There’s been some really positive progress in the health promotion landscape in Irish workplaces in recent years. Wellbeing leader roles are emerging within organisations as companies slowly begin to develop longer term wellness programmes as opposed to random acts of wellness and two healthy workplace accreditations are now up and running (with a third on the way) that support a more strategic approach to workplace wellbeing.

Education is catching up too. The “Postgraduate Certificate in Health Promotion: Workplace Wellness” at NUIG is now well established and this very month, Trinity College Dublin welcomed the first cohort of students on the “Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness” hosted at Tangent, the University’s ideas workspace located at the brand new Trinity Business School.

There’s still a considerable way to go if we want to catch up with our international counterparts, particularly in the US, but there’s no doubt we are on the right path.

2020 will be an important year for health promotion in Irish workplaces.  I’d love to see Ireland lead the way and develop a world class ecosystem for workplace health promotion and I don’t see why we can’t. I’m doing my bit through the Workplace Wellbeing Ireland community which is going from strength to strength with a very exciting nationwide schedule of events planned this year.

I can’t do it on my own though! I’ve put together a list of individuals that I’ve been fortunate enough to meet through the course of my work that I believe will have a significant role to play in shaping the future of workplace wellness in Ireland over the coming years. I’ve also managed to gather some of their thoughts and expectations on what we can expect to see in the industry in 2020.

Enjoy!

The 2020 List

Barbara Brennan

Programme Coordinator for See Change; the National Stigma Reduction Partnership

Barbara has been promoting mental health awareness and stigma reduction for a decade. She is a public speaker, facilitator and trainer who has a passion to support people, communities and workplaces to challenge their attitudes, and change their culture for a more positive, inclusive and open one.

Through her work with See Change she helps give a voice to people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, brings thought provoking sessions on mental health to workplaces and sparks a national conversation on reducing stigma. Her desire to bring a message of hope and share the knowledge that people who have struggled with their mental health can and DO recover is at the heart of her work, and comes from her own lived experience of overcoming severe and enduring mental illness. 

Barbara believes strongly in personal responsibility, empowering people to achieve their potential, and that by working together a society free of stigma can be created.

“Over the last number of years, we have seen a huge shift in awareness of mental health. We have moved towards diversity and inclusion, more open culture and a wellness driven approach. Workplaces are looking to more measurement orientated, trackable, and long-term programmes and solutions – this is imperative if real and lasting change is to be made.  I am so grateful to work in this area and witness how society has changed in the last 10 years. There has been an explosion of awareness and action around mental health particularly in the last 2 years.

While great work has been done so far, there is still a lot to do in ensuring that measures are put in place to keep mental health and wellness our priority and main focus. I’m both excited and hopeful to see what 2020 will bring us “

Dr Fiona Geaney

CEO & Founder, Food Choice

Dr. Geaney developed Food Choice following her PhD at UCC. As a workplace health advocate, Dr. Geaney is passionate about finding sustainable methods in workplace environments to improve peoples’ dietary behaviours to improve health and reduce risk of diet-related disease. Fiona has published 20 peer-reviewed scientific articles to date, disseminating her findings at many national and international academic conferences and acquiring significant research funding. She also holds an Adjunct Lectureship with the School of Public Health in UCC.

Food Choice is an evidence based, sustainable healthy eating management system for employees that offers employers a significant return on investment through health and diet improvements and reduced levels of obesity and absenteeism. With an experienced team of nutritionists, dieticians and public health researchers, Food Choice creates supportive healthy eating environments that facilitate healthy food choices and empowers employees through knowledge and nutrition education. Food Choice have developed an innovative nutritional analysis software platform and employee smartphone app that have facilitated expansion into international markets. A spin-out from UCC, Food Choice has a strong client list across Ireland and UK, which includes Microsoft, Credit Suisse and Nestle.

“It is important that we continue to build the evidence base for workplace wellness in Ireland. Diet related disease is considered to be one of the three greatest risks to employees and employers recognise that that there is a need to support the mitigation of this risk through research-based nutritional health initiatives. Furthermore, within a data driven society, there is a growing thirst for more information among consumers about the food they are eating. For 2020, Food Choice will continue to be dedicated to producing more research that will protect and promote the nutritional health and wellbeing of employees and that of their friends and families. Our research findings will inform and guide further digital improvements within the Food Choice programme.”

Dr. Sarah-Jane Cullinane

Assistant Professor in Trinity Business School and Director of 'The Place to Be'

Dr. Cullinane works in the Trinity Business School with 10 years’ experience in teaching and researching the areas of HR, Organisational Behaviour, and Well-being at Work. IShe has a PhD in Organisational Behaviour focusing on well-being and job design, and a diploma in teaching Mindfulness-Based Interventions. She brought her passions together and established her own business, The Place to Be, in 2018 to complement her academic work by helping organisations build a culture which fosters and promotes well-being. Sarah-Jane believes that leaders drive well-being in the organisation and act as role models for healthy behaviour, which is why most of her current work involves developing and researching mindfulness-based leadership development programmes which give leaders the opportunity to build resilience by developing self-insight and strategies for self-care. 

“For 2020 I’m looking forward to the first delivery of the new Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness with TCD's Tangent that I developed with Brian Crooke, to continue embedding well-being in our business studies curricula in Trinity and in leadership development programmes in organisations, and working on complementary approaches to workplace wellness and organisational sustainability given that climate change will be the greatest public health challenge to face us in the coming decades.” 

