WiseTalk: Recent Episodes
Bobbi Hartshorne
If you believe your organization could be leaving untapped people potential on the table, you’re almost certainly right and this is the podcast for you. The WiseTalk podcast from WellWise reveals how wellbeing is applied as a strategic driver of organizational success. We host straight-talking discussions with experts across all workplace wellbeing factors to enable you to unleash the full potential of every employee including yourself. Each episode is jam-packed with WiseTalk from Wise Souls with powerful insights and guidance to ensure your organization’s investment in wellbeing yields sustainable value and returns for everyone.
Our special guest today is none other than the amazing Andrew Stotter-Brooks. Andrew is passionate about people development whilst creating an environment of trust and the ability to avoid ambiguity
In this episode, we discuss:
✦ how continuous learning can benefit your wellbeing
✦ the incredible effectiveness of micro development (just 30-60 seconds per day can make all the difference!)
✦ 3 straightforward tips on how leaders and managers can develop their skills to improve their work experience and that of their team.
In this new episode of our WiseTalk series, our podcast host Bobbi and guest speaker Szilvia help make sense of Gen Z and give you an insight into what’s likely to continue evolving as they make their mark on the business world.
Alright, alright, don’t all roll your eyes and yawn at once!
Even we here at WellWise were a little bit unsure how this one would go, but it turned out, surprisingly, to be one of our favourite episodes yet.
Why? Because it tackled why we all yawn, eye roll, and disengage whenever anyone mentions the dreaded ‘p’ word, and why that is causing us a lot of totally unavoidable stress and anxiety and placing a huge burden on our organizations.
It was also one of our favourites because the solutions to this challenge are sooooooo simple and the upside for everyone both financially and in terms of a wellbeing uplift are HUGE!
Easy wellbeing boosters always get lots of kudos from us!
Whether you are an individual (employed, self-employed, or unemployed) concerned about your financial future or a business leader seeking simple ways to increase employee retention, engagement, and loyalty, tune in to hear our discussion with @Pete Hykin of @Penfold, all about the world of pensions and workplace wellbeing.
We promise it is nowhere near as boring as it sounds, and guaranteed to be super helpful!
In this groundbreaking whitepaper we share the latest scientific and real-world evidence supporting the emergence of a new approach to workplace wellbeing. In particular, the paper highlights and evidences three new pillars of understanding in the field:
- Current interventions and approaches to workplace wellbeing are commonly underperforming.
- Wellbeing can no longer be treated as a cost-centre but rather a key strategic driver if it is to contribute positively to the bottom line and deliver meaningful impact.
- Integrated wellbeing must focus not just on the employees but also the overall health of the organization and its wider external environment.
“In most organizations wellbeing is delivered as a stand-alone programme. This bolt-on approach to wellbeing misses out on a wealth of opportunities and benefits that a more strategic and integrated approach could be delivering.”
Our special guests today are Nic Marks and David Green.
Nic founded the Centre for Wellbeing in 2001, at the London-based think tank the New Economics Foundation. Nic and his team produced a stream of ground-breaking reports including the Happy Planet Index, Five Ways to Wellbeing, and National Accounts of Wellbeing. In 2008 they were awarded the “Betterment of Humankind Award” from the International Society for Quality of Life Studies for their work on wellbeing in public policy.
David, after coming across the work of Martin Seligman in 2010, has since dedicated the past 12 years to the study of wellbeing.
Based his 30+ years in business and over a decade of research, David wrote his book 'The Age of Wellbeing' in which he shares the CANBE model as a tool to help individuals, teams, leaders, and organisations thrive. David now offers consulting, coaching, and speaking services based on the vision of 'A world where people and planet can thrive.' David is also a Director and Board Trustee at the Network of Wellbeing.
In this episode, Bobbi, Nic and David discuss:
-planetary wellbeing and the relationship with people and human wellbeing
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what the purpose of business should be to improve planetary and human wellbeing
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the PAS 808 framework released by the British Standards Institute
Nic's contacts:
https://nicmarks.org/
nic@fridaypulse.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marksnic/
https://www.ted.com/talks/nic_marks_the_happy_planet_index
https://happyplanetindex.org/
David's contacts:
david@improveon.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrichardgreen/
https://twitter.com/Improvon
https://www.facebook.com/improveon
The Age of Wellbeing: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56197411
The Happy Planet Index: https://www.ted.com/talks/nic_marks_the_happy_planet_index
https://happyplanetindex.org/
Our special guests today are Chris Green and Scott Armstrong.
Chris is the founder of the platform "Circles", which he describes as an ‘assisted self-care’ channel. After taking up senior leadership positions in businesses he had no hand in building, to deliver transformational change programmes, he became interested in how businesses defined ‘employees wellbeing’ and how they subsequently manage it while trying to transform their businesses to embrace a continuous change work culture.
