Many believe the (virtual) workplace is where rationality rules and is prized above all. Emotions better stay at home or at least hidden. However, if your company wants the best for its employees, it must respect their emotions.

The workplace is not a self-help retreat, and your managers and leaders are not gurus, facilitators or therapists, most certainly. However, if your employees are not permitted to be fully human, they will disengage, underperform or leave.

Difficult emotions tend to result from complex thoughts, negative thinking habits, unaddressed short and long-term stress, proximity to burnout, and various global, corporate, social and personal factors. All Mental & Emotional Wellbeing webinars were designed to help employees understand and diffuse these challenging thoughts, emotions and dynamics.

When supporting physical wellbeing, corporates tend to think of weekly fruit baskets, the occasional ergonomics session, or subsidising employees’ fitness practices. While these are invaluable contributions, physical wellbeing can be addressed in ways that may bring more lasting benefits.

Many are familiar with the term ‘psychosomatic illness’ – the mind negatively affecting the body. What about ‘somatopsychic wellbeing’ – the body positively impacting the mind? Focusing on the body-mind connection tends to be underrated as a means of growing employees’ physical health.

The Physical Wellbeing sessions focus on somatopsychic wellbeing, supporting the body to reinforce employees’ overall health beyond good fitness. These webinars share the most up-to-date research and practices on sustainable health habits, nutrition, recovery, and breathing methods and strongly emphasise brain health.

Building positive social connections among employees undoubtedly improves morale, collaboration, and overall productivity. Many companies support social wellness by organising team-building activities, championing volunteering and community service projects, facilitating coaching and mentoring relationships, and creating spaces for employees to socialise during breaks. Whilst these initiatives do bring employees together, they do not necessarily equip them with the skills to develop more authentic relationships or effectively deal with conflict when it occurs.

While every employee has a different level of comfort with and need for work connections, it is likely true for most that they enjoy trust-based, supportive and meaningful relationships with their direct manager, team members, co-workers and clients.

The Social Wellbeing sessions will help employees bring more of themselves into their relationships and conversations, express more positivity towards others, avoid common practices that feed discord, diffuse conflict in gentle but effective ways and build networks that support their unique personal and professional aspirations.

Nassim Taleb coined the term antifragility to describe things that get better when exposed to stress or volatility. “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” he wrote.

There are many examples of antifragility: muscles get stronger when subjected to larger and larger amounts of weight during resistance training. The immune systems get more robust when exposed to germs. Many people experience post-traumatic growth after surviving disasters, accidents or life-threatening diseases, losing loved ones or living through other traumas.

The first step towards antifragility is building resilience. Many employees do not have the mental, emotional, physical or social resources to meet the demands of taxing life or work situations and are quickly thrown off balance. Some sessions within the Resilience Series focus on actively building these resources so employees can bounce back after challenges. Other sessions are more antifragility-oriented, where employees learn to use adversity as a springboard for growing beyond their current capabilities.

“Working smarter, not harder” is a popular saying emphasising the importance of using intelligence, strategy, and efficiency to accomplish tasks rather than relying on sheer effort and long hours. In some workplace cultures, however, there is a strong emphasis on appearing busy and putting in long hours as a sign of dedication and hard work. Employees often feel pressured to look busy even if their tasks can be completed more efficiently. “Busy” becomes a badge of honour.

Efficiency in completing tasks and meeting deadlines can help reduce work-related stress. It can help employees better manage their time, allowing for a healthier work-life balance. Efficient employees feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in their work, contributing to job satisfaction. This, in turn, can positively impact their overall wellbeing and motivation.

The Efficiency Series webinars focus on helping employees better manage their time, attention, mindset and collaborative efforts.

The Workforce Institute at UKG surveyed 3,400 people across ten countries in 2023 to spotlight the critical role employees’ jobs and managers play in supporting wellbeing in and outside of work. They found that managers impact employees’ mental health (69%) more than doctors (51%) or therapists (41%) — and even the same as a spouse or partner (69%).

They also found that while 9 in 10 HR and C-suite leaders believe working for their company positively impacts employees’ mental health, only half of employees agree. In fact, 1 in 3 say their manager fails to recognise the impact they have on their team’s mental wellbeing, and 7 in 10 would like their company and manager to do more to support mental health.

Managers are not expected to become wellbeing experts. Still, they must create a psychologically safe environment, understand the basics of employee wellbeing, show active care and consideration towards their team members, and become better role models. The Leadership Series sessions can aid with the “how”.