HR Tea

In our final episode, we put it all together. Now is your time to go practice well-being. Too often, well-being gets lost in our busy schedules, our deadlines, our strategies. If we want to truly offer well-being as a practice for our employees, it's time we start practicing it ourselves. Go give it a try!

In this episode, Scott Behson talks about his interviews with business leaders, CHROs, CEOs and small business owners (the topic of his book called The Whole Person Workplace). His key learning is that the best employers value their employees as whole people. Organizations that recognize, appreciate, and try to help employees rise to meet their life challenges, priorities, and passions outside of work also have employees who engage, who innovate, and who stay. He also talks about working dads' particular struggles and how HR can gear programs to meet dad’s needs.

In this episode, Joseph Starchia, a recruiter in the DEI space and Villanova HRD Alum, says we need to “make sure that we're not hiring people into burning buildings and then they're complaining about the smoke and the fire.” Organizations need to create inclusive and healthy work environments if they expect employees to be well and do well. DEI is ultimately intertwined with well-being because people can only fully contribute at work when their physical, mental, financial, and social needs are supported. When diverse voices are included in wellness program planning, only then will diverse needs get met.

In this episode, executive coach Kelly Meerbot talks about her work with top leaders who are often burned out. To help them regain a sense of well-being and purpose, executives have to be willing to become uncomfortable if they are going to truly benefit from coaching. Emotional intelligence training is often the key to helping them achieve the best version of themselves.

In this episode, Work-Family Researcher Ariane Ollier Malaterre discusses the ways that work technology can support or harm well-being. The bright side of technology offers connectedness, communication, efficiency and well-being when paired with proper digital regulation. The dark side comes with the electronic leash, unsustainable availability expectations, “bossware” AND anxiety, stress and burnout. This is what happens when boundaries blur between work and the rest of life. Dr. Ollier Malaterre believes that organizations can find common sense solutions that are also a win-win for both employees and organizations.

In this episode, we have a physician's perspective on well-being. Dr. Adam Gavsie describes well-being and health not just as the absence of disease but so much more. In fact, he says “what is it not?” Dr. Gavsie sees his mandate as helping patients “realize their own potential to cope with normal stress, be able to work productively, and to contribute to their community". Organizational research has also supported the link between employee well-being and productivity – when organizations support employees’ mental, physical and other types of health, they also support their ability to contribute to the organization.

In this episode, Villanova HRD Alum, Samantha Kahn, discusses founding Lighthaus Coaching as a way to help other achievement-oriented women move beyond defining themselves exclusively by their status at work and, by doing so, helping them create a life they love. When these leaders become more balanced, they also lead by example, showing employees what success and well-being can look like when prioritizing oneself as well as one’s work.

In this episode, Chief People Officer for Staples Stores, Sarah Goggin, advocates for kindness, understanding, and thoughtfulness as the primary way to help employees meet their well-being needs. Creating that culture of caring and flexibility takes effort and intention, but it is the path forward for supporting well-being for their mostly retail workforce.

In this episode, IO Psychologists and CoFounders of WorkrBeeing, Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer kick off the season by unpacking the word well-being. Well-being means different things to different people and it’s made up of many different parts, not just physical and mental health. Through their research, Grabarek and Sawyer have found that the best way for organizations to support employee well-being is by developing leaders and managers to better support the unique needs of each employee.

Welcome to Season 5 of HR Tea. This season of HR Tea will focus on topics related to well-being and how organizations can meet the varied needs of diverse employees. Guests will include researchers, HR leaders, DEI specialists. and even a physician. We hope you enjoy your listening this season!