Episode 27 – Season 2

Part 2 contains chapters that cover the key areas of wellbeing such as mental and financial wellbeing but also lots of tips to support implementing a wellbeing strategy. Regular listeners will probably have picked up the structure we tried to apply to all of our episodes. We tried to outline a problem that impacted on wellbeing, discuss the evidence, discuss potential solutions and then find out how we could implement the solutions in our workplace. These tips and ideas form the backbone of part 2.

Chapter 6: Roles and Responsibility. 

We were constantly surprised by the link between what you could call standard business practice and wellbeing. This is covered in this chapter which looks at how you select your team, the roles you give them, their responsibilities and other working practices. 

Tools such as an organization chart and a job description which must be part of management 101 really can have an effect on wellbeing if done properly and this came up time and again.

This chapter includes clips from the following podcasts:

• Carolyn Illman, Hiring Coach and Owner, Hire Possibilities | How a great hiring process improves wellbeing at work.
• Dr Nicole Tschierske, Coach/ Mentor for Women in Science, Tech and Engineering | Improving the working day so that it is less energy draining and more energy giving
• Dr Benjamin Ritter, Founder of Live for Yourself Consulting | Putting a square peg in a square hole – job crafting and wellbeing
• Julie Winkle Giulioni, Author and Leadership Speaker | The alternative to promotion and why it could improve wellbeing at work 
• Louise Deverell Smith, Founder of Daisy Chain | Flexible working and its impact on wellbeing

You might also be interested in these podcasts:

• André Delafontaine, Founder of the Genius Life Academy | Maximizing time spent in your ‘Genius Zone
• Dr Marcus Fila, Professor of Management, Hope College, Michigan | Stress in the workplace and what to do about it
• Simon Hedaux, Co-Founder, ReThink Productivity | Impact of productivity on wellbeing and how approaching productivity in the wrong way can negatively impact wellbeing
• Terry McDougall, Author, Executive and Career Coach| Career Happiness and Success on Your Own Terms

Chapter 7: Communication.   

Just like leadership, communications has probably been one of the top 3 business book subjects of all time so we weren’t surprised that it came up regularly with our guests. No clear trend emerged on the subject throughout our 2 series, other than clear communications and listening to your team help wellbeing. 

This chapter includes clips from the following podcasts:

• Paul Hills, Founder and CEO of Konektis.org | Bringing the body language back to video meetings      (for Youtube version click  here)
• Andrea Newton, Founder of Confident Conversations | The Art of Conversation
• Andy Long, Owner, Impact 2 Performance Coaching | How High Impact teams and coaching can help employee wellbeing

You might also be interested in these podcasts:

• Sarah Hosein, Leadership Coach | Ensuring all voices are heard to help improve wellbeing
• Dr Bob Nelson, President of Nelson Motivation & Mario Tamayo, Principal at Tamayo Group inc. | How to make work fun
• Hannes Bend and Hoda Mahmoodzadegan, Founders of Breathing.AI | How to end that Zoomed out feeling
• Sara Sabin, Entrepreneur and Transformational Coach | The Great resignation and how to avoid it
• Caterina Kostoula, Founder, The Leaderpath | The impact of bad meetings on wellbeing at work

Chapter 8: Psychological Wellbeing. This is a subject that has become increasingly recognized as an area of employer responsibility.  This is a problem that was often swept under the carpet in the past but is now benefiting from a much more open debate as in recent years the full scale of the problem has become clear. Throughout the podcast series, we have discussed the different types of mental health issues, the impact of work on people’s health plus a range of potential solutions. 

This chapter includes clips from the following podcasts:

• Perrine Farque, Keynote Speaker, Author and Founder of Inspired Human | Inclusion and Psychological safety
• Faisal Shaikh, Founder and CEO of Babble | The problem of loneliness at work and how to address it
• Dr Marcus Fila, Professor of Management, Hope College, Michigan | Stress in the workplace and what to do about it

You might also be interested in these podcasts:

• Gemma Perkins, Personal transformation facilitator | Positive Psychology, what is it and how can it help wellbeing in the workplace?
• Kelly Mackin, Co- founder, Motives Met | What makes a work-life well lived?
• Dr Serra Pitts, Clinical Director of 87% | How technology can help improve employee mental wellbeing
• Rob Stephenson, CEO & Founder, InsideOut LeaderBoard | Diary of a mental health campaigner
• Stuart Mace, Ambassador, The Circle Line | The role of therapy in a wellbeing strategy
• Anastasia Callaghan, Founder, Sunday Sanctuary | Sunday evening anxiety and how to get rid of it

Chapter 9: Financial wellbeing. 

