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Displaying 1-43 of 43 results
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Organisations benefit from employees taking sabbaticals, research shows
- 01 Mar 2024
- David Burkus
The article summarises the findings of a number of research studies into the effect of sabbatical leave on employee wellbeing and organizational performance. Benefits to individuals from sabbaticals can include a decline in stress and an increase in overall well-being, while organisations can use sabbatical programs as a means to stress test their procedures and give aspiring leaders a chance to grow.
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Managing (and surviving) in a high-intensity workplace
- 01 Mar 2024
- Erin Reid, Lakshmi Ramarajan
After interviewing hundreds of professionals in many fields, the authors have concluded that total selfless dedication to work is often unnecessary and harmful. It has dysfunctional consequences not only for individuals but also for their organizations. The authors discuss three typical strategies (Accepting, Passing and Revealing) for coping with demanding workplaces, and the risks associated with each style. Managers can help by enforcing reasonable work hours, requiring vacations, and taking steps to protect employees’ personal lives.
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Beating burnout: Addressing emotional exhaustion at work
- 01 Jan 2024
- Megan Haynes, John Trougakos
The authors have conducted research to understand how work-related emotional exhaustion changes throughout the workday and what factors influence it. They found that factors such as socializing with co-workers, supervisor support, autonomy, and interactions with difficult customers can affect emotional exhaustion levels. Employer interventions targeting these factors could help address emotional exhaustion and improve employee well-being. Additionally, the article discusses the potential benefits of a four-day workweek in terms of increased productivity and employee well-being.
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No longer lonely at the top
- 01 Nov 2023
- Ben Gose
The hiring of co-CEOs is becoming more common in non-profit organizations due to trends such as a desire for work-life balance and the need for diverse leadership. Shared leadership allows organizations to tap into different skill sets and create a stronger leadership model. While there are potential drawbacks to the co-CEO model, such as slower decision-making and confusion among staff and stakeholders, advocates argue that it promotes better decision-making and demonstrates a commitment to equity and inclusion.
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Can women have it all? Yes, but not all at once
- 11 Sep 2023
- Cheyenne Ligon, Arleen Jacobius
Quotes from influential women in institutional investing, who have successfully navigated challenges in balancing billion-dollar portfolios, family responsibilities, and self-care. While their success may appear effortless, these women acknowledge the real challenges they face. They highlight the need for openness about the challenges of maintaining work-life balance, even after reaching high levels of success.
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Helping employees through mental-health challenges
- 01 Sep 2023
- Kiran Bhatti, Thomas Roulet
Few managers receive any training for dealing with mental health crises that may arise among employees. Amid heightened external stressors, including the after-effects of the pandemic and economic uncertainty, more employees than ever are experiencing anxiety and depression at work. This article introduces the basic principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a mental-health first-aid tool to help employees address emotional distress and negative behavioural patterns. Recommendations are made for how managers can support employees experiencing mental health issues.
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RU OK?
- 01 Sep 2023
- Jessica Mudditt
Advice on how to start a conversation with colleagues about stress and depression. Stress levels often rise among audit and tax teams at busy times of year - here are some practical tips for talking to a colleague if you have concerns about their mental health.
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Summer 'blahs' or burned out? Find out and fix it
- 01 Aug 2023
The article emphasizes the importance of identifying and addressing burnout in employees, especially during the summer months when workplace pressures can lead to diminished motivation and performance. It provides guidance on recognizing burnout indicators and understanding its potential causes, as well as strategies for combating burnout through active listening, restoring certainty, and offering new challenges and incentives.
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'Quiet quitting' and 'quiet thriving' - Flourishing in the modern organisation
- 01 Aug 2023
- Cam Caldwell, Laura Ellera, Dima Rachid Jamali
A look at what employers and employees can do to create healthier organization cultures - so that organizations and employees can flourish in today’s challenging economic times. Drawing upon research about the modern organization, the authors identify ten recommendations to help organizations create healthier and thriving work cultures. They also identify ten action steps which employees can proactively take to help themselves and their organizations to thrive.
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Inc. Best Workplaces 2023
- 01 May 2023
- Bill Saporito
Business magazine Inc.'s list of the best US companies to work for in 2023. Some of the most popular companies focus on employee wellness - particularly mental well-being and work-life balance. They have found ways to extend their culture without busting the budget; for example setting up a meditation room or offering a quarterly 'mental health day'.
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Why leadership requires more than wielding an Obi-Wan Kenobi Lightsaber
- 01 Apr 2023
- Jason Richmond
How organisations can minimize employee resignations by improving compensation packages and considering adding culture-centric benefits such as subsidizing fitness centre memberships, childcare services or mental health therapies. The article takes a look at the results of a 2022 Remote.co Work & Financial Wellness Report, which found that 'Remote work options' was the top priority of workers surveyed, followed closely by 'Salary' and 'Work-life balance'.
