For organisations
Your people know what needs saying. Most of it never gets said.
Someone doesn’t step in when they should. Nobody admits they’re stuck. The men skip the wellbeing session, the culture programme gets politely attended, nothing moves, and there’s no way of knowing whether it did. Underneath all of it sits the same thing: rigid rules about how you’re allowed to be seen at work.
Hard As Nails is built to loosen those rules without feeling like another HR initiative. Not a workshop, not a talk. An ordinary week at work, experienced differently, and measured before and after on Workplace Courage, with academic oversight.*
One week of men wearing nails at work = one measurable shift in culture, courage and conversation.
The 2026 workplace pilot runs this November. Twenty places for SMEs. Four for major employers, and Wates and Salesforce have taken two of them.
* Run with academic oversight from Professor Brendan Gough at Leeds Beckett University, who helped design the research, including the Workplace Courage scale. Transformation is a massively overused word, so check the research: the full working paper is public, unfavourable findings included.
“We know that men’s health remains an important issue across the construction industry, and raising awareness is only part of the solution. Hard As Nails sparks the kind of conversations we want people to have and has the science behind it to give it long-term credibility.”
James Saunders, Chief People Officer, Wates Group
Methodology
How does it work.
Pop-up nail bars in reception, colleagues painting nails in the canteen, a team trip to the salon. There are many bonding ways to paint your men’s nails.
Prompts and practical tools provided for reflection, conversation and the investigation of identity disruption. Everyone experiences a new perspective.
Male participants report significant and lasting internal shifts, on measures proven to drive mental health, confidence, empathy and more.
Validated scales are offered to everyone, before and after, to record shifts in attitude and behaviour. Enterprise partners get their own organisation’s results; everyone else’s answers build the national picture.
What it looks like
A week in a real workplace.
Three ways in, for any size of organisation. Self-serve from £100 to £500, Masterclass from £2,500 with us in the room, and Enterprise from £10,000 with your own data. See the three.
Men who took part, photographed where they work.
Portraits and hand selfies sent in by participants during the week.
What happened at work.
Taken from the anonymous research diaries. A significant amount of what came back described moments like these. Eight of them below, and the full results are on the research and data page. Swipe.
Anonymous research diaryEntry 33
Other person asked about nails, leading to a really positive conversation about allyship.
Anonymous research diaryEntry 34
Conversation with canteen staff member. Spoke about toxic masculinity, Harry styles. I mentioned my new awareness of the male gaze as people have been having a good look at my nails. I can’t imagine what it’s like being a woman under the constant male eye.
Anonymous research diaryEntry 95
Meeting in a factory. Before we got into the meeting agenda I explained the painted nails. It fuelled conversation around what it means to be a good man. Thoughts from others gathered around the topic. It became a great start to the meeting.
Anonymous research diaryEntry 161
The president of the company I work for said he liked my nails, which was a big surprise. We were having a conversation in my office and out of the blue he said, 'I really like your nails'. I explained the experiment and he was genuinely interested. He commented on the colour suiting me, which was nice.
Anonymous research diaryEntry 53
I've been on multiple video calls and in some cases forgot my nails were done or sometimes scratched or something to show them inconspicuously but no one has mentioned anything or even looked as if they noticed or cared
Anonymous research diaryEntry 76
I work in a GP surgery in Cornwall. Most patients notice the nails but havent commented. My colleagues in the surgery have primarily laughed and ribbed me a bit but it's been a positive experience so far. Day 1 only!
Anonymous research diaryEntry 134
Male colleague said “I didn’t realise you painted your nails”. I told him about the project, he said he feels like it’s quite well accepted nowadays that men might paint their nails, he told me a funny story about how he used to do his nails as a kid and put a dress on to entertain his grandparents and other relatives.
Anonymous research diaryEntry 64
My boss and I had our annual salary review, he asked about my painted fingernails and was very supportive and said that he loves diversity and goes by himself to gothic festivals and enjoys alternative genres
What changes
What you’d notice.
In the national study, 422 men wore nails for a week. This is what moved on validated scales, and what it looks like on a Tuesday.
