Who to Watch in Workplace Wellbeing in Ireland in 2022
2021 was another challenging year but there’s a lot to be positive about from a workplace wellbeing perspective. Many organisations are placing an increased focus on the wellbeing and mental health of their people. If you don’t have healthy people, you won’t have a healthy business.
I still see many “random acts of wellness” masquerading as wellness programmes in Irish workplaces but progress is being made. At Workplace Wellbeing Ireland, we continue to empower organisations to develop, manage and measure long term meaningful wellbeing programmes and the numbers of students graduating from our programmes at The Work Well Institute in 2021 gives us confidence that our future is in safe hands.
Some major milestones in the past year:
- The publication of the first global standard for psychological health and wellbeing in the workplace: ISO45003.
- The launch of the Healthy Workplace Framework. This was published in December and there is more to come on this in 2022.
- Government policy: ‘Code of Practice on Right to Disconnect’ and ‘The Right to Request Remote Work Bill’. We can expect a lot more discussion and focus on both of these areas this year.
- 60 workplace wellbeing leaders of the future graduating from our flagship 8 Steps to Embed a Culture of Health programme.
Workplace Wellbeing Ireland will continue to promote the importance of wellbeing in Irish workplaces but we can’t do it on our own. We’ve put together a list of people that we believe will have a significant role to play in shaping the future of workplace wellbeing in Ireland and further afield over the coming years. We’ve also gathered some of their thoughts and expectations on what we can expect in 2022.
THE 2022 LIST
BARBARA BRENNAN
Programme Leader for See Change; the National Stigma Reduction Partnership, Change Maker, Stigma Disruptor, Mental Health and Human Rights Advocate
An inspirational thought leader in her field, Barbara has over 12 years’ experience in changing the culture of mental health at all levels of society. A regular contributor to national mainstream and social media, Barbara is at home speaking to local community groups, CEOs or senior leaders in the public and corporate world. She has lectured at Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork, inspiring people to think differently about mental health and wellbeing.
Through the See Change workplace programme in the last two years we have seen a massive shift in both understanding, and application of, workplace wellbeing. More organisations than ever are talking about mental health and more importantly, are putting budgets behind those conversations to provide training and supports to their staff to enable them to have better mental health conversations. This pandemic has taught us how to allow ourselves to be more human at work; to bring our ‘whole selves’ to work, and to be more compassionate to those who are struggling. In understanding that supporting our employees to manage their mental health better, we are enabling our workforce to become responsive instead of reactive, and more resilient by having the tools and knowledge they need to succeed, even in difficult times.
Our goal in See Change for 2022 is to support organisations to start, or improve, their mental health literacy and create more open and dynamic workplaces. It’s time to make these changes ‘the norm’ and part of our every day, instead of being a reaction to a global pandemic. By creating safer spaces and better access to information and support, we are changing the way we will all engage with our own mental health in the future for the better, which can only have a positive knock-on effect in our workplaces.
Revisit our Work Well Webinar with Barbara through this link.
BRIAN PENNIE PHD
Author, Speaker, University Lecturer, Life-Change Strategist
On October 8 2013, Brian Pennie experienced his first day clean after 15 years of chronic heroin addiction. Since embracing his second chance at life, he has become a doctor of neuroscience and psychology, consultant to some of the world’s largest corporations, a neuroscience lecturer in Trinity College and University College Dublin, a life strategist, and author of his memoir, Bonus Time.
Balance and priorities are at the top of my list for 2022. In other words, recognising what’s important in both my personal and professional life…. and acting towards them in a healthy and balanced manner. Based on my experiences in the corporate arena this past year, I’ve found this to be a challenge for many people, so a core focus of my work in 2022 will be helping people to bring more balance into their lives.
Check out Brian’s self-paced online course How to Boost Energy, Increase Productivity and Eliminate Procrastination at The Work Well Institute.
DR. MALIE COYNE
Clinical Psychologist, Author, NUIG Adjunct Psychology Lecturer, ‘A Lust for Life’ Mental Health Advisory Panel, Course Creator at The Work Well Institute
With her considerable experience of working with children, families, and clients throughout the lifespan, Malie is fast becoming one of the leading voices in compassionate self-care in Ireland. Through her advocacy work, public speaking and print, radio and television contributions, Malie shines a light on mental health issues and promotes meaningful wellbeing. Malie lives in Galway with her husband and two little ladies. Malie is a best-selling author with her book ‘Love in, Love out: A compassionate approach to parenting your anxious child’ and she recently created an online course called ‘Compassionate Self-Care for Working Parents’ for the Work Well Institute.
