Affinity Health at Work

🌟 Announcing Our 2025 Research Consortium Project: A Professional Framework for Wellbeing Professionals 🌟 Earlier this year, we hosted insightful roundtable discussions with wellbeing professionals to explore what they would value in training and development offerings. A key theme emerged: while training and development are essential, what’s missing is a professional framework to serve as the foundation for these efforts. Furthermore, as organisations increasingly prioritise employee wellbeing, the demand for dedicated wellbeing professionals has grown. Yet, the lack of a clear professional pathway for these roles poses challenges for both professionals and employers alike. Professionals often struggle to understand the skills and training needed to succeed, while organisations face difficulties in recruiting, developing, and retaining the right talent. This realisation for us and our consortium members shaped the focus of our 2025 research project: ‘Developing a Professional Framework for Wellbeing Professionals.’ Our research will address this critical gap by: 💡 Defining role parameters for wellbeing professionals across disciplines such as HR, Occupational Health, and Health & Safety 💡 Creating clear progression pathways to guide career development 💡 Supporting organisations in recruiting, retaining, and recognising wellbeing talent 💡 Enhancing visibility and recognition of wellbeing professionals, laying the groundwork for future accreditation By joining us as a research partner, your organisation will: 🎉 Be recognised as a co-contributor to this innovative and impactful research 🎉 Receive quarterly updates through exclusive masterclasses featuring the latest research insights and best practices 🎉 Receive a customised organisational report mapping your strengths and development areas in supporting wellbeing professionals 🎉 Showcase your leadership and innovation through case study opportunities 🎉 Be part of a network of organisations such as HSE, IOSH, EDF Energy, the Ministry of Justice, Sky, King’s College London, and the University of Oxford. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to reach out or request our invitation pack ([email protected])

What an absolute joy to spend a day together at Affinity Health at Work at our Christmas party yesterday. We connected with each other, shared home made gifts (thank you Rachel Lewis and Hannah Karrlein) and received presents, made terrariums (a brilliant and really engaging workshop courtesy of Michael at BOTANICAL BOYS ) to bring a bit of nature to our home working environments, ate, drank and were merry. Sean Russell MBE and Christian Ferragamo MSc, MBPsS we missed you! We have 🌟🌟THE BEST 🌟🌟 team! Have a look what we got up to - thank you to Yass Rad MBPsS for her excellent videography again!

🏆 🥁 👏🏻 Huge congratulations to Oliver Bullock, one of our Junior Consultants here at Affinity Health at Work for passing his MSc Organisational Psychology from Birkbeck, University of London with Merit! 🏆 🥁 👏🏻 Ollie has worked so hard juggling his studies, with his job and with injuries and house moves - we are so proud of him! Ollie's thesis looked at wellbeing of doctors in the private sector. He found that workload and financial demands were significantly associated with burnout - and found that increased control strengthened this relationship (i.e. the more control private doctors perceived themselves to have, the stronger the relationship between financial demands and burnout). Ollie says "I found the role of finance in this context fascinating. Private healthcare and funding/profit are entangled and how this entanglement is linked to wellbeing outcomes is something I would like to explore further and beyond this industry. A large proportion of my study sample were self employed and the results indicated that the resources they held weren't adequately protecting their wellbeing. This asks questions about how we support independent private doctors who don't operate as part of a wider organisation"

Today is World Human Rights day. A day to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. We at Affinity Health at Work are passionate about supporting and improving mental health and wellbeing at work. Today in particular we are reminded of everyone's human right to mental health and the fact that everyone, whoever and wherever they are, has a deserving and inherent right to the highest standard of mental health. The aim of this years' World Human Rights Day campaign is to inspire everyone to acknowledge the importance and relevance of human rights, change perceptions by countering negative stereotypes and misconceptions and mobilize action to reinvigorate a global movement for human rights. It is vitally important to consider the impacts of the workplace on mental health and how work can support good mental health. Human rights are not just abstract ideals, but essential, tangible elements that affect every day rights. One of our consultants here at Affinity Health at Work Sophie Walker has written a briliant blog which describes some of those tangible, and simple, things that leaders and employers can do to improve the working lives of their employees and support the aims and inspiration of this important day. Do have a read! https://lnkd.in/eZEa8YqP

🌟 LATEST RESEARCH: How can organisations effectively tackle work demands? 🌟 Last week we were able to pre-launch the results from our latest Affinity Research Consortium project which focused on identifying how to address potentially harmful work demands and workload. ❓Why did our research consortium choose this topic? 🧮 Year on year, workload is cited as the leading cause of stress at Work and is attributable to 60% of employee stress (CIPD Health and Wellbeing Report, 2022) 📚 Most people perceive that work is getting more intense and demanding (Mental Health UK) 📌It is a particular issue in the UK, where we have higher numbers of additional hours than all of our European Peers (Commission for Healthy Working Lives). ☑️What did we do? 📃 Systematic review of academic and practitioner literature to identify effective interventions to address work demands and workload (22 papers included) 🪑A round table with stakeholders and policy makers who had successfully addressed work demands 🏭 An intervention using PAR (Participatory Action Research) with 4 organisations (cross sectoral, cross discipline) where a committee identified the issue through data (our surveys and existing data) and developed and actioned interventions 📆 Worked with the organisations, measuring both process and outcomes over 6 months 📩 What did we find? 📑There is very little research which tells us how to effectively reduce work demands. Most research focuses on increasing resources (such as training) rather than addressing the demands themselves. 📊 The PAR intervention worked!! Each organisation had different needs and put in place different interventions (for instance increasing focus time, training people in how to use Slack, summarising communications into a face-to-face session) - and each saw benefits at the end. 🌟 Our free-to-access research report will be published in January and will include: ✔️ Full details of the research and literature review ✔️Clear details of how to set up a PAR intervention ✔️Case studies from each organisation ✔️Tips to avoid and to focus on to enhance the effectiveness of your intervention We will be posting more about our results over the next two weeks. If you are interested in finding more about our research consortium, have a read at the link below or get in touch through [email protected]. The focus for our 2025 research is going to be launched this week! https://lnkd.in/eipan4yd

