In this podcast, Prof Kevin Daniels of the University of East Anglia talks with Dr Juliane Opel of the University of Kassel in Germany. They discuss the paradox of high satisfaction amongst entrepreneurs who face working conditions (stress, instability etc.) that are know to lower satisfaction in other types of employment. Juliane draws on her current postdoctoral and previous PhD work, outlining different ways in which entrepreneurs reach a point of satisfaction in face of overwhelming odds.

In this edition of our Evolve podcast, Dr Helen Fitzhugh of the University of East Anglia speaks with Professor Adam Whitworth, Professor of Employment Policy, Scottish Centre for Employment Research at Strathclyde Business School. The conversation covers Adam's research on policies that support people to move into or maintain good quality, well-matched paid work, particularly people with health conditions, disabilities or complex disadvantages. Adam is leading the WISHES project - potentially the largest ever trial of job crafting. More information can be found here for employers interested in finding out more about the trial: Employers – WISHES: Workplace Intervention for Sustainable Health and Employment Support

In this edition of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing Podcast, Professor Sara Connolly from the University of Leicester speaks with Professor Ying Zhou from the University of Surrey, where she is Director of the Future of Work Research Centre. Her research is focused on job quality, occupation and employee wellbeing and in this podcast she shares findings from her latest work on the Skills and Employment Survey, focusing on meaning and purpose at work. She explains that when people are able to use their skills at work, take initiative and count on supportive managers, they are far more likely to think their work is meaningful.

In this podcast Dr Helen Fitzhugh of the Evolve team speaks with Prof Alan Felstead, Emeritus Professor of the Welsh Institute of Social and Economic Research Methods and Data (WISERD) at Cardiff University. Alan offers insight into the changing location of work (remote, hybrid and more) and job quality. He draws on personal stories and almost 40 years of research in this area, as well as recently published research from the Skills and Employment Survey: a nationally representative sample surveys of individuals in employment aged 20-65 years old.

You can find the How Good is my Job quiz here:

How Good Is Your Job | Take the Quiz

Read Alan's work at:

https://wiserd.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/8.-Is-the-Office-Dying.pdf

Is job quality better or worse? Insights from quiz data collected before and after the pandemic

https://routledge.pub/RemoteWorking

In this edition of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing podcast, Dr Helen Fitzhugh from the University of East Anglia is in conversation with Nigel Lloyd, a Senior Research Fellow within the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded Public Health Intervention Responsiveness Studies Team (PHIRST) at the University of Hertfordshire. Nigel has been working on a project exploring take up of local authority support for SMEs on the topic of wellbeing and shares findings from that work. He kindly invited Helen to find parallels in Evolve's own work to enrich the discussion so the podcast session covers quite a lot of ground!

The PHIRST website with project outputs is here: https://phirst.nihr.ac.uk/evaluations/an-evaluation-of-workplace-health-and-wellbeing-support-in-walsall-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-smes/

In this shorter podcast to mark Evolve's third anniversary, Prof Sara Connolly turns the tables on regular Evolve Podcast host Dr Helen Fitzhugh, getting her to answer our usual questions: we find out what led her to the team and what she is working on for Evolve's next steps.

May 2025 (only) office hours with Dr Helen Fitzhugh: Book time with Helen Fitzhugh (NBS - Staff)

22nd May 2025 - Register for Evolve third anniversary showcase online: https://forms.office.com/e/0ZLN5T7RMa

The normal length and style of podcast will return in a couple of weeks.

In this episode, Dr Helen Fitzhugh of the University of East Anglia speaks with Michael Whitmore, Research Leader at RAND Europe, specialising in health, work and wellbeing. RAND Europe is a not-for-profit research organization and Michael's team were involved in the programme of research that led us to establish the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing toolkit. Michael talks about the issues in workplace wellbeing he has seen recur during his years of experience in this area - but also highlights the new challenges to come as the world of work continues to change.

In this episode of our regular Evolve podcast, Professor Sara Connolly of the University of Leicester speaks with Dr Zofia Bajorek - Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies - about the importance of line management. Zofia talks about her recently released book on line management and how it was inspired not only by all the projects of her professional working life but also as a tribute to the exemplary line management of her co-author Stephen Bevan, who died in 2024.