Stop Stressing Me Out

Why Cutting DEI Budgets Is Bad for Workplace Wellbeing with Janelle St Omer

It's the penultimate episode of this season on workplace wellbeing, so we wanted to talk about what's going on in real-time. Companies are cutting their DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) budgets left, right and center. We'll talk a little bit about why that's happening, but also why it's the biggest mistake an organization can make. DEI and your wellbeing in the workplace are intricately connected, which is why I wanted to have this conversation today with Sr DEI Consultant, Janelle St Omer. 

In this episode we talk about:

• the many ways DEI shows up at work that you may not even realize
• how it correlates positively or negatively to stress and retention
• why companies are cutting their DEI budgets
• why that is an EPIC mistake
• what individuals, teams and leaders can do about it
• what gives us hope 

Connect with Janelle on LinkedIn

Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn

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Organizational Readiness for Engagement with Denise Lloyd

Engagement surveys. Love them or hate them, they're an incredibly useful tool to understand where an organization is at, and where their people feel they need to go. They're also a useful tool to understand workplace wellbeing. But how do we use them to their maximum effect so they don't become something that organizations dread? 

We dive into this and more with Denise Lloyd, the Founder and CEO of Engaged, an award-winning, Victoria based human resource consulting firm that provides leading-edge HR services to organizations across Canada. Denise is a leader that brings new ideas and innovation to the way HR contributes to an organization and is known for transforming workplaces. Denise has over 25 years of HR leadership experience, has a Master of Arts in Leadership, and holds the prestigious designation of Fellow Chartered Human Resources Professional (FCPHR).

 

In this episode we talk about:

• the core differences between engagement, pulse and engagement surveys, when to do them and why
• the criticality of organizational readiness to seeing improvements to workplace engagement
• the key elements to effectively rolling out and communicating an engagement survey and its results
• how to diagnose stress and burnout using engagement surveys as a tool, and how to get to the root cause of a complex issue
• and much more!

Connect with Denise on LinkedIn

Find out more about Engaged and their course offerings

Managing the Stress of Job Hunting with Career Coach Darci Smith

Job hunting consistently ranks as one of the most stressful experiences. It triggers feelings around self-esteem, financial security, worth and purpose, all massively important areas of our lives. That's why this week I wanted to bring Career Coach and Financial Recruiter Darci Smith to the microphone. 

In this episode we talk about:

• current state of the job market
• tips to be successful in your job search
• the importance in finding clarity in your needs and fine-tuning your search
• how to keep your spirits up and maintain momentum
• job hunting myth-busting!
• navigating internal job moves
• and much more!

Follow Darci on Instagram

Connect with Darci on LinkedIn

Darci's Recruitment Firm - Roklyn

 

The Evidence Connecting Goodness and Wellbeing with Ryan Adams

We've talked a couple of times now about the connection between purpose, volunteerism and wellbeing... but where is the evidence? I'm all for evidence-based decision-making, so today on the podcast we're joined by Ryan Adams, the head of Strategic Partnerships at Benevity.

Benevity is a corporate purpose software that provides charitable donation-management, volunteer-management and grant-management solutions for corporations. It also happens to be my former workplace, and one of my favourite parts of the job was the data that was produced from the 1000+ clients and millions of participants. In March 2024, Benevity produced its most recent State of Corporate Volunteering Report and the data is fascinating, and for me, I couldn't help but see the connections between corporate purpose programs and an employee's wellbeing.

Ryan has a deep background in all things social impact, which we discuss in the podcast, and we also talk about:

• turning implicit understandings about volunteerism into explicit findings
• the push-pull between high participation and the quality of volunteer activities
• the fine line between being courageous and cautious in your social impact program
• the individual search for purpose in the workplace and how it ties to stress
• the connection (to be studied!) between psychological safety and acts of kindness in volunteer programs
• why hard economic times are NOT the time to pull back on corporate purpose programs
• and so much more!

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn

Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn

The Book: Stress Less in 90 Days: Your Guide to Beat Burnout, Build Resilience and Actually Enjoy Your Daily Life

 

 

Workplace Purpose Through Volunteerism with Jerome Tennille

Multiple studies have shown that most workplace wellness features don't actually make a difference to employee wellbeing. But there is one that has been proven to work at retaining people, giving them a sense of purpose and improving their wellbeing - employee volunteerism.

Today I am joined by social impact leader, Jerome Tennille, to talk about why employee volunteer programs make such a difference to our wellbeing, how to thoughtfully develop your own program, how we can better measure impact and much more. 

 

Check out our Less Stressed Leaders Training 

Follow Jerome on LinkedIn 

 

What Does HR Have to Do With Employee Stress with Michelle Berg

This week on the podcast I'm very excited to bring Michelle Berg to the mic. Michelle is the Chief Visionary Officer of Elevated HR, a fractional HR services firm that believe fiercely that work shouldn't suck. 

