What does workplace wellbeing actually feel like and can employee benefits ever compensate for a culture people don’t trust?

In this episode of Wellbeing Talk, I sat down with Sara Silvonen, Senior Consultant and Wellbeing Lead at Great Place To Work UK about what millions of employee experiences reveal about trust, leadership and healthy workplace culture.

Drawing on Great Place To Work’s Wellbeing at Work 2026 research and the GPTW Effect, they examine the difference between providing wellbeing support and creating a genuine culture of wellbeing.

This conversation explores how everyday leadership behaviours shape employee experience, why colleagues within the same organisation can experience two very different workplaces, and what happens when trust begins to deteriorate.

We discuss the evidence connecting workplace wellbeing with employee retention, productivity and performance.

Alongside where the research shows a meaningful association, where claims of causation require caution, and whether pressure to demonstrate ROI risks reducing wellbeing to another business metric.

An evidence-led conversation for HR leaders, people professionals and managers seeking to understand what effective workplace wellbeing looks and feels like beyond policies, benefits and survey scores.

⏱️ Chapters

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0:00 - Introduction

1:47 - Sara Silvonen’s Path Into Workplace Wellbeing

3:54 - What Makes a Healthy Workplace?

6:30 - What Great Place to Work Measures

8:27 - Wellbeing Support vs a Wellbeing Culture

10:35 - Surprising Employee Experience Findings

13:23 - How Trust Drives Workplace Performance

16:34 - The Nine High-Trust Leadership Behaviours

19:00 - Early Warning Signs of Low Trust

21:00 - The Workplace Wellbeing Consistency Gap

24:52 - How Organisations Improve Employee Experience

28:25 - Wellbeing, Retention and Productivity

32:27 - Workplace Wellbeing: Correlation vs Causation

35:12 - The Risk of Reducing Wellbeing to ROI

37:30 - Why Wellbeing Initiatives Struggle for Sign-Off

40:55 - What to Assess Before Adding Another Initiative

44:05 - What Good Workplace Wellbeing Feels Like

45:42 - Outro

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🔔 If you’re interested in how trust, leadership and workplace culture shape employee wellbeing, don’t forget to subscribe to the @letsgowellbeing YouTube channel.

#MentalHealth #WorkplaceWellbeing #Leadership

Where does employer responsibility end when it comes to mental health?

As governments invest record levels into mental health services and organisations continue expanding workplace wellbeing initiatives, expectations around leaders have never been higher.

But where should responsibility begin and where should it end?

In this episode of Wellbeing Talk, I'm joined by Mark Rowland, current CEO of the Mental Health Foundation, to explore the future of workplace mental health, leadership and prevention.

Together we discuss:

- Why preventing poor mental health is more effective than relying on wellbeing initiatives alone.

- Where the balance lies between employer and personal responsibility.

- How AI can enhance mental health support without replacing meaningful human relationships.

- The principles that will continue to shape mentally healthy workplaces for generations to come.

Along the way, Mark also reflects on losing his brother to suicide, how running became part of his recovery, and the lessons he's learned after more than a decade leading one of the UK's oldest mental health charities.

⏱️ Chapters

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0:00 - Intro

1:36 - How Losing His Brother Changed Mark Rowland's View of Mental Health

4:18 - Looking Back: What Changed After Losing His Brother?

6:43 - Can Running and Exercise Improve Mental Health?

11:37 - What Changed Mark Rowland's Mind About Mental Health?

16:00 - Which Workplace Wellbeing Trends Concern Mark Rowland?

19:46 - Three Evidence-Based Ways to Improve Mental Health at Work

26:20 - Will the UK's New Mental Health Strategy Change Workplace Support?

32:35 - Are We Expecting Too Much From Leaders on Mental Health?

37:10 - Have We Stopped Talking About Personal Responsibility?

39:51 - Where Does Employer Responsibility End?

42:06 - Leadership, Employee Wellbeing and the Social Contract

44:40 - Why Leaders Struggle to Set Healthy Boundaries

48:12 - How Could AI Improve Mental Health Support?

54:00 - What Are the Risks of AI Replacing Human Support?

56:57 - AI, Social Media and Young People's Mental Health

58:45 - Is Mark Rowland Optimistic About the Future of Mental Health?

1:01:00 - Which Mental Health Principles Will Still Matter in 100 Years?

1:02:50 - Mark Rowland's Most Important Lesson After 10 Years as CEO

1:04:11 - Outro

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🔔 If you’re interested in how to have more compassionate and constructive conversations about mental health - both in and outside of the workplace, don’t forget to subscribe to the @letsgowellbeing YouTube channel.

#workplacewellbeing #employeeengagement #happinessatwork

Many employees feel they have to suppress or hide their emotions at work in order to be seen as professional - yet research increasingly suggests that emotions play a critical role in how people connect, perform and make decisions.

Despite growing investment in employee engagement and workplace wellbeing initiatives, many organisations still struggle to understand what employees are actually experiencing day-to-day.

So what does happiness at work really look like and how is it different from employee engagement?

In this episode of Wellbeing Talk, I’m joined by Matt Phelan, public speaker, author of The Happiness Index: Why Today’s Employee Emotions Equal Tomorrow’s Business Success, and co-founder of The Happiness Index.

Drawing on data gathered from more than two million employees across over 100 countries, Matt shares insights into the emotional drivers of workplace performance, why leaders often misunderstand engagement, and how understanding emotions can help organisations build healthier cultures.

This episode will be particularly useful for leaders, managers and HR professionals looking to better understand employee engagement, workplace wellbeing and performance.

Together we explore common misconceptions about workplace happiness, why traditional engagement metrics can sometimes give a false sense of security, and what leaders and managers can do to create environments where people feel safe, supported and able to perform at their best.

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⏱️ Chapters

0:00 The Happiness Myth at Work - Intro

1:30 Why Workplace Wellbeing Gets Ignored

2:30 The Role of Emotions at Work

6:35 Why Leaders Should Measure Workplace Culture

10:17 The Problem with Rational Workplace Metrics

14:30 The 8 Drivers of Workplace Happiness

18:15 Finding Meaning in Work

22:37 The Most Misunderstood Happiness Drivers

26:55 Global Workplace Happiness Trends

30:08 Happiness vs Engagement at Work

32:33 Why Engagement Scores Can Be Misleading

35:00 Why Workplace Wellbeing Still Struggles

38:19 How Emotional Data Predicts Performance

42:10 The Most Neglected Human Need at Work

44:20 One Thing Managers Can Do Today

54:20 Global Workplace Happiness Data Insights

56:35 What Organisations Should Stop Ignoring

59:38 What Most Affects Employee Happiness

1:00:48 The Biggest Workplace Happiness Myth

1:01:07 Outro

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🔔 If you’re interested in how to have more compassionate and constructive conversations about mental health - both in and outside of the workplace, don’t forget to subscribe to the @letsgowellbeing YouTube channel.