Hi Wellbeing Designers,

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2024. I thought that switching to a bi-monthly edition would give me more space to write but I have to admit, I am again writing this piece very last minute 29 Feb.

These first two months of the year were incredible!

🎉 Besides celebrating my 40th birthday, what keeps me energised is that I got the chance to connect with people across cultures and geographies to exchange and work together on the mission of employee wellbeing. I connected with people from the Middle East during my trip in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as well as with people form Latin and North America, Asia, Europe through some client work. It is impressive to see how the focus of wellbeing is getting wider. Meaning that the role of leadership style and (toxic) culture is very much recognised by everyone.

🙏 Many people thanked me for being an advocate of this topic. Still, we needed more data, they said. It is not easy to get executive leadership invest into the topic. I hear you! Luckily today there is much more data out there than in 2019 when I first started this work. Some of the studies e.g. by the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre or by The Josh Bersin Company provide great quantitative proof how investing into employee wellbeing correlates with business success. More will come, I plan to work on some research myself as well this year.

🤔 Last but not least I would like to reflect on a study by dr. William Fleming that went viral in the wellbeing community since it was published in January this year (link to the NYT article below in the Insights section). According to the study wellbeing programs don't have much positive impact, we need to focus on the "working practices" thought. I fully agree that we need to focus on that. However, I still think we need those wellbeing programs as well. My 3 advice:

1. Less is sometimes more: We should not overwhelm employees with too many wellbeing offerings. Behavioural science proves that we can get frozen if we have too much choice and we then rather don't do anything.

2. Quality of wellbeing offerings: the right programs, workshops can teach wellbeing skills for people that can support them to improve their ways of working.

3. Connecting the dots: support employees consciously and in a holistic way how they can use the wellbeing tools, practices in a way that makes their work-life better.

What are your thoughts? I am curious to hear... as always:)

Wishing you a good day,

Reka

Founder of Wellbeing Designers