As we enter yet another year of uncertainty with continued changes in our work practices, workplace wellbeing is more important now than ever. As a clinical psychologist and parent to two girls, I often find the demands of working and parenting a real juggle, one in which I have had to dig deep into my self-care toolbox to enable me to give to my job and my family life in a ‘good enough’ way. I understand the challenges of being a working parent, which can often shake our sense of balance and wellbeing.
For that reason, I was delighted to create the ‘Compassionate self-care for working parents’ course, where I share the science behind self-compassion in counter-balancing our threat-focused brains, as well as tried and tested psychological tools to help parents feel replenished and better able to give their ‘good enough’ selves to their working and parenting roles. Using a compassionate approach has been shown to lower stress, anxiety and low mood, while improving self-worth and resilience. My hope for 2022 is that I can help working parents to experience a more fulfilled work-life balance which truly aligns with their values.
Check out our recent conversation with Malie for The Work Well Podcast.
DONAL SCANLAN
Mental Health First Aid Ireland Manager
Donal has been the Manager at Mental Health First Aid Ireland for the last few years, joined Accenture last January in a support and advocacy role, has now returned to lead Mental Health First Aid Ireland into 2022. As a mental health professional for over 20 years, he works with MHFA Ireland (the only licenced provider of MHFA training in Ireland) and has been responsible for leading their training to over 12,000 people in workplaces and communities in Ireland. He also worked to provide the MHFA training to members of the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission in Brussels.
2021 has been challenging for us all and for me especially both professionally and personally. I am extremely excited to return to my Mental Health First Aid colleagues and the family of people I work alongside in the workplace wellness field. At MHFA Ireland we aim to create real and sustainable change in workplaces regarding mental health utilising our evidence based training. I aim to use my personal experience with mental health and my professional knowledge to contribute to the national discourse and help drive some real change. I want to do my part in growing the conversation about mental health and help reduce the stigma and help people help each other.
Donal was one of the very first guests on The Work Well Podcast. Listen back here.
RICHIE BUTLER
Head of Occupational Health and Wellbeing, John Sisk & Son
Richie’s role is focused on building a new occupational health and wellbeing function for the Sisk Group and setting the strategic objectives for the Sisk Group in terms of health promotion, health protection and health management.
Prior to joining Sisk in late 2019, Richie worked with Bord Gais Energy for five years, and was responsible for driving their health and wellbeing agenda. He spent a further five years working in a health and social care environment, and this sparked his passion for the topic of positive mental health.
I’m going to avoid talking about the “C” word. It’s there, it’s still a challenge and it’s not going away any time soon unfortunately. It has put a greater emphasis on further investment and resources to better support people through this period, along with an agile approach to health and wellbeing. As we face into 2022, I would like to see organisations focus in on the principles of health protection so that we develop more of a preventative mindset to health and wellbeing. This is as applicable to our emotional wellbeing as it is to our physical wellbeing. Three key words for me in the context of workplace wellbeing are; preventative, measurable, and effective.
Richie recently appeared on The Work Well Podcast and you can listen back to that conversation through this link.
PROFESSOR JENNIFER HYNES
Professor, Consultant and Researcher
Jennifer (Jenny) Hynes is a Professor of Organisation and Management at Berlin International University of Applied Sciences, a not-for-profit university in Berlin, Germany. In addition, Jenny supervises Masters students in the Graduate School of Healthcare Management at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Jenny has several years’ experience lecturing, guest speaking and supervising master’s students in the areas of Workplace Wellness, Human Resource Management, Organisational Behaviour and Economics in Trinity College Dublin’s Business School and the Marino Institute of Education. Her interests lie in the areas of employee wellbeing, sociology of work, sustainable working, and employee motivation.
