Redesigning Wellness Podcast

Kristen Gallagher, founder and CEO of Edify, shares how to create a successful employee onboarding experience. Edify is a learning strategy consultancy that solves people operations problems for growing companies.

Kristen elaborates on steps to take to comfort new hires as they enter a new job, company, and environment. Kristen also gives examples to set up new employees for success, resulting in a better workforce, more satisfied employee and employer, and cost savings.

Kristen and Jen also share past failures and successes that prove the importance of a quality employee onboarding program. Kristen then gives recommendations to wellness professionals on how they can create a more positive culture for new hires, even if they can’t restructure the entire onboarding process.

Don’t miss the important and impactful ways that employee onboarding can improve your organization.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Deb Smolensky, CEO and Co-Founder of the Mindful City Project and Michelle Spehr, Co-Founder and (self-proclaimed) Chief Framework Officer (CFO) share the vision of their initiative and why they felt compelled to start it.

Mindful City Project is a grassroots community movement uniting individuals, businesses and community leaders under the common tenets of mindfulness, emotional intelligence, compassion and generosity through a transformative framework and groundbreaking designation process.

Michelle, Deb and Jen chat about the personal and professional impacts of mindfulness, how to become a member Mindful City Project, and why it would benefit your city or organization to join. 

Listening to these three is like eavesdropping on a table of friends at dinner as they share book, Ted talk, and app recommendations. They also share some takeaways and advice for wellness professionals to lead their organizations forward.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Nancy Board, Co-Founder/COO of Global Women 4 Wellbeing paints a clear picture of a toxic workplace and the negative impacts it has on wellbeing. She also discusses the many feelings that a toxic culture can create in employees such as stress, sadness, and depression.

Nancy and Jen elaborate on the impact of the recent #MeToo movement and sexual harassment in the workplace. Nancy also gives sound advice on what to do if you or a co-worker are experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace.

Nancy and Jen discuss signs to look for when interviewing for a new job to gauge the company’s environment, coping strategies if you must stay in a job with a toxic culture, and tips to maintain and protect your mental health in toxic environments.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Dee Edington recently went on sabbatical to wrap his mind around all that’s going on in the wellness industry in hopes of creating some order from the chaos.

In this wide ranging discussion, we cover everything from incentives to how we leave the employee out of wellness. As usual, Dee has some zingers in here and calls out a few practices that are not helping us move the industry forward.

We start off by why he decided to take a sabbatical, how ROI is often misstated, the pervasive “program” problem, weight loss programs and why Dee thinks the answers are in the outliers. He uses a fantastic analogy where he compares wellness programming to breakfast cereal and I learn he tweets.

For show notes visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Julia Lee, Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, explains her research which seeks to help employees navigate modern workplace challenges. Lee’s work in Relational Self Affirmation and her Reflective Best Self exercise help participants learn about themselves when at their best.

Julia and Jen also discuss the impact of distress, both how it shows up at the workplace and how it is perceived by others. Julia also shares how reframing distress can lead to positive outcomes on competence, promotability, and ability to maintain self-control.

Finally the pair dive into the impact of commuting to and from work. Listen in to understand how Julia Lee’s research can have a positive impact on your organization.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Yale professor Amy Wrzesniewski’s research on job crafting and finding the meaning of work has been published in a wide range of top academic journals and highlighted in several popular press outlets, including Time, Harvard Business Review, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, and The Economist, as well as bestselling books such as Give and Take by Adam Grant, Drive by Daniel Pink, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman, and The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler.

In this episode, Amy joins Jen to elaborate on her research and how employees shape their tasks, interactions, and relationships with others in the workforce to change the meaning of their job. Amy defines job crafting and its three components; task, relational, and cognitive and sharing how job crafting is already being done, even if it’s forbidden.

Listen in as the pair discuss job crafting’s effects on performance, the limits to job crafting, and how wellness professionals can use this opportunity to redefine what wellness is or could be in their organization.

Pharos Systems, a company founded in New Zealand, infused the unique culture into its workplace, resulting in a company rich in the spirit of acceptance, being open, and truly focusing on the engagement and joy of the worker.

Susy Bordin, who launched the corporate wellness initiative in 2015, shares her approach to creating a culture of wellness that upholds the founders’ philosophy.

Susy and Jen discuss how Pharos Systems’ wellness initiative is outside of, but still in collaboration with Human Resources and its use of incentives. She tells how her experience with the Search Inside Yourself, Google Training led her to co-create a 10-week program to share with Pharos employees.

Susy elaborates on ideas for outside the box Lunch and Learns, building wellness in a way that matters to employees, and how trying new things is important, even if they aren’t a mega-success.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Carrie Grace is on a mission to inspire others to spread joy and kindness, in hopes of people making the world a better place than they found it. She shares how her loving childhood experiences and volunteer work led to a lifestyle in which she always chooses love. Spreading joy and kindness even led her to throwing a birthday party on an airplane flight, 300 goodie bags included.

Tune in to hear Carrie explain that concept that people are walking around with invisible pain and encourages us to be someone’s kitchen table story.

Jen and Carrie also discuss how the fear of rejection can be a barrier to acts of kindness and ways to spread kindness at the workplace. Carrie currently travels the country inspiring others and has been featured in USA Today, Huffington Post, and His Radio.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Today’s guest, David Anderson, co-founded StayWell in 1989 and was its chief health officer until the end of 2016. Although he’s moved out of the day to day at Staywell, he still consults with the company to help them build an authentic culture. He recently made a bold statement about what we as a wellness industry need to do to up our game.     

Listen in to hear David share a personal medical crisis he experienced, what he’s doing now that he is out of the day to day at Staywell and we get in depth in culture talk.

David defines an authentic culture, how a magical culture was built rather informally at Staywell (in the early years) and we talk about that strong call to action he gave to the wellness industry. Finally, David leaves us with his tangible tip on how wellness professionals can influence organizational culture.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/

Adam Schorr works to help people and companies tap into who they are, discover what signals they are sending to employees, and how to align employees with the company’s purpose. He shares how over time companies can become undesigned and some steps to take to get back on track with the desired purpose.

Adam and Jen also dive into how culture can move you closer to or further away from your company’s purpose and how health and well-being needs to be wired into the organization.

Tune in to hear Adam outline why wellness initiatives don’t last long-term and offer strategies to create a system/culture that naturally reinforces the desired behaviors.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit https://redesigningwellness.com/

To join the Redesigning Wellness Community, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/rdwellnesscommunity/