Thank you to everyone who attended, and to our guest Saleem Shaffi – Founder and Chief Financial Wellness Office – Money Beam.

Our recent event on workplace wellbeing brought together industry professionals to discuss crucial issues impacting employees’ health and productivity. As businesses navigate the complexities of the current economic climate, our focus was on financial wellbeing, however, The #HRHour is all about our participants, so we invited topics from the group.

Key Discussion Points included:

• Financial wellbeing – How this is one of the key drivers of presenteeism and workplace stress
• How organisations can do more to help those going through the menopause
• Examples of organisations who are ‘getting it right’
• Some great resources were suggested (see links below)
• Our guest speaker, Saleem Shafi opened with the numbers “57, 11 and 13″….

A recent article in The Guardian, cites analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) which shows that the hidden cost of rising workplace sickness in the UK has increased to more than £100bn a year, largely caused by a loss of productivity amid “staggering” levels of presenteeism. The annual cost of staff sickness has grown from £73bn in 2018 to £103bn in 2023.

Saleem Shaffi of Money Beam states: “Financial wellness initiatives in the workplace lag significantly behind mental health wellbeing initiatives. CIPD report that of the organisations who have a wellbeing programme, 57% focus on mental health, while only 11% include financial wellness in their mix.​​” You can connect with Saleem on Linkedin, visit The Money Beam Website, or drop Saleem an email.

People Management: Workplace sickness costs businesses over £100bn a year, report finds

Office for National Statistics: Personal well-being in the UK: April 2022 to March 2023

Our attendees very kindly shared some links:

The Hub of hope, a mental health support network provided by Chasing the Stigma (“a great resource for support related to various wellbeing and mental health support groups, recommended during my Mental Health First Aid course.”)

Inclusive Employers – experts in workplace inclusion

Henpicked: Menopause In the Workplace (founded by Deborah Garlick)

menopauseintheworkplace.co.uk | henpicked.net

We’ve been using DiSC and The Five Behaviors programmes with big name clients for a long time.

It’s been a total game-changer when it comes to getting everyone on the same page and enjoying their work.

The way it works is it starts from the top down – the leadership team goes through it first, leading by example, and then it’s rolled out to the rest of the organisation. It really helps everyone understand each other’s behavioural and communication styles and how to work together more effectively.

We’ve seen it make a huge difference in avoiding workplace sickness and burnout; people are just way happier and more engaged when they know how to collaborate well.

We all want to go to work happy 😊