The pandemic has exposed great inequalities in the working lives of citizens across the globe leading to events such as the “great resignation” in the USA. I would like to see organisations and governments tackle these issues head on in 2022 and build workplaces which truly reflect the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Two major issues for me will be 1) the provision of work conducive to a decent standard of sustainable living over the life course which is supported by worker protection to guarantee it and 2) the promotion of equality in organisations to ensure that all staff members have equal access to opportunities and job quality regardless of gender, parental status, age etc.
Make sure to check out Jennifer’s evidence based course at The Work Well Institute: Managing Stress at Work to Improve Wellbeing
CHRIS FLACK
UnPlug Co-Founder
Chris has over fifteen years in tech and organisational behaviour consulting. He set up UnPlug in 2015 with the vision to develop evidence-based programmes to empower people to manage their technology so they could improve their ability to switch off and disconnect. 2019–2021 has seen an increase in digital demands that none of us could have predicted, which has contributed to lower productivity, burnout and employee turnover.
Having been researching the space of what Chris calls “Digital Resilience” since 2014, Chris leads a team that can help us thrive in this new always-on world. An award-winning speaker with a personal research interest in task switching and workplace loneliness, Chris will, no doubt, have a very busy 2022.
I think 2022 is a pivotal role for HR and Work Design. We haven’t been through such a major change in how we work since the Industrial Revolution. We now have the opportunity to put effective Work Design into place to ensure positive Digital Habits through concepts such as communication charters and Digital Wellbeing education. UnPlug are also launching our new programme ‘Meaningful Connections in a Hyperconnected World’ in early 2022. I’m really excited about this as if I’m, to be honest, one of my main reasons for setting up UnPlug was to understand the impact of tech on my own loneliness, and I’ve now got six years of research; learnings and solutions to share.
Chris recently appeared on a Work Well Webinar discussing The Right to Disconnect
SINÉAD PROOS
Head of Health & Wellbeing, laya healthcare
At laya healthcare, Sinéad is the Head of Health and Wellbeing. She leads Ireland’s largest team of workplace clinical health and wellbeing experts who run targeted programs in thousands of companies in a wide variety of sectors spanning technology, financial services, pharmaceutical and manufacturing.
Collectively, we have had much to endure in the past two years. We have had to reshape our lives radically and find new ways of living and working. As leaders in this space, we made sure we were ahead of the curve when it came to wellbeing in a remote-first workplace, pivoting our services to digital and creating a series of insight-led reports based on our ongoing Brave New Era research.
We know from this research, which measures the wellbeing of over 1,000 Irish employees and 180 HR leaders, that employees are finding things tough and any feelgood factor that was there around remote working is dissipating. We also see that mental health is proving to be major issue and is at crunch point. A staggering 46% of referrals to our Occupational Health team in recent months have been mental health related, that’s a huge increase in demand and flags a crisis ahead. We’re investing heavily in new employer supports in this area, and it’s certainly time for decisive action by HR teams. We also continue to see significant turmoil in the jobs market as retention and recruitment become critical areas of focus to address “The Great Resignation”. While times are hard, it’s time to put health and wellbeing at the heart of organisational culture and employers and HR leaders have an unbounded opportunity now to reframe and reimagine how they enable wellbeing at work and in turn support recruitment and talent acquisition.
DR. MARK ROWE
Family Physician and Founder of Waterford Health Park
Dr. Mark Rowe has been a family physician for more than 25 years and is a thought leader in the areas of Positive Health and Lifestyle Medicine.
Notable engagements to date have included Smurfit Executive Leadership Program, the American House of Representatives, the Japanese and British Societies of Lifestyle Medicine, as well as a number of Fortune 500 companies. Mark has a TEDx talk titled ‘The Doctor of the Future: Prescribing Lifestyle as Medicine’ and has also developed an online wellbeing assessment tool called VitalityMark.com.
Marks’ passion for wellbeing has led to his being appointed an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the RCSI School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Mark is among the first medical professionals globally to be certified as a Diplomate of the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine.
Covid has been a great disruptor, with few individuals or workplaces unscathed. It has in many cases reimagined the idea of “workplace” with more people than ever working from home and/or hybrid models. With a tsunami of societal isolation, loneliness and mental health challenges, attention is refocusing on just how important health and wellbeing are. 2022 is the year when I believe people-centred values of wellbeing, (including authenticity, vulnerability aligned to resilience) will become even more central to workplace culture and strategy.
