If I asked you the #1 source of stress in your lives, what would you say?
A recent article I read, says 83% of workers say they’re stressed about their jobs, nearly 50 percent say work-related stress is interfering with their sleep, and 60 percent use their smartphones to check in with work outside of normal working hours.
That’s why I brought on today’s guest, Brian Luke Seaward. Brian Luke Seaward is a renowned and respected international expert in the fields of stress management, mind-body-spirit healing and health promotion.
In this episode we discuss stress in the workplace, mindfulness, meditation, healthy boundaries and digital toxicity.
Towards the end, he talks about compassion fatigue of caregivers. So, if you’re in the caregiving industry, like nursing, nursing aids/assistants, etc. you’ll find some helpful tips.
A common statement you may hear from your employees about your wellness program is "but I didn't know". You may chock that up to the employee just making an excuse because you feel you've communicated clearly. Besides, you're sick of communicating the message so everyone must be aware, right?
In a survey by Prescient Digital Media, only 13% of employees reported participating in their intranet daily—31% said they never do. If you are using your intranet as your sole communication method, you are missing a large part of your employees. That's why it's so important to get your wellness communications right.
What's the point in investing your time and money on a wellness initiative if no one knows about it? That's why I'm spending another podcast on effective communications.
This episode features Wendy Haan. Wendy is a worksite health and wellness marketing professional with more than 20 years of communications experience.
Wendy oversees all of the content and inbound marketing for Hope Health, providing cutting-edge tips and information to wellness professionals and committees on the latest in wellness communication trends.
In this episode, we talk about:
Wendy walks us through the 8 Secrets to Effective Employee Communication and tells us the #1 thing you need to do to get employees to read your communications.
I hope we can all agree you need to make sure wellness programs are adequately communicated so how are strategic communications different? Strategic communications are one that educate, motivate, market and build trust. They are also designed to achieve well-defined objectives.
Think about the last wellness communication you put together. If it was a laundry list of what your employees had to do, then that’s not exactly a strategic communication.
Mark Dessauer is an expert in strategic communications and VP of Learning at Spitfire Strategies. Although Mark has always been in communications, he worked at Active Living by Design (ALBD) for over 10 years and offers his expertise around the built environment and culture.
In this episode, Mark and I discuss:
Mark answers the questions:
Finally, Mark gives us his tangible tip to effectively communicate their wellness initiative.
With all of the talk about the culture of organizations, I wanted to talk with someone who has experience in improving organizational culture and not just around wellness or well-being.
Today I talk to Michael Sabbag, President of Partners4Performance. His career has included HR leadership in many organizations as well as a consultant to help create great places to work.
Here’s a spoiler alert – Michael is offering my listeners a free 30-minute consultation all around culture. Details are at the end so I encourage you to hear what Michael has to say.
Today we talk about:
Michael defines culture as behaviors that drive the experiences in the workplace and walks us through the elements of workplace culture.
He tells us why being a workplace maverick may not be a good thing and gives good advice for what leaders can do to enhance the well-being of their team.
Finally, Michael gives his viewpoint of where wellness falls within most corporate strategies.
Today I talk with Lindsay Boccardo. Lindsay is a nationally recognized Millennial expert, working with young talent and the organizations who employ them.
You may be wondering…what do millennials have to do with wellness? First of all, If you are planning any worksite wellness initiatives, you need to consider what your employees want. Millennials already form 25% of the workforce in the US and by 2020, millennials will form 50% of the global workforce. So, it would make sense to learn about what will be the bulk of your future workforce.
Secondly, a big part of liking your job comes from good relationships with your co-workers and managers. If you don’t take the time to understand how the different generations like to work and receive feedback, then it will be harder to avoid relationship conflicts.
In this podcast Lindsay and I discuss:
Lindsay describes the conflict she sees in the workplace such as expectations on feedback, all life balance and freedom in how and where to do work.
She tells us what employers should consider when attracting and retaining millennials and why money isn't the answer for millennials.
Lindsay also tells us how she coaches millennials to change in their thinking.
Evin Cole is Director of Strategic Customer Engagement at Kaiser Permanente and is also a founding executive member of Wellness Underground.
In this episode, we talk about:
Evin has a great approach she calls "wellness by subtraction" built on the concept of making life easier for employees and not harder.
Finally, part of Evin's role is onsite clinics and she gives us the main reasons employers buy into them.
Al’s been a very vocal critic of the wellness industry and certain people in it.
In this episode, we discuss:
Al also names companies and vendors that are "doing" wellness right and how Al and WELCOA mended fences due to Ryan Picarella's leadership.
We talk Quizzify and why Al wants employees to cheat when using Quizzify.
Finally, we end on the future of worksite wellness and Al gives his tangible tips for employers when starting a wellness program.
Although I don’t always agree with Al’s tactics, he has some valid points to his criticism that’s worth a listen.