Sophie Moran

KeepWell Mark Programme Manager

Sophie manages the KeepWell Mark Programme in Ibec, which includes the KeepWell best practice framework, flagship events like The KeepWell Summit, best practice events and webinars.

“Workplace Wellbeing is so important for the future of work and for businesses to build a sustainable workforce that will stand the test of time (and competition for talent), they need to do the groundwork and invest in them now”.

Sophie has been involved in delivering and promoting workplace wellbeing initiatives since 2017 when she joined the team delivering Ibec’s highly successful National Workplace Wellbeing Day Campaign.

“The market is very exciting for workplace wellbeing, and I see a lot of opportunities for partnerships and knowledge sharing amongst wellbeing providers to deliver the best results for the companies we work with. It's important to change and move with the times, so I’m excited to spend time this year doing some deeper listening and finding out what the gaps are to inform the next phase for KeepWell within the corporate wellbeing space in Ireland and globally.”

Sophie holds a BA in English with Drama (UCD), a qualification in Writing for Digital (Irish Times Training) and has recently completed a certification in Developing a Workplace Wellbeing Programme that Lasts (Workplace Wellbeing Ireland).

Donal Scanlan

Mental Health First Aid Ireland Manager

Donal is the driving force behind Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Ireland.  He has been Manager at MHFA Ireland for the last 5 years and has been working as a mental health professional for 20 years.  MHFA Ireland has the exclusive rights to deliver this training to workplaces and communities all over Ireland and is one of 28 countries around the world licenced to deliver this Internationally evidenced based material. 

“What a year 2019 has been for my work with Mental Health First Aid Ireland.  We have grown our numbers trained in Ireland to over 7000.  We aim to bring that to over 10,000 in 2020.  We aim to create real sustainable change in workplaces regarding mental health through our training, awareness sessions and instructor training.  I look forward to introducing MHFA Ireland to many more Irish organisations in 2020”

Elbha Purcell

Head of Dietetics & Wellness, Aramark Northern Europe

Elbha Purcell joined Aramark in 2015, bringing with her over 17 years’ experience as a registered dietitian. Elbha holds memberships for the UK Health Professional Council; British Dietetic Association; the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute; and CORU.

“Coming from a clinical environment, I decided to move to the role of Head of Dietetics and Wellness in Aramark with a healthy balance of excitement and nerves; as a clinical dietitian, it represented something very different for me. But the fact that such a role even existed really highlighted to me how the workplace is evolving for the better. I was so excited to bring my technical skillset to such a different role – and I haven’t been disappointed.

At Aramark, I am responsible for the provision of dietetic support to 25 healthcare units across Ireland and the UK. Alongside a wonderful team, I have also had the opportunity to develop and grow a health and wellness programme for Aramark Northern Europe, called Healthy for Life (HFL).

The key objective of HFL is to positively impact the health and wellbeing of Aramark’s customers, clients and communities. HFL is constantly evolving, and in 2020 we will be very focused on expanding the reach of one of the most important pillars of the programme: TAKE15, our mental health awareness initiative. 

I am incredibly heartened to watch the evolution of the role of dietetics and healthcare professionals in the modern workplace. For me, it is so indicative of the positive workplace we are building.”

Fania Stoney

Healthy Place to Work

Fania is an executive with Healthy Place to Work, brought to us by the people behind Great Place to Work. Fania works closely with organisations to guide them through the Healthy Place process and helps them understand their current investment, so they can move away from a tick-box style offering (woohoo!) towards implementing a wide-ranging and evidence-based health strategy.

Fania believes that “the future of work, the role of AI, and the nature of flexible working will continue to be a central part of the work narrative in 2020. The simple fact that the Department of Justice and Equality is currently conducting a public consultation to inform the development of a national flexible working policy underpins this. From a healthy workplace perspective, it is excellent to see flexible working being put on the national agenda. However, it is important that this does not become the only conduit for creating a healthy and high performing workplace culture. Having a holistic, data driven, strategic and collaborative approach to health in your organisation is key to sustained success.” 

David Casey

Wellness and Health Promotion Manager at DeCare Dental

David works for DeCare Dental as a dental professional and health promotion manager for Ireland and Europe. He is a RDN and holds a national certificate in biology and a specialist in oral health with health promotion. He has just finished his M.A. in Health Promotion with specialist interest in mental health and workplace wellbeing at the school of Medicine, Nursing and Health Science at NUI Galway.

Over the last 6 years David has been designing, building and implementing wellness and education programs for over 500 companies, organisations and healthcare settings across Ireland and the UK. He writes the health section of Small Business Magazine in Ireland informing small firms on best health practices. He also is a trainer with Skillnet Ireland and trains companies in workplace health promotion and mental health practices. David was involved in the setup of the brand new SFA Workplace Wellbeing Award 2020 for smaller business in Ireland.

“Making wellbeing an important part of your company’s working environment can make employees feel valued and satisfied. Employees that feel valued by their employer are the individuals who make the best addition to any team. They play an instrumental role in keeping the workplace culture alive and thriving through regular interactions with co-workers and management.”

About the Author

Brian Crooke is a wellbeing educator, speaker and adviser supporting Irish organisations to promote and sustain wellbeing within their workplaces.

He is the founder of the Workplace Wellbeing Ireland community and is responsible for the design and delivery of the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin.

In his spare time Brian is bringing free resistance training to every county and community in Ireland through his parkHIIT project.