Scott is the Founder of Mentl a trusted platform on a mission to normalise mental health so that we can all thrive. Mentl offers leading content, expert resources, bespoke research, and progressive advocacy to open up the mental health conversation and remove the stigma holding us all back. An award-winning journalist for more than three decades, Scott journey into mental health began after the death of his father. Now he uses the power of storytelling to advocate that all health is mental health, and vice versa, and he’s on a mission to educate the corporate world about the return on investment from doing the right thing.
In this episode, Bobbi, Scott and Chris discuss:
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the hidden impact of low-severity or early-stage mental health in the workplace
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what do organisations need to be doing about this issue
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successful cases of businesses improving mental health conditions in the workplace
Chris' contacts:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgreen144/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/circles-health-wellbeing-ltd/
Scott's contacts:
scottarmstrong@mentl.space
https://mentl.space/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mentl/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottarmstrongeditor/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkYBdyzEkqL09GDd-cTPdZQ
Our special guest for today is Anita van Rooyen. Anita used to be be very shy, but over time she learned, created and tried all kinds of tools to boost her self-esteem.
She is today the founder and director of Confidence Hackers, and helps people of all ages to build lasting confidence.
In this episode Anita and Bobbi discuss where confidence come from, how we can learn it and how easy it is to lose it. They also discuss the role that confidence plays in the workplace and why organizations should be aware of the challenges of those that lack it.
Anita's contact details:
https://www.instagram.com/confidencehackers/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/26475566
https://www.youtube.com/@confidencehackers
Today's episode is all about working carers, or the so called "sandwich generation".
Our special guest for today is called Meena Malhotra. Meena is a passionate and devoted advocate for working carers. She is helping organisations to redefine employee centred support for carers.
She has always helped support vulnerable people in her community and beyond. This has given Meena insight into the challenges that the UK adult/elder care support system faces and is committed to create meaningful change, starting in the workplace.
Meena is keen to help implement comprehensive solutions within organisations, that ease the burden on working carers, deliver improved care for loved ones and drive positive business and sustainable societal change.
In this episode, Meena and Bobbi, discuss who sandwich generation are and why it is important that organizations are aware of their unique challenges and needs, the type ofservices WeMa offers and and how organizations who have employees facing these increased caring responsibilities can support their needs better.
Meena's contact details:
Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/meena-malhotra-96b0a4108
Website : www.wearewema.com
Email address: meena@wearewema.com
Number: 07956224336
Mark is the founder of Soken, who support organisations to support the health, happiness, and engagement of employees. With a degree in Sports Science, Mark has now been in the wellbeing space for over 10-years. Mark spent the early part of his career in the British Military which pave the way for him to become both an Executive Coach and team-building profession, both of which have provided the foundation for the ethos and products offered by Soken.
Mark’s past history is quite interesting, and in this episode, we dive into the wellbeing projects Mark is currently working on in the UAE region and how the armed forces around the world are evolving around this topic. Bobbi and Mark discuss how workplace wellbeing is changing and why businesses are seeking out solutions, like the services provided by Stoken in supporting and improving physical, mental and social wellbeing.
Mark's contact details:
info@soken.ae
www.soken.ae
Our guest for today's episode is 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵.
With over 30yrs in the health & well-being industry Paul is recognised as a leading global EAP & Corporate Well-being expert with vast experience across medical insurance, occupational health management and EAP both UK and Internationally. Highly business focused and resilient individual with experience across clinical and operational management, commercial, business development and P&L responsibility. Founder & Managing Director of ICAS MENA, Paul reinvented EAP for the Middle East region and over the last 13yrs has become a leading advocate on mental health in the workplace here in Middle East.
Paul believes employee wellbeing needs to take an holistic approach to help individuals manage across 7 pillars of wellbeing (Psychological/Physical/Occupational/Financial/Social/Environmental/Spiritual) and that employee wellbeing is no longer a nice to have but an absolute business need.
ICAS MENA is now recognized as the market leader for EAP in the MENA region with over 375+ corporate clients and supporting over 500,000 members. Paul has also ensured ICAS MENA supports local mental health initiatives with ICAS MENA being key partners with MindForce the Dubai Police initiative on mental health and ‘Ghaya financial literacy programme’ run by Abu Dhabi Authority Of Social contribution - Ma'an in association with London Institute of Banking & Finance Middle East (LIBF ME).
In this episode of our podcast series, Paul and Bobbi discuss what an EAP is and what challenges it aims to overcome, how the EAP market and conversation around it has changed over the past years in the UAE region, and why thinking about wellbeing 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 is a 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗧 for all organisations.