- Fear of judgementHalvedThe idea that gets said in the meeting, not after it.
- Standing up for othersDoubledThe colleague who steps in when someone is out of line.
- Three validated scalesSignificant movementA control group who read about masculinity instead didn’t move.
- Longitudinal resultsHeld at nine monthsNot a workshop glow. Measured again nine months on.
Overseen by Professor Brendan Gough, Leeds Beckett University. In November we add Workplace Courage and Masculinity Contest Culture, before and after. See how it was measured →
“Hard As Nails isn’t a wellbeing add-on, it’s culture and leadership work. It’s built on trust: creating the psychological safety for men to open the conversations they find hardest to start at work. … That’s exactly the kind of leadership Salesforce wants to be known for.”
Jocelyn Zanasi, SVP & GM, UK&I, Professional Services, Salesforce
Costs
Three ways in, for any size of organisation.
One-off fees, one per organisation, never per head. Paying books your place in November. The pack is being finished with our first partners now and reaches you well before your week.
Self-serve
£100 to £500 one-off, by headcount
For SMEs, start-ups, charities and public bodies. You run it, with the pack. We’re on the end of an email.
What’s in the pack
- Start here. The four decisions to make, and a ten-step tick list for whoever runs your week
- Comms and content. Posters, screens, email and Slack copy, and a QR code straight to sign-up
- Conversation toolkit. Prompts, a reflection-circle format and facilitation notes for meetings and sessions
- Safeguarding. What to expect, word-for-word answers, and where to go for real support
- The evidence base. A summary plus the science behind why it works, for taking to a director
- Webinar. An invitation to a session with co-founders Daniele and Sam, or the recording
£100 The honesty box
If, for whatever reason, £100 is all you can afford, sign up. Any size, no questions asked.
Pay £100, book your placeMore than 100 people? That’s a conversation, see Enterprise. Prefer an invoice? Email us and we’ll raise one.
With us in the room
Masterclass
from £2,500 keynote, fireside or workshop
Everything in Self-serve, plus a co-founder in the room, in person or online, to bring it to life for your team.
- A keynote, fireside chat or workshop from Daniele Fiandaca or Sam Conniff, in person or online
- The presentation, yours to keep and reuse
- A nail technician on site on the day, so the painting happens there and then
- The full Self-serve pack, to run the rest of the week yourselves
- What moves the price: in person or online, how many sessions, how many sites
Enterprise
from £10,000 priced in conversation
Everything in Masterclass, plus your organisation’s own data. For major employers, multi-site and regulated organisations.
- Your own measurement. Workplace Courage and the other validated scales, before and after, for your organisation, analysed under academic oversight and reported at organisation level, never individuals
- Your own landing page and sign-up codes, so every shift is tracked to you
- Multiple in-person activations across sites: keynotes, workshops, firesides
- Pop-up nail bars with technicians, arranged by us and charged at cost
- A board-level readout of what shifted, what it means and what’s next
- Wates and Salesforce took the first two places. First refusal on becoming a founding partner when Hard As Nails rolls out annually from June
These are pilot prices. Hard As Nails is a Community Interest Company, and every price is set to cover what it costs to run, because we’d rather have more workplaces than more margin. Your organisation’s own data sits in Enterprise only: done properly it takes a research team, and we’d rather not sell you a spreadsheet.
Not sure it’s for you? Book a 20-minute call, ask us anything, and decide afterwards.
“Men are notoriously difficult to engage in health research. Hard As Nails produced significant shifts on validated psychological measures, with no movement in the control group. As a researcher, that’s what makes this worth taking seriously.”
Professor Brendan Gough, Professor of Social Psychology, Leeds Beckett University
WTAF
What the FAQ?
Is this just for men?
No. The most direct way in is nominating a man who’d benefit. Everyone else logs a short observation of the men they work with, before and after, and both go into the findings, and on Enterprise into your own organisation’s report. The shift in empathy is a shared one, not something that happens to the men while everyone else watches.
How will painted nails help my team?