It has never been more important to expose your people to those authentic voices who can leverage the evidence base from science to give a holistic view, appreciating that every aspect of your wellbeing is interconnected. One of my ideas is this power of thinking small; small positive steps can make a real difference over time, for individuals and organisations, enabling you to become more of an active participant in your own wellbeing and live with more vitality, on purpose. Simply to never stop starting.
Listen back to our conversation with Dr. Rowe at the height of the pandemic on The Work Well Podcast and you can listen to Marks’ own podcast ‘In the Doctors Chair ’ wherever you get your podcasts.
ELBHA PURCELL
Director of Dietetics and Wellbeing, Aramark Northern Europe
Elbha has worked with Aramark since 2015, bringing over 19 years’ experience as a registered dietitian. Elbha holds memberships for the UK Health Professional Council; the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute; and CORU. As Director of Wellbeing for Northern Europe, Elbha and her team are responsible for the provision of dietetic support to all healthcare units across Ireland and the UK, along with the creation and delivery of health and wellness programmes across the region.
We start 2022 with the launch of our new health and wellbeing programme, Wellbeing In Focus (WIF), which aims to be holistic in its approach by cohesively linking together the three key pillars of wellbeing — nutrition, physical activity and mental health, and recognizing the combined impact they can have on helping each person achieve their everyday goals. No one pillar stands alone, and it is exactly this message that we aim to share with our customers, clients and employees.
We know wellbeing is so much more than just food, it is reflected in our behaviour, lifestyle choices, and self-care. WIF actively encourages our customers and employees to take wellness into their own hands through the provision of easily accessible health information and choices, all of which are relatable, digestible and achievable i.e. bringing together what we eat (and why), with the way we think and the way we move, to deliver energetic, wellness-focused content, awareness campaigns and food choices.
If you’d like to dive deeper from a nutrition perspective then take a look at the ‘Feeding Your Potential’ online programme that Elbha and her team have developed exclusively for The Work Well Institute.
DR. FIONA GEANEY
CEO & Co-Founder, Food Choice
Fiona has a PhD in Public Health Nutrition, holds an Adjunct Lectureship with the School of Public Health in UCC and is a Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition. At Food Choice, Fiona and her team design and implement nutrition programmes to improve employee health and wellbeing through its @home and @work services, which includes personalised nutrition consultations and research led nutrition guidance via webinars, workshops, articles and recipes. Fiona is also busy mom to Juliet and has her mother to thank for her love of food as she is a chef!
2021 has demonstrated the importance of looking after ourselves and each other. It has also shown us that workplace wellbeing is adaptive and can support employees in a meaningful way whether they work from home or in the office. For 2022, we (workplace wellbeing leaders and employers) must continue to ‘keep our ear to the ground’ to make sure that we understand our employees’ health concerns and use this information to develop comprehensive, evidence-based workplace wellbeing strategies that are regularly evaluated and updated.
Listen in to our podcast conversation with Clare Kelly of Food Choice.
FANIA STONEY
CEO and Co-Founder of Healthy Place to Work® Ireland
Fania has recently returned from maternity leave to take on the leadership role at Healthy Place to Work® Ireland. HPTW partners with organisations to help them build their health and wellbeing strategies, develop their Employee Value Propositions and Employer Brands, allow them to make data-driven decisions and certify those who excel in this space.
While a focus on health and wellbeing has always been important in the workplace, especially when it comes to sustaining high performance, there is no doubt that Covid-19 and its aftermath has had a strong and lasting impact. People’s expectations have shifted. In a pre-pandemic environment, an organisation might have got away with the occasional nod to wellbeing — a fruit basket here, a yoga session there. The pandemic experience has given people the chance to reflect on what is important to them particularly when it comes to their health in the workplace, and how their organisation is — or isn’t — supporting them in that.
Layer onto this all of the evidence around ‘The Great Resignation’, we are seeing that people are actively seeking out organisations who are clear on their health offering, able to articulate it, and live up to the promise. Any organisation can invest in a health and wellbeing strategy, the challenge lies in creating a sustainable, strategic and genuine wellness culture. Our role is to help organisations do exactly that.
Check out Fania’s appearance on Season 3 of The Work Well Podcast.