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Beware promoting 'busy' culture
- 01 Mar 2023
- Adam Waytz
Organizations should stop conflating activity with achievement, says Adam Waytz, Professor at Kellogg School of Management. If employees are overloaded with work, and the amount of time they spend working excessively monitored, productivity and efficiency can actually drop. This reduces staff engagement, increases absenteeism and impairs workers' health. Waytz suggests some solutions to create a work culture valuing employee well-being over busyness and encourage 'deep work'.
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The science of weekend recovery
- 01 Mar 2023
- Jeffrey Davis
Research shows that completely disengaging from work on weekends can help workers avoid burnout. The author explains the value of doing something creatively, socially or physically different at the weekend, and provides three questions to ask yourself when thinking about the activities that are most likely to refresh you on your days off.
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A time for innovation, flexibility and compassion
- 22 Feb 2023
- Juliette Gaudemer
An inside look at Accounting Today magazine's 2022 Best Firms for Young Accountants winners. Popular initiatives with young accounting professionals include a mentorship system, internship programs, networking events and soft skills training. There is also a growing interest in a comfortable work-life balance, including the option of hybrid home/office working.
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Fitting five days of work into four
- 01 Jan 2023
- Deanna Cuadra
Terry VanDuyn, director of product management at Kickstarter, shares a week in her life after her employer switched to a four-day working week. She chronicles what time management and work-life balance look like for her now.
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Are you creating quiet quitters — or preventing them?
- 01 Nov 2022
- Jill Geisler
Tips on spotting a potential 'quiet quitter' on your team. Start looking at the world through the eyes of your staff and considering their work-life mental ledger. The article suggests seven ways to take good care of your team, keep them engaged and encourage a healthy work-life balance.
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How to onboard remote workers
- 01 Oct 2022
- Paul McDonald
A few simple steps can help ensure new remote workers will be positioned for success in your organization, says Paul McDonald. He provides tips for onboarding remote employees, from planning their first week to prioritising their work-life balance.
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Are workers more productive at home?
- 02 Jun 2022
- Justin Fox
A conversation with Stanford economist Nick Bloom on a surprising find from the COVID-19 pandemic: remote work can lead to productivity gains and fuel economic growth. Bloom has been studying employee benefits and discovered that certain pro-work-life-balance policies (maternity leave, job sharing, part-time work and work from home) were positively correlated with good firm performance.
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How can we account for our wellbeing?
- 01 Mar 2022
- Jim Lucey
Psychiatrist Jim Lucey discusses what wellbeing is and the five ways to wellbeing described by the New Economic Foundation (NEF). He says it's time to redefine our understanding of health and discover a broader concept of 'wellbeing', concluding the article with a list of ten tools for personal wellbeing.
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Sabbaticals aren't just for Professors
- 01 Aug 2021
- Katherine Reynolds Lewis
Traditionally a perk of universities for professors to work on scholarly projects, sabbaticals are catching on in the private sector to improve recruitment, retention and productivity while supporting work-life balance. The article takes a look at the HR policies on sabbaticals in companies such as Citigroup, OneMedical and Adobe. Tips are also given on how to make the most of a sabbatical.
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Overcoming stigma: three strategies toward better mental health in the workplace.
- 09 Jul 2021
- Erica Coe, Jenny Cordina, Enomoto Kana, Nikhil Seshan
Article looks at how even though employers are serious about their employees' mental health, the stigma of mental illness has not been dealt with. Strategies for reducing stigma are discussed.
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Creating a mentally healthy workplace
- 01 Mar 2021
- Malcolm Smith
Article outlines some basic steps to making the work environment more conducive to good mental health.
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How leaders can reduce stress for employees instead of adding to it
- 01 Mar 2021
- Jill Geisler
The article offers tips on how organizational leaders can help reduce the stress of employees. Also cited are the common stressors of employees like unclear roles and responsibilities, lack of sufficient authority or autonomy, increasing workloads, and disorganized or unpredictable leaders, and the need to minimize stress in healthcare to avoid possible employee burnout.
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Mental health in the workplace: the coming revolution
- 01 Jan 2021
Article looks at how today's workforce expects employers to take mental health issues seriously and young people are more open to talking about mental health issues.
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A mindful approach
- 01 Sep 2020
- Kathie Stamps
Article discusses how destigmatising mental health issues in the workplace can help employees become more productive.
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COVID on the mind: mental health awareness in the workplace
- 01 May 2020
- Adrienne Selko
The article offers information on importance of mental health awareness in the workplace amid COVID-19 pandemic. Topics discussed include need to encouraging heightened awareness of general hygiene precautions, social distancing and adjusting operations according to regulations; rising frustration in workers from entire families staying home and risk of safety; and importance of Creating and maintaining a mentally healthy work environment.
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How are you, really?
- 01 Apr 2020
- Mike Garwood
Article discusses how mangers should be aware of their employees' mental health and be able to spot the signs of poor mental health in their employees. A supportive workplace culture is important and is a now an important recruitment tool for millennials.