Paul's contact details:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-firth-finstsmm-b3578a8
https://www.linkedin.com/company/icasmena/
In this new episode of our Wise Talk series, Bobbi and our guest Flora Castillon discuss common limiting beliefs and how to overcome them.
Flora believes that we can all address a lot of what challenges us at a rapid pace by rewiring our belief systems and harnessing how our mind operates. With far too many people battling with a lack of clarity, confidence, self-worth, crippling anxiety, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and the inability to make the right decisions, she successfully helps her clients realise their goals, ambitions, and deepest desires – and fast.
With decades of experience in the corporate world, Flora has witnessed how everyone shows up at work with a set of limiting beliefs about who they are, no exception made for the C-suites. And as a result, we affect everyone around us, including the bottom line. Flora is on a mission to educate and turn the narrative around so we all start putting our oxygen mask on. And thrive.
In this new episode of our Wise Talk series, the main topic is mental health.
Out guest Laura Russell is a registered nurse and corporate wellness with Safe Hands. Her role here focuses on all areas of corporate wellness, managing employee wellness programs for in excess of 50 local and international companies. She is passionate about mental health in the workplace, regularly conducting webinars, training and seminars on all areas of this topic to provide awareness, education and insights.
She is a qualified Mental Health First Aider and is currently completing her post graduate degree in Mental Health.
Laura also delivers internationally recognised first aid training for adults, corporate groups, teens and the community with Safe Hands and has certified thousands of first aiders in her time with Safe Hands.
In this episode, Laura explains the role of mental health in the workplace, the importance to have an awareness about it and what are the risks to organization's employees if we neglect it.
This new episode of our Wise Talk series is all about nutrition and how this is linked to our wellbeing.
Our guest speaker today is Sara Babar. Sara is a public speaker, certified holistic wellness coach, spinning instructor and experienced restaurant consultant with a passion for helping individuals to feel their best through sustainable food and lifestyle changes. Through her coaching and consultancy practice, Sara has built a comprehensive understanding of health and wellness that she is passionate about sharing with others.
Sara explains to us what are the benefits of gut health and the risks of not having it, also, she gives us some tips on how to start on the right path with nutrition.
Sara points out the importance of investing and protecting in your body to better perform in the workplace and how eating healthy helps with increasing focus and having energies.
Sara's contacts:
Website: https://www.sarababar.com/
Instagram: @sarababar
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-babar-19138a118/
In this new episode of our Wise Talk series, our special guest Oliver Baxter from Millerknoll Insight Group and Bobbi discuss how, when and where we work have an impact on our wellbeing.
Oliver explains how the pandemic has impacted the workspace, and how people are now more aware about the relation between workspace and wellbeing for the long-term success of the organisation.
Oliver's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverbenjaminbaxter/
In this episode, Bobbi and our guest George Kasparis discuss how heart variability technologies are making a transition from the sport world into the corporate one, and the benefits these technologies could bring to a company and how they can help and value employees.
George's contacts:
Personal LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-kasparis-51ab3b35/
Company LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/firstbeat-technologies-oy/mycompany/
Company Twitter: https://twitter.com/Firstbeat
Company Insta: https://www.instagram.com/firstbeat_technologies/
Shane Tolley is a qualified insurance broker who specializes in Group Health and General Insurance, he is the Corporate Services Manager at Beneple and has been with the company for over 5 years, having been in the UAE for 8 years.
In this episode, Shane explains what his role as a broker looks like, how medical insurance works in the UAE, and gives some advices to HR managers looking to purchase medical insurance for their employees.
Most importantly, Bobbi and Shane discuss the relation between wellbeing and medical insurance in the workplace.
Shane's contacts:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanetolley/
shane@beneple.com
For this new episode of our series 'Wise Talk' we highly encourage everyone to listen it, as it will give you some valuable advice on how to deal with pregnancy in the workplace, both from the employer and employee point of view!
Our guest speaker is Perihan AbouZeid, an award-winning serial entrepreneur and business strategist. She is the founder of Pericare, a FermTech startup focused on building products for working mothers, starting with a standalone state-of-the-art design nursing pod.
In this episode, she tells us what her maternity journey was like and how she believes employers could provide better support for employees who are pregnant.
Perihan's contacts:
www.linkedin.com/in/pabouzeid
www.instagram.com/pabouzeid
www.twitter.com/perihana
In this last episode of this audio series, we analyze how Motley Fool has achieved enviably low staff turnover through a focus on culture and the employee experience. The business has gone to great lengths to develop a fun-loving culture for its employees, affectionately referred to as 'fools'.
Lastly, we draw our conclusions on the role that workplace wellbeing is playing today in a business, its challenges and solutions to put in place.
