Workplace inclusivity

If 2025 is remembered for anything, I hope it’s the year we finally stopped treating women’s health as a niche topic. For too long, the experiences women navigate, including menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, peri-menopause and so on, have been under-discussed and under-supported at work. Yet these are stages that shape half the population.

 

This year also marks my third as CEO of Wild Nutrition, a company built for women, led almost entirely by women and powered by a community of more than 70,000 female subscribers and 1300 conversations with different women every month.

 

I came to the role from Harry’s, a male-focused challenger brand in shaving. Before that, I’d spent almost two decades in retail starting at M&S and moving to French Connection, Boden and ASOS. Great companies, with predominant focus on women, but none designed around women’s lives and circumstances in the way Wild Nutrition is. And it’s this unique set-up that has seen me evolve as a leader, but also a partner and parent. It’s allowed me to understand what makes a better, more inclusive workplace and what I now try to pass on to fellow leaders looking to make more of a difference:

 

 

Inclusive workplaces

An inclusive workplace is one where people are genuinely allowed to be themselves, and thrive in the presence of psychological safety.

 

At Wild Nutrition, we formulate products for women by listening to women. That philosophy extends inside the company, too. We have policies that normalise the reality of women’s health needs which include everything from painful periods to brain fog to perimenopausal symptoms. For many on our team, this is the first workplace where they don’t feel the need to “push through” or hide what they’re experiencing.

 

As a man, that was eye-opening. I’ve worked in supportive environments before, but I had never worked somewhere where a woman’s lived experience was a central operating truth. The impact is enormous: people think more clearly, collaborate more openly, and feel safe being honest when they’re struggling. It’s a level of psychological safety men benefit from too.

 

The lesson for other leaders is simple: inclusion is not a policy; it’s an atmosphere. When employees feel able to admit they’re having a tough day without fear of judgement, you get better work and better humans.

 

 

Understanding women’s health makes men better leaders

When I joined, I thought I knew a reasonable amount about women’s health through my personal life as a partner and father to two teenage daughters. Now, through daily exposure to our nutritionists, customer conversations and product innovation, I understand the complexity and nuance of women’s hormonal and nutritional needs far better.

 

This learning has made me a more empathetic leader. It has also made me a better parent and partner. I can talk more confidently about topics many men shy away from. Not because I’m an expert, but because I’ve listened to experts.

 

And this is why I don’t think it’s strange for a man to lead a female-focused company. If we want progress for women, we need male leaders who understand the issues, care about them, and are willing to learn. No man can claim to speak for women, but every male leader can-and should-commit to listening.

 

 

Inclusion creates better products

Our model is unusual in the supplement world. While 95% of supplements use synthetic isolates, our Food-Grown® nutrients are absorbed more effectively and backed by scientific studies showing 113% faster absorption and 116% longer retention for Vitamin D. But our real differentiator is listening. Every month, 1,300 women tell us about their challenges, symptoms, worries, and needs. Their insights drive our services and formulations, from our new Weight Management Support to our Collagen range, both of which launched in response to real stories we heard.

 

This feedback loop shapes how we grow. Shifting Wild Nutrition to a subscription-first model made sense because supplements work best when taken daily. We’ve now grown from 5,000 to over 70,000 subscribers in just a few years, with strong retail partnerships in Holland & Barrett, Sainsbury’s, and a rapidly scaling Amazon channel.

 

The takeaway for leaders: a business built on real human insight will always outperform one built on assumptions. Inclusion isn’t just good ethics, it’s also good strategy.

 

 

Build where your customer is, not where you want them to be

Early in my career at ASOS, I learned from the founder the value of relentless focus on your target customer. That philosophy runs deep at Wild Nutrition. We show up wherever our target women look for support: online, in-store, through expert guidance, through free Nutritional Therapy consultations, and through products designed for every life stage.

 

What I’ve learned leading a women-focused business is that women don’t want more noise, they want clarity, care and credibility. Any leader serving any customer group can learn from this: respect people’s time, understand their lives, and speak to them at the right moment in the right way.

 

 

When culture is built with care, performance follows

Over the past three years, we’ve grown by more than 50% each year while strengthening margins and expanding physical distribution. But the metric I’m proudest of is the trust women place in us. We are, in many cases, part of the most intimate stages of their lives. That trust is earned through consistency, compassion, and expertise.

 

A workplace centred on understanding and championing women’s needs has made me a better leader. It has taught me that inclusion is not a box-ticking exercise; it’s a competitive advantage, a cultural strength, and a societal necessity.

 

The thing is, you don’t need to run a women-focused company to build a more inclusive, empathetic and human workplace. There is a real inclusivity dividend if you put the right processes in place and have a shared attitude to make a workplace better. Right at the heart of this is listening to experiences that are different from your own and it’s been a real game-changer for how I lead. Alongside that, learning how to normalise being honest about health and wellbeing is crucial. For me, it’s been centred around women but it’s allowed me to be honest about my own feelings and life stages because safety has been created. I’ve also not made the mistake of assuming knowledge in spaces I didn’t understand and have found that surrounding myself with experts that I allow to lead works well.

 

Leading at Wild Nutrition hasn’t only made me better at my job. It has made me better at being human. And any leader whether male or female can choose to build that kind of change into their business. 

 

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Matt Hiscock is CEO of Wild Nutrition

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and damircudic