Wellbeing Designers Newsletter
Designing a wellbeing culture via Strategic Wellbeing Education for Human-Centric Organisations and Leaders
Hi Wellbeing Designers,
Yeah, we have the first edition of the Wellbeing Designers Newsletter out! Thank you for being curious and reading this:)
We promised to share:
- openly how we build Wellbeing Designers step by step around our mission to change the world of work, to design a culture of wellbeing in organisations for a human-centric work-life
- about our work as we are engaging with more and more organisations on their strategic wellbeing journeys
- about insights on the top trends what we see on the market related to strategic wellbeing, future of work-life, AI vs human, human-centric leadership, future skills.
First I would like to share a personal note: What would you think if I told you that I started to write this newsletter in 2020? This almost empty draft newsletter was in my newsletter app with that date, true story. I shared about this on a couple of occasions, how the idea of Wellbeing Designers was initially born in 2019 and how it had to put on hold due to some life events until now. It wasn't easy to let it go in the meantime during covid and as a new mother, I definitely had some FOMO. Today I could not be happier though as I feel the world got more ready for Wellbeing Designers and so did I.
I am very excited to share with you the content of this newsletter and an edition per month going forward.
Shortly after we launch this first newsletter, I will go on a vacation for 2 weeks. We should integrate wellbeing into our everyday life, not only keep it for holidays. However, holidays are always a good time to reflect more on what is good for our wellbeing. I experienced both worlds, going on holidays while being employed thinking about all the hundreds of emails waiting for me when I return, and now having my own business. I would not say it is easier to really take time off and disconnect in one or the other set up. We require in both cases lots of self-awareness to make the best and most relaxation out of it.
In future newsletters you will also hear from other Wellbeing Designers who will contribute through their writing and expertise. Enjoy this edition and please reach out to share your feedback and ideas for the future!
Wishing you a fun and energizing summer,
Reka
Founder of Wellbeing Designers
The Podcast - Wellbeing Designers
We finished Season 1 of the Wellbeing Designers Podcast! Yeah. And Season 2 is already on the way starting end of summer with some exciting new guests, all booked already!
Between January and June 2023 we had 8 Episodes and 9 guests on the podcast. These wellbeing leaders were sharing about their work as wellbeing leaders having worked for big multinational organisations like Swiss Re, Novartis, John Lewis Partnership, The Adecco Group, Philip Morris International, Google, Ingka Group. We finished on a high by having the famous HR thought leader, Josh Bersin on our last episode.
It has been interesting to see how various career paths can lead to the same role and mission, working as a wellbeing leader to create a better work-life and environment for employees around the world.
There are tremendous insights that we gained through these conversations. Here we share 3 of our favourite ones that might be even more relevant during summer break:
1. "It is okay to take a break" - by Eva Haussmann. Leaders need to role model this behaviour as many of us needs to unlearn the old behaviours which is worshipping the 24/7 work culture even during holidays. This is a very timely one especially now during summer break.
2. Wellbeing needs to be built into each business process, we should not just create wellbeing initiatives in silos and expect people to add it to their long to do list.
3. One of the main themes in organisational wellbeing is workload as well as time. We need to give back time to people by managing their workload. Here we get back to the previous 2 points, as we need leaders to create more clear exactions and role model how they can handle their workload and time in a sustainable way.
Listen to all Episodes
We are happy to share that building on the success of the podcast Wellbeing Designers is expanding their team and portfolio of products and services. We will share more about it next month. In the meantime, check out our website to get a taste of these news.
Insights into our work
Wellbeing at Work Summit 2023, Zürich, Switzerland
In May we had the chance to participate at the Wellbeing at Work Summit in Zurich, Switzerland. Congratulations again for the organisers, Chris Cummins and his team to bring this event finally to Switzerland after organising it successfully at various locations around the world in the past years.
We enjoyed listening to all the speakers and panelists. It was interesting to see that only a little number of the speakers or panelists had a title that included "wellbeing". Many of them were working as a culture and people or DEI leader and expert. This shows that positions dedicated to wellbeing are still not so wide spread at this part of the world. More to come though!
Reka as the Founder of Wellbeing Designers was leading a live panel discussion about Building and Creating a Wellbeing Strategy in Large Organisations having Eva Haussmann, Dr. Katja Raithel and Julie Bodenmann on stage who shared the story of three global organisations SwissRe, Zurich Insurance and Credit Suisse being amongst the very few first ones in this region to create a wellbeing strategy and embark on the journey of strategic wellbeing.
We will share soon a more comprehensive summary about this event on our blog, stay tuned!
Wellbeing Designers Experience for the MBA class of St Gallen
We got invited to give a hands on wellbeing experience for the class of Executive MBA HSG - University of St.Gallen during their Corporate Athlete Bootcamp. Reka delivered a very special morning yoga - mindful movement and breathing experience for the group followed by an exchange about her insights on organisational wellbeing and the real life experience of the MBA students. This was a beautiful example how to connect individual wellbeing with organisational wellbeing. Experiencing an individual wellbeing tool followed by an exchange on the systemic aspects.
Business Fest 2023, Budapest, Hungary
In June we were invited to attend the Business Fest in Hungary that had more than 5thousand visitors that day! The atmosphere was super cool and the event was full of interesting content and speakers.
Reka was joined by a previous podcast guest, Jake Sanders (Episode 5) and they created a live podcast conversation about Why and How Strategic Wellbeing is a Priority to Design People-Centric Organisations.
The audience was very interested and curious. Wellbeing is also a new and hot topic in Hungarian organisations. We have a collaboration partner in Hungary, dr. Anna Toldy and her company Work for Humans so we are looking forward to co-creating wellbeing success stories in organisations in the future!
Wellbeing insights around the world
"Companies with greater profitability and higher stock market performance tend to have staff who report greater happiness, purpose and job satisfaction as well as lower stress...
... investing $1,000 in companies with higher staff wellbeing scores in January 2021 would have generated a return of about $1,300 by the start of March 2023, compared with a return of roughly $1,100 from the S&P 500 stock index."
This is based on a study conducted by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and George Ward at the University of Oxford, Wellbeing Research Centre and Micah Kaats Harvard University. Enjoy reading!
What else do organisations need to put wellbeing on their strategic agenda?
Read the article on the ft.com