🎠 "My purpose statement comes from my favourite children's book, which is about a girl that wants to become a knight. But of course, because she's a girl, that's impossible. Only boys can become knights. So she dresses up as a boy. She goes to the king's court. She works many years to become, in the end, the first female knight and ultimately a legend. So my purpose statement is to be a knight. For me, this means staying true to yourself, serving a greater good, and enabling others to find their own true selves."

🚀 Exciting News!  

🎙️️️ We are so excited to announce the launch of the latest episode of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast, featuring the incredible Tina Steck, Global Head of Employee Wellbeing at Unilever!

Tina shares her inspiring journey and insights into the importance of well-being in the workplace. Since 2017, she has been dedicated to establishing well-being as a strategic priority at Unilever, impacting over 127,000 employees globally.

Highlights of our conversation:

✅ Improved Employee Perception: The percentage of employees who believe Unilever cares for their wellbeing increased from 62% in 2017 to 84% in 2023, showing significant progress in cultivating a culture of care.

✅ Leadership Support: Strong leadership backing is crucial for successful wellbeing initiatives. Without it, implementing such programs becomes extremely challenging.

✅ Driver of Engagement: Wellbeing has emerged as one of the top key drivers of employee engagement at Unilever, highlighting its importance in fostering a committed workforce.

✅ Retention Factor: Data shows that both excessive and insufficient work pressure can lead to employee turnover, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach to workload management.

✅ Work-Life Balance: Employees who regularly plan and allocate focused time for projects report significantly better work-life balance, indicating the importance of effective time management practices.

✅ Strategic Priority: In 2022, Unilever's executive team (ULE) made improving psychological safety one of their OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), demonstrating top-level commitment to employee wellbeing.

✅ Cultural Transformation: Unilever treats wellbeing as a culture change journey, recognising that it requires long-term commitment and systemic changes rather than just isolated programs.

Tune in into Episode 19 available along with all episodes on major podcast platforms (Spotify, Apple, YouTube) or directly on our website. Links in the comment below ⬇️

⁉️What are your highlights? We would love to hear from you! Please leave them in comments!

💙 Share this episode with someone who would love this today (smiley)

🙏 Thank you Tina for your collaboration!

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜? ... 𝙬𝙚'𝙫𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚, 𝙨𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠...
... Is it really true that the client expects me to be available 24 7 or is it my implicit expectation? Or is it the partner's expectation that the client will not accept that I'm off a certain time?"

After a long summer break, we’re excited to share the latest episode of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast!

🎧 Episode 18, Season 3 features Dr. Miriam Baumgärtner, former Head of Wellbeing and Sustainable People Performance at PWC Switzerland (note: which is an internal role, focusing on employees of the consulting company).

Key highlights:

🌍 Insights into how PwC's global "Be Well, Work Well" program has been supporting employee wellbeing.

✅ Expectation Management and Communication: clients need to understand that high-quality work doesn’t require being constantly available.

🕒 Shifting away from the idea that long hours equal value, promoting a healthier approach to performance.

💼 The need for companies to see wellbeing as a business priority, embedding it into daily operations.

🔍 Measuring impact is complex, but feedback and ongoing dialogue are key to driving cultural change.
 

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

Ready to sign up? Click here:  https://www.wellbeing.design/wellbeingleadershipmastery

The Wellbeing Leadership Mastery course is crafted to empower HR and business leaders who are ready to champion the creation of sustainable, human-centric organizations.  

This five-month program is divided into five comprehensive modules, each designed to provide you with the skills and knowledge to develop thorough wellbeing strategies, implement effective initiatives, and measure their impact within your organization. The course also includes a mini personal wellbeing journey to help you embody the practices you promote, ensuring you lead authentically and with integrity.

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

"I was going from one patient to the next in 15 minutes, and it was frustrating because it wasn't enough time to make a difference with my patients. ... I need to be where they are. They're spending almost 2000 hours a year at work. And I think I can have a bigger impact if I'm at the workplace. So that started my journey to Johns Hopkins Medicine." 

🎉 Excited to share the newest episode of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast featuring the insights of Dr. Richard Safeer, Chief Medical Director of Employee Health and Well-being at Johns Hopkins Medicine, hosted by Reka Deak, founder of Wellbeing Designers

Dr. Safeer shares his journey from being a family doctor to focusing on corporate health, driven by his desire to impact more people’s lives as they spend most of their time at work.

5 highlights from our conversation:

💡 Integrating Health into Company Culture: We discuss how to embed health and wellness into the core of corporate culture, making it an integral part of daily operations and organizational mission. Work is where people spend most of their time in their life.

🌿 Leadership's Role in Promoting Wellness: Effective leadership is crucial in advancing wellness programs. We get some insights on how leaders can exemplify healthy behaviors and support their teams' well-being.