SOPHIE MORAN
KeepWell Mark Programme Manager
Sophie manages the KeepWell Mark programme in Ibec, which includes the KeepWell best practice framework and accreditation, flagship events like The KeepWell Summit, member wellbeing forums and webinars. She has been involved in delivering and promoting Ibec’s expanding workplace wellbeing initiatives since 2017, when she joined the team delivering the annual National Workplace Wellbeing Day Campaign. Sophie holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness from Trinity College Dublin and a BA in English with Drama (UCD).
This year has shown the momentum in the corporate wellbeing industry is not slowing down. We saw a 20% year-on-year increase in the support for wellbeing at senior leadership level in our annual corporate wellbeing barometer research, along with increases across many other key markers.
We had a really busy year accrediting companies with the KeepWell Mark and running our wellbeing forum too. The community that we’ve built with our members has been a great motivator this year to keep sharing, learning and exploring new ideas. I’m looking forward to another busy year in 2022 and evolving the KeepWell offering to meet the evolving needs of organisations looking to excel in workplace wellbeing.
DAVID CASEY
Wellness & Health Promotion Manager for Ireland and Europe, DeCare Dental
David is a Doctoral Candidate at Trinity College Dublin, researching health promotion, disease prevention, and management. He holds an M.A. in Health Promotion with specialist interest in mental health and workplace wellbeing from NUIG. David is also a Mental Health Ambassador with See Change, educating media, communities and workplaces on experiences with stigma and the positive promotion of mental health in Ireland.
I think 2022 will shine a spotlight that organisations need to do more for the duty of care of employees. Workplaces now need to look beyond interventions in the workplace that target basic modifiable health risk factors such as diet, physical activity sleep and expand wellbeing to look at the whole person. My own research looks at unravelling ‘Us’ as human beings and what makes us connect. It is evident that social connection is a key determinant to our health. Connection should be considered in the same category of risk factors such as smoking, diet, and exercise for example.
It is crucial to every business to understand for 2022 that connection underpins everything from productivity to overall health. Lack of connection, or loneliness and isolation has been linked to inflammation, accelerated aging and cardiovascular health risk, suicide, and early morality. Regardless of hybrid working, many adults spend more waking hours at work whether in an office or at home. This is more time spent than they do with their own families and this may have a significant and chronic influence on our health and well-being. Make 2022 a year of fostering connection. Companies in particular have the power to drive change at a societal level not only by strengthening connections among employees, partners, and clients but also by serving as an innovation hub that can inspire other organisations to address loneliness, isolation and lack of connection.
ELYSIA HEGARTY
Associate Director and Wellness Lead at Cpl’s Future of Work institute
With over 15 years’ experience in HR and the wellness industry, Elysia has combined her expertise to partner with businesses to help develop strategies to attract, engage and retain employees. Working within multiple sectors Elysia helps promote a healthy workforce that supports business needs and enhances productivity and engagement. She does this through diagnostic assessments, designing workplace wellness strategies, workshops and speaking engagements.
Elysia currently leads the Future of Wellness service offering within Cpl’s Future of Work Institute which provides enterprise level health, safety and wellness. She frequently contributes to papers, articles and podcasts on the topic of future wellness trends, diversity and inclusion, leadership and employee experience. During her time at Cpl she has developed a bespoke diagnostic tool, co-authored a number of whitepapers and lead key research into future trends and insights for employees and organisations alike.
I am looking forward to seeing wellbeing at work becoming a strategic enabler in all organisations in 2022. Emerging trends are predicting psychological safety being a key priority again and I believe this along with embedding a hybrid working model are going to bring both challenges and opportunities to organisations for 2022. It is a strategic imperative that both are considered for the future of work as we continue to embed new structures for both organisations and their employees.
WHO IS MISSING FROM OUR LIST? DO YOU HAVE A LIST FOR YOUR REGION? ADD A COMMENT AND LET US KNOW.
About the Author
Brian Crooke is a wellbeing educator, speaker and adviser, empowering Irish organisations to promote and sustain wellbeing within their workplaces.
He is the founder of The Work Well Institute and the Workplace Wellbeing Ireland community and is Course Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin. He is the host of The Work Well Podcast.
In his spare time, Brian is bringing free resistance training to every county and community in Ireland through his award winning parkHIIT social enterprise.
