In this episode of The Work Well Podcast, we are joined by Jen Arnold. Jen is the founder of Redesigning Wellness, a company and podcast that aims to improve traditional wellness programmes by supporting other companies' wellbeing through training, writing, and speaking.

Her podcast, Redesigning Wellness, was one of the first independent podcasts discussing workplace wellbeing and was a huge influence on the creation of this podcast. Jen is a TEDx speaker and storytelling fanatic who uses humor to keep people engaged episode after episode.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Jen and her family have embraced the digital nomad lifestyle by traveling around the US in an RV while also managing her business!

This time on The Work Well Podcast we’re delighted to have Breann McGarry with us to talk about her role at ICE Group and the development of the 4-day working week initiative.

Since 2011, Breann has been part of the HR team at ICE Group, the first company in Ireland to introduce the 4-day working week back in 2019. Now a little over two years into this initiative, we talked about the impact it has had on the company’s productivity and wellbeing.

In this episode of The Work Well Podcast, we’re speaking with Workplace Mental Health Programme expert Emily Pearson. Emily is the co-founder of Our Minds Work, a company that provides consultancy, training, and education to companies looking to create a mentally healthy work environment.

Emily has a lot to say about existing workplace mental health programmes. In this episode, she challenges our understanding of mental health in the workplace and takes a closer look at the training some organisations offer their employees in this area (including Mental Health First Aid) and outlines the safeguards that should accompany these types of training programmes.

Welcome to the first episode of Season 4 of The Work Well Podcast! Today we are very excited to have Jason van Schie, psychologist and podcaster, as our guest. Based in Perth, Western Australia, Jason has focused on developing technological solutions in an attempt to make psychological health, safety, and wellbeing accessible at scale and globally.

He is the founder of People Diagnostix, a health technology company that provides psychologically-based solutions internationally to improve health, wellbeing, productivity, and safety outcomes. Jason is also the co-host of one of Brian’s favorite podcasts on workplace wellbeing, the Psych Health and Safety Podcast.

Take a listen!

We're going international for this season of the podcast! 

That's right. For this season we have lined up thought leaders from Canada, UK, Australia, the US and of course closer to home, to tell us more about the health promotion landscape in their jurisdictions and what we can learn from them.

Not only that, but we'll be discussing more about hybrid working, the return to the workplace and the first standard on psychological health in the workplace, the ISO 45003. 

For this exciting fourth season I’m delighted to welcome AJ Products as our sponsor. They are paving the way in ergonomic and active workplace furniture solutions.

See you next Monday!

Today on The Work Well Podcast, we welcome Sharon O’Connor, Global Wellbeing Lead at Novartis. Sharon is an amazing example of an intentionally non-linear career path that has enabled her to work in different fields and industries, collecting insights on how wellbeing strategies work within each of these fields.

Sharon has worked in communications in the US, she was the Campaign Director for the 20x20 campaign, a movement promoting women and girls in sport, and she was in the first cohort of graduates from the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin.

Besides her job as wellbeing lead, Sharon is also a certificated yoga instructor, which compliments her interest in exercise and wellbeing in her personal and professional life.

In this episode, we have the Open Doors Initiative’s Director of Development, Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, Siobhan Sweeney with us to discuss DEI and DEI strategies in the workplace. Siobhan previously worked at AIB as Group Diversity and Inclusion Lead, developing strategies to further the DEI mindset and to break down biases, raise awareness and deliver support initiatives across the group.

Siobhan is an award-winning expert in DEI and her work at the Open Doors Initiative has allowed her to help over 90 companies from all sectors to implement strategies and policies to empower diverse teams to perform at their best, fulfilling companies’ statutory equality and diversity requirements.

Currently, Siobhan is undertaking an MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour/Psychology at DCU to complement her skills.

In today’s episode of The Work Well Podcast, we welcome recently promoted VP of International HRBP for LinkedIn, Lisa Finnegan. Lisa has worked at LinkedIn for 5 years and has over 17 years of experience in HR within the technology sector in Ireland. In this episode, Lisa shares her thoughts on remote work and wellbeing based on her own experience of working from home over the past year.

In addition to her role at LinkedIn, Lisa is also a wellness ambassador and a gym and fitness enthusiast, mom to a golden cockapoo named Bear and a self-proclaimed building project manager and interior design expert having recently renovated her home in the midst of a pandemic.

Those details will have to wait for another time. What we discuss in this episode is how to promote well-being in a large company such as LinkedIn in creative and applicable ways that can work for small and large teams.

Today on the show, we’re delighted to welcome back Brian Pennie. Listeners to the podcast and the Work Well Community members will be familiar with Brian’s story from 15 years of chronic heroin addiction to PhD at Trinity College. For more on that story, you can listen back to Episode 4 of Season 2. We asked Brian back today to speak about a specific area, alcohol, and our relationship with it. As always, Brian had some really powerful advice and real-life experiences to share. There’s so much value in this episode.

Mary works for Permanent TSB and is responsible for Engagement, Wellbeing and Diversity and Inclusion initiatives across the bank, supporting over 2,500 colleagues, who in turn look after 1 million customers. She has had a varied career over the years, from her first job at 12 in the local hardware shop to serving pilgrims in Lough Derg, working in bars, barbershops and Burger King. Once she finally settled down and found her ideal career path, she has worked for Grafton Recruitment, PricewaterhouseCoopers and now in Permanent TSB. In her personal life, Mary is married to Marc and mother to three kids under the age of six. In between juggling her family and working life, she likes to fit in some trips back home to Monaghan – something that has been limited over the past year, but she’s looking forward to getting back to – and eventually giving her elderly mum a long-overdue hug.