The UK Psych Health and Safety Podcast

Workplace Wellbeing - with Kevin Daniels

Episode Summary

In this episode, Sheila Lord and Peter Kelly are talking to Kevin Daniels, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the University of East Anglia about how, as employers, we go about prioritising the business case for wellbeing. Kevin also tells us about a recent project he has been involved in Evolve Workplace Wellbeing which launched May 16th Kevin has a background in occupational psychology and is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Academy of Social Sciences and Royal Society of Arts. Kevin has led many projects funded by Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Health and Safety Executive amongst others. He has held or holds editorial positions at the scientific journals: European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Human Relations and British Journal of Management.

Episode Transcription

Workplace Well-being with Kevin Daniels

A significant number of businesses were affected due to the spread of Covid-19. This resulted in many organisations shutting down, and many others as we all know had to operate virtually, providing employees with the option to work from home. With a large dip in the economy, a vast number of workers suffered mentally and physically.

In this episode, we are joined by Kevin Daniels to discuss workplace wellbeing. Kevin also talks about his recent project that he's been working on, which is the Evolve workplace wellbeing website. This website is a toolkit of free evidence informed workplace well-being. Kevin concludes by offering business leaders some advice on how to approach well-being.

Kevin Daniels is a professor of organisational behavior at the University of East Anglia. 

His research is concerned with workplace practices for health and wellbeing. Kevin has led many projects that go back to the development of the HSE standards back in 2004. He has more recently worked on ISO45003. 

Kevin is also a member of the British Standards Institute for Health and Safety Committee and the British Psychological society's Division of Occupational psychology, health and wellbeing group, and also the Society for occupational medicine academic forum.

Key Highlights 

[03:20] Defining "workplace wellbeing"

[05:58] Designing work around people rather than around systems.

[13:34] The pandemic's hacking and merging of the HR and HS roles and how they are now separated into camps after the pandemic.

[21:31] Why you should address employee concerns

[24:16] the connection between psychological health and safety to performance in the workplace

[28:38] What the heck is the porridge campaign?

[35:50] Why health and well-being approaches need to be specific, focused, targeted and relevant v generic

[39:22] Well-being is not a money issue, it’s a time issue

[40:54] The use of Kaizen processes

[42:59] An underlying “Why”

[46:57] Kevin's key piece of advice for business leaders on how to approach well-being

Notable Quotes

Resources

Connect with Kevin Daniels

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-daniels-7b1557a6/