Ever sat in a debrief where nobody says the thing everyone’s thinking? Watched someone not step in when they should have? Wondered where the ideas went? Rigid expectations about how you’re allowed to be seen contribute to all three. We measure those expectations before and after, and Enterprise partners see exactly what moved inside their own organisation.
Is this a woke masculinity campaign?
It’s a measured study. It’s about identity, leadership, decision-making, and the emotional suppression that stops people speaking up. Those rigid ideas don’t stay outside work: they shape who admits uncertainty, who asks for help, who challenges a decision. Loosen them and people have more room to think.
What does the week actually involve?
An ordinary week, with nails. There’s one event: the hour where everyone gets their nails done, in the canteen, the salon, or reception. After that, everything is the same. Meetings, shifts, site visits, the commute. That’s the point. The change doesn’t happen in a workshop, it happens inside an ordinary week experienced with a different identity. There are meeting planners and worksheets in the pack if you want to make more of it, but the work is done by wearing them.
What about the banter? Is this safe?
There’ll be less than you’d think: most men brace for judgement that never arrives. Participation is voluntary, anyone can take the polish off at any point, and the pack ships word-for-word answers. Every workplace gets safeguarding guidance, and discriminatory behaviour stays a workplace issue whatever it calls itself.
Men don’t usually get involved in diversity campaigns.
They don’t, which is why this one doesn’t look like one. 422 men took part in the past study, which is engagement men’s health research rarely gets.
“Hard As Nails is one of the most interesting and original community approaches to men’s health we’ve come across. At Movember, we’ve followed their data closely, and we’ve been impressed by the team’s dedication to rigorous measurement and continuous learning.”
Gayathri Butler, Director, Global Social Connections Investments, Movember
The blockers
What if...
...your people can’t wear varnish?
That doesn’t rule them out. Construction is the clearest case and a flagship sector for us: gloves, tools and site rules all get in the way. Same in food production, care, clinical and cleanroom settings, offshore and uniformed roles.
Where your policy permits varnish, wear it. Where it doesn’t, don’t work around it: clinical bare-below-the-elbows standards permit none, not a thumbnail. Paint for the off-shift, the weekend, the journey home, or back the week without wearing any at all. Plenty of people do exactly that and it counts.
...we’re worried about safeguarding, data or wellbeing?
Participation is voluntary and individual, nobody’s answers are ever shared with their employer, and workplace reporting is aggregated. Every workplace gets safeguarding guidance and a full assurance pack covering data handling and escalation. Anyone who needs real support is pointed to CALM (0800 58 58 58) and Samaritans (116 123).
Your people’s data
Straight, on the record.
Individual responses are never shared with employers. Data is handled only by the research team and authorised partners, and reported only as anonymised, aggregated results. We work to UK GDPR and British Psychological Society guidance, collected and processed in the UK, stored securely in the EU (Dublin). Anyone can withdraw themselves and their data at any time.
The evidence base. Broockman, D. E. & Kalla, J. L. (2016). Durably reducing transphobia: a field experiment on door-to-door canvassing. Science, 352(6282), 220–224. A single ten-minute perspective-taking conversation reduced prejudice, and the effect was still measurable three months later. · Berdahl, J. L., Cooper, M., Glick, P., Livingston, R. W. & Williams, J. C. (2018). Work as a masculinity contest. Journal of Social Issues, 74(3), 422–448. The paper that defines and validates Masculinity Contest Culture, one of the scales we measure in November.
Our full findings are open. The full working paper is publicly available, including unfavourable findings and a limitations section, and is currently under peer review. We publish what the data shows, not a selection of it.
Not your call to make?
Nominate your workplace. Write to whoever decides, in one click, and we never see it.
This is what they will get. Change anything you like once it opens.
We never see any of this. The message is built in your browser and sent from your own email, so neither their address nor yours reaches us, and there is nothing for us to keep or delete. All we ever learn is that a nomination happened, as a number with no names in it.
Request the partner pack.
We reply within one working day.
Prefer email? Write to hello@hard-as-nails.com. It reaches Emma, and she answers her own inbox.