonstrates what happens when leaders truly trust their teams. For years, Swisse relied on celebrity endorsers like Paul Hogan and Chris Hemsworth. Safe. Recognisable. But not relatable to younger audiences who don’t watch free-to-air TV.
During the 2024 Paris Olympics, Swisse’s marketing team proposed something different: engage the Inspired Unemployed as on-the-ground commentators. Irreverent. Unexpected. Risky with traditional demographics.
Result: 280 million impressions.
“This wouldn’t have been allowed in a traditional structure,” Rebecca Smith explained. “But our ‘I trust you’ leadership model empowers teams to take calculated risks.” This aligns with Great Place To Work research: high-trust cultures outperform low-trust cultures across every business metric.
Creating Psychological Safety in Your Organisation
Psychological safety isn’t one-size-fits-all. It must align with your business context. In financial services, the biggest safety risk isn’t physical, it’s emotional. MoneyMe’s collections teams have difficult conversations with customers in hardship daily.
Their framework includes proactive intervention (leaders checking in after difficult customer calls), mental health first aid training for managers, CEO accessibility with an open-door policy, and celebration of speaking up modelled from the top down. “I have difficult conversations every day,” Hope shared, “but I couldn’t have the conversations our collections team has. I recognise that.”
At Swisse Wellness, psychological safety is built on lived values: “Think like a disruptor, think like an owner,” “Fail fast,” and “I’ve got your back.”
Rebecca Smith shared an important evolution: “I think we were very nice for a long time, and I think we’ve moved more into leading into the difficult conversation, but always with that element of I’ve got your back, I support you.” This shift towards honest, direct feedback, while maintaining psychological safety, creates a culture where people can be challenged without feeling threatened.
“We’re not directional leaders,” Rebecca emphasised. “We see your skill set, know you’re coming with ideas… So we’re going to get out of your way and give you the power and time to make decisions quickly without bureaucracy.”
Our Wellbeing at Work 2025 research collected data from several years that showed employees need autonomy, support, and freedom from unnecessary red tape to thrive. But they also need honest feedback and the confidence that challenging conversations come from a place of support.
How to Hire for Innovation and Culture Fit
Swisse Wellness uses three equal measures to assess candidates through their AID Framework:
- Ability – Technical skills and competencies
- Influence – How you work with others and embrace values
- Drive – Thinking like an owner and disruptor
“You might be an amazing scientist,” Rebecca explained, “but without influence and drive, you won’t get the job and you won’t thrive here.” Their employer brand is so strong that candidates arrive already passionate about joining. This is the ultimate competitive advantage: people want to work for you.
Measuring Culture: What Australia’s Best Workplaces Do
Both organisations use data to drive culture decisions through Great Place To Work Certification and Survey.MoneyMe tracks five years of engagement data with 90%+ participation (CEO mandated) and transparent sharing at all levels. As a certified B Corporation, they benchmark against purpose-driven organisations.
Swisse Wellness uses Great Place To Work surveys and the DCA Inclusive Workplace Survey to inform action. “We’ve almost got too much information now,” Rebecca noted, “but it does inform everything we do.” The trick is that they don’t measure for measurement’s sake. Measure to inform action.
When organisations build cultures based on trust, empower people to innovate, recognise achievements meaningfully, and measure what matters, they create competitive advantages that competitors cannot replicate.
MoneyMe’s psychological safety approach and Swisse Wellness’ transformation from celebrity-driven to accessible marketing both demonstrate that culture is the foundation for innovation, engagement, and business success.
Discover Your Workplace Culture
Want to understand how your culture compares to Australia’s Best Workplaces?
Our Trust Index Survey measures the same factors that drive success at MoneyMe and Swisse Wellness: trust in leadership, psychological safety, innovation culture, recognition effectiveness, and employee engagement.
Organisations certified by Great Place To Work see measurable improvements in retention, innovation, and financial performance.
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