In this episode, we present you the Southwest Airlines' case study: the business adheres to the philosophy that 'if we treat our employees right, they will treat our customers right, and in turn that results in increased business and profits that make everyone happy'.
In addition, we explain why a good planning of a workplace wellbeing strategy is fundamental to achieve real results.
In this episode we present you the Next Jump's case study. The company places employee development at the centre of its business strategy, and how they do it is very interesting: the business does not have a HR department and every employee spend 50% of their time working on HR and culture.
In addition, employees are supported to maintain their physical and mental health by being encouraged to visit the the onsite gym twice a week and offered healthy meal choices each day.
With this case study, we aim to show you how Next Jump's pursuit of business excellence through integrating employee development throughout its policies and processes has paid off with significantly increase in sales.
This series shares the latest research and thinking on workplace wellbeing from inside our practice at WellWise.
We identify and explore some of the common symptoms and causes of struggling workplace wellbeing by drawing together findings from the latest academic and applied research.
Through this audio series we aim to share with you a more effective and integrated approach to workplace wellbeing - an approach that seeks to optimize both individual wellbeing and organizational performance.
In this episode, we present you the case study of the german company SAP, which has invested significant resourcing measuring the full range of returns on their investment in workplace wellbeing. The reports have showed that the company's wellbeing efforts have improved its BHCI, delivering a €90-100 Million (EU) impact on their operating profit.
Furthermore, we explain to you the main causes of wellbeing strategies falling short: from inexperienced junior officers trying to wade through a wealth of complex and confusing material on the topic of wellbeing, to responsibility for wellbeing sitting as part of a human resources department rather than integrated across the organization, and lastly the lack of discussion around wellbeing at a strategic level.
It is said that culture stays at the heart of a business, and we couldn't agree more! This episode with Bobbi and our guest Zuleka is all about business culture and the importance of recognizing the values of a company for a workplace wellbeing strategy to thrive.
Zuleka explains the role that managers and individuals play to empower and create a healthy culture for their team, as well as how she believes the business culture will change in the future, taking into consideration the impact the pandemic had into creating more awareness about wellbeing.
Where you can contact Zuleka:
Email: zuleka@thecornerstoneadvisory.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zuleka
Website: https://www.thecornerstoneadvisory.com/
Bobbi and our guest Victoria Baverstock gather together to discuss how wellbeing awareness has changed in the GCC region and how it is now changing the landscape for workplace wellbeing. Furthermore, they question themselves to what degree the region will be involved in innovating solutions to overcome some of today's wellbeing challenges.
In this episode, Bobbi and our guest Jasmine Navarro discuss what family wellbeing is, how family stressors affect employees in the workplace and how employers can contribute to support their employees.
In this episode with guest Carol Glynn we discuss financial wellbeing, especially why companies invest in empowering their employees, why Carol has chosen to work specifically with women and how financial wellbeing as a stress factor is not only weighting on employees, but consequently on companies too.
If you have a little time, you are new to the topic, or you simply want to understand workplace wellbeing better, then through this series of two short episodes drawn from our E-Book we’ll give you a brief introduction to the topic of workplace wellbeing – how we got here, and where we went wrong.
If you have a little time, you are new to the topic, or you simply want to understand workplace wellbeing better, then through this series of two short episodes drawn from our E-Book we’ll give you a brief introduction to the topic of workplace wellbeing – how we got here, and where we went wrong.
In this episode our conversation with Ciprian Arhire and Bobbi Hartshorne packs a punch on the right wellbeing investments, hyper-personalization of the employee experience and wellbeing strategy best practices.
In this episode with teams specialist Andy Fieldhouse from The Team Space, and Bobbi Hartshorne, Co-founder and Chief Wellbeing Officer of WellWise, the discussion centres around challenges, impacts and benefits of strong teams. Bobbi details the importance of high wellbeing for strong functioning teams, whilst Andy illustrates the impact it has at every level of an organization.
In this extra sound bite from Episode 1, our guests take a deep-dive into the topic of psychological safety and its necessity for strong teams and healthy organizations. Both Andy and Bobbi give their take on the role of psychological safety, as well as how leaders and employees can master it.
The ability to speak up, give feedback and feel safe about offering criticism are crucial elements of good business; but what are we getting wrong and how can we incorporate these better into our organizations? Watch to find out.
In this episode our guest Ciprian Arhire powerfully illustrates the fundamental importance of having a wellbeing strategy, and aligning your corporate culture to the right values.
Hear about Ciprian’s role at CapGemini Invent and CIPD, as well as what he considers to be the core components of wellbeing strategies, while WellWise CWO Bobbi Hartshorne develops this topic by explaining why leaders are resistant to wellbeing investments, and what steps they can take to overcome this.