In this episode of our Raising the Roof podcast, our host and CEO Nick Atkin is joined by wellbeing experts, Professor Cary Cooper and Marie Jenkins, to talk about workplace wellbeing and how to strategically change culture to retain the best people.
Born and raised in Hollywood, Professor Cary Cooper is a world-leading wellbeing expert and is Founding Director of Roberston Cooper, which helps organisations to deliver new wellbeing solutions. Culture was a top talking point in the conversation and Cary said it can have huge complications on your organisation, if it’s not a priority:
“My real worry in the future is for those organisations that don’t see the evidence that a wellbeing culture actually increases productivity and reduces stress related ill health and mental ill health. So, we have to change the culture of businesses.
“I think every organisation needs someone who’s responsible for wellbeing at work. But, if you’re going to change work culture, you have to have the metrics to measure how good you are, then you have to have a strategy and employee surveys to do that.”
It's something wellbeing coach Marie Jenkins feels passionately about too, but she thinks the most insightful way is addressing it more informally:
“Staff surveys are just one way of capturing colleague’s wellbeing, that’s a more formal way. But the most insightful way of doing this is those regular conversations at the water cooler. It’s all down to the culture of your organisation and having a better stream from the bottom to the top, from the top to the bottom and across the organisation.”
At Yorkshire Housing we work flexibly, and that looks different to each person and team. We really want to help our employees get the best work life balance they can. It’s essential to remember that you can’t just “switch off” from life when you turn your laptop on, and it’s something Marie touched upon in relation to the current climate:
“The cost-of-living crisis has huge implications on people’s wellbeing. The future focus should be looking more at what they offer in terms of their employment assistant programmes. Adding in financial support etc because doing that impact people’s wellbeing, massively.
“It’s also important to set boundaries for people’s wellbeing and to keep the dialog going in terms of how flexible working is going for them. Emotional intelligence is really important.”
That’s just a sneak peek into the conversation but there’s a lot more where that came from! We just want to finish by giving a big shoutout and thank you to our guests, Professor Cary Cooper, and Marie Jenkins, for joining us on Raising the Roof. You can listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, along with our previous episodes.
Our next episode is just around the corner and it’s all about regulation with another two brilliant guests. They share their thoughts on the social housing bill, how the sector has been performing and much more. You don’t want to miss this, so make sure you hit the follow button!