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Counting the cost of poor mental health
- 01 Apr 2020
The article reports on the results of a Deloitte 2020 study, which found that UK businesses lose as much as £45 billion a year due to poor mental health of workers. The rise was found to be mainly due to increases in presenteeism, with employees still coming to work despite poor health and underperforming.
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Safety first, wellness third
- 01 Mar 2020
- Lauren Gant
The article focuses on creating a workplace that supports holistic, inclusive and enduring mind-body health. Topics include understanding basic safety needs; reducing the risk of long-developing injuries; and creating a work environment and culture that promotes health comprehensively and encourages employees to work in a way that aligns with their preferences.
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Learning as stress buster
- 02 Nov 2019
- Zang Chen, Christopher Myers, David Mayer
The article presents advice for employees in business organizations suffering from stress, particularly recommending business learning as a coping mechanism. According to the article, employees experience an alleviation of negative emotions and stress when actively learning in the workplace. The article also recommends strategies for work learning including working with others, and using learning as a break from work.
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Dont let stress become DISTRESS
- 01 Oct 2019
- Danny Wiell
Recognising the symptoms of stress in employees and understanding their impact is critical to effectively dealing with the contributing issues and improving employee well-being. Giving employees leeway to take mental health or sick days when they need to ensures your employees stay healthy and can come to work feeling their best.
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Get well SOONER
- 01 Jan 2019
This article looks at how human resource (HR) professionals can address the problem of long-term sickness absence of employees, examining topics including the emerging culture of presenteeism and its impact to HR professionals trying to manage their workforce's absence levels, cost of long-term sickness to employers in the private sector and mental health as a major cause of long-term sickness.
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Chatbots demonstrate diverse range of uses
- 12 Jun 2018
- SA Mathieson
Article looks how chatbots are proving their value in a variety of ways, from accountancy support to mental health. It states that chatbot is the solution for the language problems in artificial intelligence
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How to beat workplace stress
- 12 May 2018
- Rob Archer
The article focuses on research on workplace stress and methods of overcoming or preventing stress. It states that in 2016-2017 in Great Britain nearly 49 percent of all working days lost were a result of anxiety, depression, or work-related stress. It comments on the importance of psychological flexibility in workplace performance and mental health, and how it assists in decision making. It reports on a study on the use of acceptance and commitment therapy to improve psychological flexibility.
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10 habits of highly effective CFOs
- 01 Apr 2018
- David McCann
Striking a healthy work-life balance is one of those effective habits, says David McCann. Based on interviews with CFOs, commonly valued habits also include being intellectually curious, having a mentor outside your organization and providing ethical leadership.
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Take mental health seriously
- 01 Nov 2017
- Jared Butt
The article offers ten tips and suggestions for improving mental health and preventing work-related stress. Topics include creating positive and supportive work environment for encouraging teamwork; developing and implementing employee mental health and well-being policies; and managing organizational changes effectively .
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Everybody's got the right to be happy
- 01 Sep 2017
- Annie McKee
Why are so many professionals unhappy in their jobs? The author highlights three important factors: ambition, doing what’s expected of us, and overwork. All of these are harmful when taken to extremes. Employees should use their emotional intelligence to understand the psychological traps they are prone to.
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Performance in practice
- 01 Dec 2016
- Steve Hamsley
Advice from the acting world on how to make your business presentation skills more effective. Topics covered include using proper breath control to calm nerves, techniques to warm up your voice, combining voice and body language to connect with the audience, and handling difficult questions.
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Stress: cause and effect
- 01 Nov 2016
- Ivan Robertson
The article discusses how occupational psychology focuses on stress management in a reactive capacity, by attempting to deal with the effects of stress and minimize its impact. Psychological wellbeing can safeguard against stress, acting as a preventative measure, and helps to instil a sense of purpose in individuals.
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The simple cure to fatigue and burnout
- 01 Feb 2016
- Don Joseph Goewey
A practical strategy for managing stress, fatigue and burnout among employees. Topics include the important role of mental attitude on the development of fatigue among workers, how positive attitude can obtain key business outcome, and the steps on how to change the mindset of individual to positive to resolve job stress.
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Can you really get healthier at work?
- 01 Oct 2015
- Hayley Kirton
From yoga to nutritious snack packs, four employees test how beneficial workplace wellbeing and health interventions are in real life. Sit-stand desks and weekly massages were popular options.
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I thought about jumping in front of a bus so I didn't have to go to work
- 01 Jul 2015
- Jane Simms
Devastating stress and work-based anxiety can be caused by issues like long hours, uncertainty over contracts and low pay. How can englightened HR departments treat the causes, not the symptoms, of workplace stress? Strategies such as resilience and mindfulness training, employee counselling and disability leave for employees with a mental health diagnosis can help.
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Know where to turn
- 02 Dec 2010
- Kath Haines
Do you feel stressed? Barely able to cope? Is your work-life balance poor? Do you have money issues? Kath Haines explains why accountants suffering from stress-related problems are getting younger in Great Britain, and suggests ways they can cope. Help is available through the Chartered Accountants' Benevolent Association (CABA) and other support groups.
Displaying 1-43 of 43 results
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