To continue our conversation on workplace wellbeing and organizational stress, I wanted to have a frank conversation about what is the role HR can and/or should play in supporting organizations to reduce stress and burnout. In this conversation we talk about:

• How the motto work shouldn't suck is their north star and what organizations should aim for
• Whether or not engagement surveys should exist
• Workplace trends regarding stress and burnout
• Tips for transitioning employees back to the office after stress leave (and tips for leaders to see early warning signs in the first place)
• Why HR may not be the team to teach leaders about psychological safety, and the role HR play vs department leads in building psychological safety
• Why more part-time professional roles don't exist and how we can get to a more flexible workplace

And much more! 

To check out the Less Stressed Leaders training go to impactfulengagement.com/training

 

 

The Dark Side of Corporate Values

If you work for a corporation, your company website likely has some values listed on it. We believe in x, y and z. You might even have your performance assessed against it. And corporate values can't be bad, right? 

In this short episode I dive into where corporate values can go wrong, and what you as a leader need to do to make sure your team are on the same page.

Less Stressed Teams training launches April 17th https://www.impactfulengagement.com/training 

Hub Spot Culture Code https://www.hubspot.com/culture-code/the-hubspot-culture-code 

The Power of Psychologically Safe Teams with Jen Singhal (Part 2)

We're back for Part 2 with Jen Singhal. Last week we dove into what it takes to move a team from low engagement to a highly engaged and high performing team. We talked tangible practices to build team morale and in this episode we dive even deeper into the practices to develop psychologically safe teams. It's far more than a buzzword, and we can talk psychological safety in theory for ages, but Jen breaks down tangible tools to put it into action. 

 

Check out Less Stressed Leaders training at impactfulengagement.com/training 

Follow Jen on LinkedIn

 

How to Build a Sustainble High Performance Team with Jen Singhal

There's a common misconception that certain industries or roles are simply high-stress and that's "the way it is and the way it's always been." I don't buy it.

Today we're joined by Jen Singhal, a leader who knows what it means to build a team's performance while sustaining (in fact measurably improving!) their wellbeing. She's proven both are possible, and in this episode she graciously breaks down what it took, the tools and practices, that got her team there. Her coaching leadership style is fascinating and you'll have so many takeaways that you can implement immediately. 

In part one of this episode we talk about:

• What Jen’s leadership career trajectory has looked like (10:15)
• How her background in sports impacts her leadership style  (15:43)
• The unique features of leadership and goal setting  as a result of team sports (18:29)
• How fun can and should be part of team dynamics (21:20)
• Balancing your teams limits (self-imposed or otherwise)   (22:20)
• The importance of safety given uncertain times (25:03)
• Building high performance while sustaining wellbeing  (27:02)
• Reducing barriers that were holding the team back  (30:04)
• The practice that changed the game for her team (33:03) 
• The rules of gratitude and celebration (36:30)
• The lived experience of psychological safety (41:00)
• Coaching through discomfort (45:30)
• Purpose in the workplace (47:40)

If you’d like to connect with Jen to learn more, find her on LinkedIn

 

Don’t miss our Less Stressed Leaders program on our spring training calendar at impactfulengagement.com/training

Building Meaningful Relationships Through Employee Resource Groups with Johann Shudlick

An intentional employee resource group (ERG) has the ability to not only build awareness, but to create systemic change in organizations, build allyship, improve belonging, engagement and psychological safety. And all of those things... decrease workplace stress!

This week on the podcast we're joined by Johann Shudlick from Golden, a volunteer software that helps organizations (and ERGs!) to grow their programs efficiently and effectively, to save costs so they can focus on the impactful work they are doing and to make compliance easy. 

In his time at Goldman Sachs, Johann took on a leadership role in the LGBTQ+ network and it was life-changing. In this episode he shares the one big thing that was a critical focus for their ERG. We also talk about:

• The career path that led him to employee resource groups (07:05)
• How ERGs boost your feeling of belonging (11:43) 
• Advice for ERGs shifting from awareness building to systemic org change (14:00) 
• How to achieve goals which operate in an intangible space (17:13) 
• Testing hypotheses and having an experimentation mindset (19:49)
• The impact that belonging can have within an organization (25:01)
• How your people surveys can indicate intersections between belonging and engagement (29:31)
• The culture of thoughtful disagreement (36:37)
• Getting in the reps when seeking to understand (42:04)
• How Johann ended up at Golden and what they’re up to (43:37)
• The value in intentional volunteerism for ERGs (48:47)
• Trends in volunteerism (51:06)

To check out Impactful Engagement's spring training go to impactfulengagement.com/training 

 

Resources

Golden https://www.goldenvolunteer.com/ 

Download the Golden App on Apple or Android

The Principles https://www.principles.com/