My war on OCD
Colin Minto is the co-founder of APeopleBusiness, an organisation set up to diagnose hidden, problematic workforce stress and equip leaders to invest in mental wellbeing effectively to increase productivity and brand value. Colin set up the business after ‘going public’ with his struggles with OCD – here he tells his story. My first attack, or […]
Why investing in employee health is good for business
It’s widely recognised that many long-term health problems – including a significant increase in the risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, certain cancers, depression and muscle and joint problems – are associated with sedentary work and lifestyles. Yet despite this, many employers still remain slow to make the connection between extended periods of sitting and […]
Does #ThrivingAtWork risk your employees’ mental health?
It was Dr Brock Chisholm, the first Director-General of the World Health Organization, who once famously stated that “without mental health, there is no health”. For years now, we have seen the rise in the popularity of yoga, mindfulness, clean eating, wellbeing, and a whole array of trends to help us live better, healthier and […]
How can organisations improve job quality?
There’s so much rich insight coming out of the academic sector that HR professionals need to know. At Academics’ Corner we feature the best HR researchers that tell you what they’ve found and what you need to do differently on the back of the research. Get connected to the academic sector through Academics’ Corner and […]
Employee mental health and wellbeing – are you doing enough?
With a recent national emphasis on mental health, UK employers have never had a better opportunity to start a conversation on this topic with their employees. And with 7 in 10 employees having experienced a condition that’s related to mental health – from stress to suicidal feelings – there couldn’t be a more important time to […]
Becoming a balanced leader – getting more yin for your yang
Debates about leadership often end up by contrasting different leadership styles, and inviting prospective leaders to detect which one suits them best and then build on it. Be true to yourself, the argument runs. There are numerous lists of styles to choose from: a recent piece in Forbes argued for four of them; Daniel Goleman […]
Anti-bullying week 2017: stopping the timer on workplace bullying
What constitutes workplace bullying? The most likely things that come to mind are threatening, abusive or patronising behaviours at work. Increasingly, these behaviours are reinforced by email or online work forums, and may even continue outside of work on social media sites. This all constitutes workplace bullying, but what is less spoken of is the workplace […]
Credit scores: how employers can help employees improve it
With all the big changes in the current political and economic climate, it’s fair to say that millions of employees are feeling a very large and painful financial pinch. In fact, in a survey of over 10,000 employees and 500 employers, 33% of employees said that financial worries are their biggest concern, after health (29%) […]
The debt stigma – how trainers can help
There is a stigma in UK workplaces that employers are rarely tackling, but must. It focuses on the vast levels of debt that millions of UK employees are carrying and which is shown, through mounting evidence, to have a debilitating impact on an employee’s wellbeing, their work and, as a consequence, a businesses’ overall productivity. […]
Are UK employees crying out for financial wellbeing training?
UK adults believe their financial situation will worsen, says new CIPD research. With economic factors driving down wages and raising living costs, just 15% of the population say they live comfortably. Financial pressures are always highlighted as particularly damaging to mental health, work-life balance, personal stability and identity and relationship health, all of which have […]
When culture kills the killer app
This article was co-authored by Helen Rosethorn, Partner, Practice Leader – Culture, Capability & Engagement, London, and Josh Feldmeth, Senior Partner, New York, at brand marketing consultancy Prophet. Every industry has been disrupted by a technology-enabled alternative promising faster delivery, lower costs, and delightfully better user experiences. In many sectors, these former disruptors now occupy […]
What does a mindful organisation look like?
Mindfulness may seem like a bit of a fad. There certainly appears to be a mindfulness bandwagon going on, with many more organisations and schools exploring mindful initiatives. So what’s the attraction? And what does mindfulness bring to the workplace? Is it worth the investment? Where mindfulness is no quick fix (it’s a practice, requiring […]
“For the human operating system, downtime is a feature, not a bug,” says Arianna Huffington
HRZone spoke to Arianna Huffington before her keynote at Unleash 2017 (formerly known as HR Tech World) in Amsterdam in October 2017. Arianna Huffington is not against transformative technologies but thinks people should set boundaries to retain their humanity. After all, we’ve done it before. Why can’t we do it again? “When electricity was invented, people […]
Why you might need a Chief Happiness Officer
Fostering employee happiness is fast moving up the HR agenda and is becoming a key focus for many organisations of all sizes and industries. Companies are increasingly coming to realise that happy employees make engaged, empowered and high performing employees. Ultimately, businesses in which staff wellbeing is not only taken seriously but is made a […]
How to speak up about sexual harassment
Following the hundreds of thousands of people that have joined the #MeToo movement, uncovering the magnitude of sexual harassment at work, what should you say or do if you encounter the problem? The first thing to bear in mind is that the sheer volume of people speaking out about the problem means that a new […]
Is there a ‘Harvey’ in your company? What are you going to do about it?
We have all, I’m sure, been shocked by the headlines and the details around the sexual harassment allegations made about Harvey Weinstein. Whilst I knew this kind of behaviour was not entirely a thing of the past it’s still hard to believe that so many people knew and said nothing or at least nothing effective. […]
Mindfulness in the workplace – taking a grassroots approach
One of the workplace wellbeing success stories of recent years has been the rise to prominence of mindfulness. A form of meditation that has moved well beyond its Buddhist origins, mindfulness is widely practised all over the world. Much more than a celebrity lifestyle fad, it has been embraced by bastions of the UK establishment. Oxford […]
The career pitfalls of opening up about mental health at work
In their latest thought leadership research report The Institute of Leadership & Management have discovered that some employees who ask for support with mental health problems face career-changing consequences – and not for the better. Mind Culture, 2017 found that 8% of respondents faced negative consequences, including being sacked or forced out, demoted or subjected […]
OCD Awareness week: challenging the stigma at work
Let’s celebrate OCD Awareness Week as OCD is such a brilliant disorder to have. It means you’re neat, clean and organised. Polish your desks, check your work for typos and stand in order of who loves the disorder the most to show we’re all “a little bit OCD”. It will be the quiet ones at […]
How does technology affect your emotional stability?
Picking up a copy of Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence is almost a requirement in the business world for educating yourself on the topic – but in terms of improving your emotional skills, does stepping back from the internet help or hinder your relationships (both online and off)? When we started our Digitox, such a thing couldn’t have been […]