It is an area where responsibility for the employer can be debated, however, the impact is huge.  We have discussed the impact on productivity at work and the impact on the individuals concerned. A lot of effort is going into the subject and it is an area that we believe pays huge dividends for employers that support their staff.

This chapter includes clips from the following podcasts:

• Darren Laverty of Foster Denovo | “Make their money count”
• Ben Smith, Head of Product, fastP.A.Y.E and Jake Bates, Workplace Wellbeing Specialist, fastP.A.Y.E | The On-Demand Pay space and how the sector is evolving to improve its approach to wellbeing
• Manuel Peleteiro, Founder & CEO of Inbest | How Inbest can open the benefits landscape to thousand of employees

You might also be interested in these podcasts:

• Ian Hogg, Chairman, fastP.A.Y.E | How open banking and the NHS are about to revolutionise financial wellbeing
• Nicola Anderson, CEO of Fintech Scotland | How Fintech’s can improve a lot of employee’s financial well-being
• Laura Conning, Founder, Citygate Mortgages | Business models that have a profit motive but invest a large amount of their time in doing social good, especially in the area of employee wellbeing

Chapter 10: Physical wellbeing.  

It’s a mark of how far we have come in the wellbeing space that the fear of losing one’s life or a limb doesn’t concern the majority of us at work and that when you ask modern managers about wellbeing in the workplace, their thoughts often start with mental health issues.

So in this chapter we aren’t going to discuss health and safety because thankfully it is well covered elsewhere and workplaces are safer than ever. So instead we cover some other areas of physical wellbeing that our guests have discussed

This chapter includes clips from the following podcasts:

• Danny Clarke, Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and Founder of Simply People | An overview of Occupational Health and how it fits with Wellbeing in the Workplace
• Ashley Cope, Head of People Partners, EMEA at We Work | How We Work priorities employee wellbeing 
• Kevin McAlister, Founder of Lift Your Wellbeing | The role of exercise in workplace wellbeing

Chapter 11: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  We had some debate about a chapter on DEI and whether it should make up part of a book on wellbeing. DEI came up a lot with our guests and is one of the subjects we could have invited many more speakers to cover.

It was intertwined in lots of other subjects and our guests strongly linked it to wellbeing. The positives of a diverse workplace made for a happy environment whilst there was a link between lack of equity and inclusion with low morale and wellbeing.

This chapter includes clips from the following podcasts:

• Minal Bopaiah, Author and Founder of Brevity & Wit | How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives
• Jill Eaton, Author, Career Coach, and Mentor |Gender Goggles

You might also be interested in these podcasts:

• Perrine Farque, Keynote Speaker, Author and Founder of Inspired Human | Inclusion and Psychological safety

Chapter 12: Best practices – some lessons from the workplace.   We couldn’t do this podcast come book without including a chapter of some of the best clips from people working directly for large employers with responsibility for improving wellbeing.

Some had a focused wellbeing job role whilst others were volunteering. Covid 19 dominated the news agenda for the whole of the time we were recording the workplace wellbeing podcast and its impact on wellbeing inevitably came out, especially when discussing real-life examples.  

This chapter includes clips from the following podcast:

• Grace Musariri, Mental Health Practitioner & Project Manager, NHS | Building resilience amongst NHS workers during a pandemic and how those lessons can still help employers in less stressful workplaces
• Ashley Cope, Head of People Partners, EMEA at We Work | How We Work priorities employee wellbeing 
• David Rogers, Head of Finance, Marston’s Plc | The finance guy who put wellbeing before the numbers
• Arlyne Chinyanganya, Finance Manager at giffgaff & Founder of Roots to Froots | The Accidental Wellbeing specialist

Conclusion: Workplace Wellbeing summed up in one minute by Sir Terry Leahy

This chapter includes clips from the following podcast:

Sir Terry Leahy, Former CEO of Tesco Plc | The impact of company values on employee wellbeing

“The Workplace Wellbeing Podcast is supported by The Worktech Group, which owns, SHopWorks, FastPAYE and Solvedby.ai”