What an amazing day we had yesterday discussing evidence-based ways to reduce and address work demands with our research consortium. It was a pleasure to see so many members and guests there. As well as 🌟launching our research consortium project🌟 that we have been working on for the last year - more about that in the next few days - we enjoyed sessions from Kevin Teoh and Lina Siegl as well as having a fascinating fireside discussion with two organisations who had taken part in our research and put in place interventions to reduce job demands. Thank you so much to Kevin Teoh for his engaging session about why some interventions don't work. I don't think we have ever had a session where so many people started a sentence with 'As Kevin said....'! Kevin shared 6 key principles to consider to improve the effectiveness of interventions: 1. Staff wellbeing is a systems issue 2. Tailor the intervention to the context 3. Involve staff in the process 4. Get support from leaders 5. Interventions are iterative. 6. Plan for the long haul. Thank you too to Lina Siegl for her brilliant session about how to reduce email related work demands. Lina shared so much content that would be useful for all of us to reflect upon. Some key learnings to share from her research about what organisation need to consider around addressing e-mail related work demands relate to the need to develop an overall company-wide policy and guidelines and collect data to understand email stressors. Finally, these two simple considerations particularly resonated: 📖Think before you read - (consider: Do you need to open this and read this now?, Is this your priority?) ✈️ Think before you send - (Does it need to be seen by all these people? Is email the best way to communicate this? Do I have to send it now? How may this impact on others?) Thank you so much to Sue Li and to King's College London for providing such a fantastic room and venue - and to all our consortium members and guests who made the day so special. Finally, thank to you Yass Rad MBPsS for creating this lovely video which gives a flavour of the day. If you watch or read this and think you might like to know more about our research consortium, please do get in touch!

We are delighted to welcome @Alice Sinclair to our Affinity Health at Work team! With over 20 years' experience in managing and delivering organisational research we are thrilled that we will all benefit from her expertise. Alice has worked for a range of government departments and public sector clients, including DWP, HSE, the Welsh Government and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. We have been lucky enough to work with Alice in an associate capacity where she has played a key role in our review of implementation issues for workplace health interventions and she has been pivotal to the development, piloting and implementation of the IGLOo Return to Work Toolkit, most recently working on the NIHR funded pilot led by Loughborough University. This has included delivering one-to-one coaching sessions to support individuals returning to work following long-term sick leave and we look forward to bringing this experience to our Affinity clients. #OrganisationalResearch #teamgrowth #AffinityHealthatwork

We are pleased to announce that Jo Yarker has contributed to the forthcoming “Sustaining Employee Wellbeing” report, developed in collaboration with the Corporate Research Forum (CRF). This report examines how organisations can embed evidence-based wellbeing strategies into their culture, leadership behaviours, and work design. Highlighting the crucial role of management competencies, the report reflects CRF’s dedication to evidence-based practice and offers actionable insights for organisations seeking to integrate wellbeing into their business strategy effectively. By equipping line managers with the necessary skills and tools, organisations can foster supportive environments where employees thrive. The Management Competencies for Preventing and Reducing Stress at Work framework, developed by Affinity Health at Work, provides practical guidance for developing these capabilities. Learn more about the framework and ways that the competencies can be developed and integrated into organisational practices here: https://ow.ly/k8Wu50U9RlJ Launching tomorrow, the 21st November, the report invites organisations to ‘move beyond isolated initiatives and create workplaces that prioritise thriving over merely coping. #EmployeeWellbeing #ManagementCompetencies #EvidenceBasedHR

We are looking forward to attending the Royal College of Nursing - Company & Society of Occupational Medicine Joint Occupational Health Nursing Conference on November 29, 2024. Prof. Jo Yarker will be speaking on "The Role of OH in Workplace Wellbeing," covering how Occupational Health professionals can: -Support workplace well-being initiatives -Collaborate with stakeholders -Use evidence-based approaches to improve working lives This event is open to OH professionals, nurses, AHPs, students, occupational therapists, and GPs. A great chance to learn and engage with others in the field. Book your place here: #OccupationalHealth #WorkplaceWellbeing #RCN #SOM #Wellbeing

🌟 Kindness Counts: Small Acts, Big Impact at Work 🌟 ‘To recognise #WorldKindnessDay, our consultant Divija Bansal has written a blog about the evidence to support being kind at work - and how you can do it. Top highlights are around how kindness boosts mental and physical health and even strengthens workplace culture. Simple gestures, like checking in on a colleague or acknowledging someone’s hard work, can foster an environment where everyone feels valued and connected. Here are three simple ways to practice kindness at work: 1️⃣ Show empathy and check in on colleagues 2️⃣ Recognise and appreciate efforts 3️⃣ Proactively offer support Kindness isn’t just about grand gestures—it’s the everyday actions that make a difference. From showing genuine care to offering help and recognising each other's efforts, small acts can uplift teams, inspire positivity, and improve well-being. Read more in the blog. #WorkplaceWellbeing #KindnessAtWork #EmployeeEngagement #AffinityHealthAtWork