🤝 Emotions Travel: Rich highlights how the emotional states of individuals can influence the entire workplace environment, underlining the importance of a supportive and positive work culture.

📚 The Soda Project: A symbolic innovative initiative aiming to reduce sugary drink consumption among employees by providing healthier alternatives, reflecting a practical approach to promoting health at work. At the end it is all about an organisational transformation!

📋 The Six Building Blocks of a Healthy Workplace Culture: Dr. Safeer outlines the essential components for fostering a culture of health in the workplace:

• Peer Support
• Leadership Engagement
• Norms
• Social Climate
• Culture Connection Points
• Shared Values

What are your highlights? We would love to hear from you! Please leave them in comments!

Share this episode with someone who would love this today :)

Dr. Richard Safeer, I am grateful for your insights and engagement in this conversation! Thank you! Looking forward to more collaboration in the future

 Join our open course, the Wellbeing Leadership Mastery. Click here to reserve your spot.

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

How many people at your company would answer YES to this question: "D𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝?"

At a recent survey Deutsche Bank 79 % 𝙤𝙛 employees said yes, 𝙄 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚.

Happy International Workers Day, 1 May to you with the newest show, Episode 16 of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast featuring the work of Nasrin Oskui, the Global Well-being Lead, Director at Deutsche Bank.

Nasrin has been in this role since October 2021 and doing some ground breaking work at the company with about 90k employees worldwide.

5 key takeaways of our conversation:

• Doing Wellbeing with people, not to people! Fostering collaboration and psychological safety is key.
• Wellbeing is not only about giving, it is about empowering. So people can take what they need. They take control of their wellbeing.
• Wellbeing at work is about "Healthy ways of working"
• Micro breaks during the day - easier said than done, even if we know all the science behind. How can employers support their people on this journey?
• Meeting culture is crucial to wellbeing: Dare to decline meetings!

What are your highlights? We would love to hear from you! Please leave them in comment!

Share this episode with someone who would love this today:)

Nasrin Oskui, I am grateful for your engagement in this conversation! Thank you! Looking forward to more collaboration in the future

Join our open course, the Wellbeing Leadership Mastery. Click here to reserve your spot.

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

💡"Reka, you have a podcast! Why don't we continue our conversation there?" - this is what they asked when we finished our panel discussion together with Shlomit Gruman- Navot Dallas FitzPatrick Adina Avram after the Horizon Summit The HR Congress in Amsterdam last November where we only had 30 mins to delve into the theme "Enhancing People Wellbeing Through Creating Inclusive Workplaces as Cornerstone of Psychological Safety."

⚡️And so many questions came from the audience! Now we answer all of them exclusively for you:)

🚀 Season 3 of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast kicking off with this special episode with 3 guests on the show! Wow! Wellbeing though the lenses of a CHRO at OLX and the DEI Director of Teleperformance and Head of DEI Trivium Packaging.

🎙️ If you want to know more about the work of these amazing HR leaders and their insights on the questions below, tune into Episode 15 of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast!

❓What responsibility do you see the companies have for the wellbeing of the employee vs the responsibility of the employee?

❓How DE&I can promote wellness at the workplace?

❓Many companies encourage psychological safety and wellbeing but speaking up or asking hard questions is still often career limiting. How do you deal with this?

❓How would you recommend to deal with people who do not see wellbeing being an issue (despite the data) or employees feeling DEI is forced on them?

❓How do we secure the wellbeing of the HR professionals themselves in the challenges they face of balancing the well-being initiatives vs the business pressure?

Join our open course, the Wellbeing Leadership Mastery. Click here to reserve your spot.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shlomit-gruman-navot-7236873/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dallasfitzpatrick/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adinaavram/

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

"Wellness is about going to the gym after you finish work. Wellbeing is about the things that you can do within the normal work day." 

Episode 14 of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast is out! Tune into the fascinating conversation between Dr. Steven MacGregor and Reka Deak. 

Steven has been on a wellbeing journey for over 20 years, from his time as a visiting researcher at Stanford through pioneering wellbeing teaching at some of the world's best business schools to help tens of thousands of leaders change their approach to a busy business life. 

The new version of his third book, The Daily Reset was just launched now in January 2024. He is also the host of the Chief Wellbeing Officer podcast and he published a book with the same title. Today Steven is an international speaker, a professor at the Glasgow School of Art and Advisor at McKinsey & Company.

Highlights of the conversation:
- How a PhD in engineering and design management has been inspiring his work in the wellbeing space since the very early days
- Why the role modelling of leaders is so critical to make wellbeing successful in an organisational context 
- Clearly defining and distinguishing wellbeing vs wellness
- Why he thinks that Wellbeing still has that opportunity, more than ever, to show its real worth and to show its business case
- How the future wellbeing leader is challenged: having humility, empathy while looking at the science and the numbers

Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3G6XFhZ
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3jh6Bsm
Or via our website: https://lnkd.in/epTRdTW5

What resonated with you? Share your highlights in the comments below! 💙

Don't forget to pass on the episode to someone who needs it today! 🙂

Join our open course, the Wellbeing Leadership Mastery. Click here to reserve your spot.

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

❗️"Focusing on not trying to fix people, rather creating the space where they can self serve and fix, because there is a deal of dual accountability." - The big day has come! Episode nr. 13 of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast has been out since yesterday! Our guest is one of LinkedIn's Top Voices in the topic of wellbeing: Ryan Hopkins on a mission to ENGAGE 1 BILLION people in the betterment of wellbeing. Hopefully I can contribute to this number though our podcast 😃

When we recorded the podcast Ryan was still at Deloitte UK, leading projects focusing on Wellbeing for their clients worldwide. Today he switched and took on a role as Chief Impact Officer at JAAQ.

He has an impressive story about his own well-being journey that he shares in a TEDx talk (link in comments) and he just published his book 52 Weeks of Wellbeing (link in comments). Most importantly though he is an authentic and fun human being 💯
 

Highlights of our conversation:

🤔 We were contemplating a bit about the fact how much you can learn resilience vs how much you have to go through your own sometimes painful experiences in order to understand that.

🟰The dilemma between attrition and engagement. Why lower attrition is not necessarily mean higher engagement and wellbeing.

⚖️ The upcoming trend of human sustainability and its implications.

✋ Why we need a reality check when ideating about wellbeing solutions: "I just want to put healthy hot food on the, on the table for my family."

💫 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3G6XFhZ

💫 Apple podcast: https://apple.co/3jh6Bsm

or via our website: https://lnkd.in/epTRdTW5

⁉️What are your highlights? We would love to hear from you! Please leave them in comments!

💙 Share this episode with someone who would love this today:)

Join our open course, the Wellbeing Leadership Mastery. Click here to reserve your spot.

Reach out to us if you have any questions or feedback:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanhopkinsuk/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rekadeak/

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

⛔ "Measurement and impact is really important. We can't be spending
millions and billions of dollars on developing wellbeing strategies that are just not having an impact."

🔇 Episode 12 of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast is out today! My guest is Chris Cummings Group CEO of the Wellbeing at Work World organising the Wellbeing at Work Summits worldwide since 2014! 

Chris and connected back in 2019 fist time. Many things happened in the meantime including covid so finally their event arrived in Zurich in May this year!
Chris is a wellbeing leader who creates international forums for organisations and leaders to exchange and co-create in the organisational wellbeing space. My highlights of our conversation:

⚡️The evolution of wellbeing in organisations from 2014 until today: starting with a siloed approach of expecting meditation apps and yoga classes to solve wellbeing in organisations towards a holistic approach, brining wellbeing into business processes

✨His favourite Wellbeing at Work Summit over the past 10 years

👏The best action that he has seen so far how organisations can take care of their employees

📐And of course the measurement piece... one of my favourite topics and one of the hottest topics in organisational wellbeing these days!

Thank you Chris for your engagement in this conversation! See you in Zurich at the summit in 2024 the latest 😀

Join our open course, the Wellbeing Leadership Mastery. Click here to reserve your spot.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-cummings-b204a525/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rekadeak/

www.wellbeing.design/podcast

🔇 Episode 11 of the Wellbeing Designers with Kacy Flaming, Head of Global Wellbeing at Takeda is out today! 

🎙️ To make you even more curious to tune in and listen to our conversation, let's do a small quiz! Guess which of the following is NOT true! 1 - 2 - 3 ?

Kacy...

1 - ... started her career as an actress before climbing the corporate ladder in pharmaceuticals as a strategic director and recently wellbeing leader

2 - ... considers the ways of working as the main problem to tackle in organisational wellbeing and in society

3 - ... is convinced that up-skilling individuals with wellbeing skills is the way to go because it's a quick fix

😎 To find out the right answer, you need to tune in;) 

My personal highlight of our conversation was:

✨ learning about the dimensions of wellbeing, an approach Takeda developed in collaboration with Thrive Global and Arianna Huffington

✋ hearing her way of taking care of her own wellbeing: setting boundaries! This is my mantra as well. And it is so difficult - we agreed on this!

🙋🏾 she is one of the first ones amongst the wellbeing leaders who I have been talking to, who proactively highlights gender health (including menopause, female health) at the workplace as one of the focus areas of their work

Join our open course, the Wellbeing Leadership Mastery. Click here to reserve your spot.

Reach out to us via LinkedIn 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasingact

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rekadeak/

www.wellbeing.design/podcast