Is your organisation ready for a workplace wellness programme? Interview with Fania Stoney

Fania Stoney is a co-founder and consultant with Healthy Place to Work. Healthy Place to Work takes a holistic view of health in the workplace; they help companies implement a wide-ranging and evidence-based health strategy. Fania works closely with organisations, maintaining collaborative relationships across multiple stakeholders to create healthy workplaces and high performing environments for employees. This involves analysing data, investigating existing programmes, identifying current strengths and opportunities, and embedding new programmes.

Healthy Place to Work was founded as a response to a need in the Irish workplace environment. A few years ago, there was a boom in workplace health and wellbeing in Ireland, but many organisations didn’t offer much beyond the usual fruit basket and yoga session. Fania wanted to look deeper, look at the individual within the organisation. How can this individual be supported to flourish at work and beyond?

What are the steps to implementing a Healthy Place to Work programme?

The process is as simple and as straightforward as possible, Fania says. Every organisation follows the same initial steps, and the follow up is then tailored to each organisation's needs. 

The first phase focuses on kicking off the project, having a designated person for the company to call or drop an email to with any questions. A survey then goes out to all the employees to measure the four key pillars of employee experience. They look at the level of purpose people find in their work, the levels of mental resilience, how people rate their relationships with their colleagues, and their relationship with the organisation. 

The final piece is measuring items like employee physical health, diet and fitness. They also assess the work environment, how safe and energising it is for employees. Do they have recovery mechanisms in place? Do they make sure to take moments to pause to be able to perform?

It's essential to see the picture from the organisation's point of view, Fania tells us. Understanding the company's values and business strategy is a critical step for the health and wellness programme’s integration process. 

How will an organisation know if they are ready to implement a wellbeing programme?

Organisations are very different, but the Healthy Place to Work process can be adapted for each company they work with. Therefore even if you are not 100% sure your company is ready for implementation, it's best to jump on a call. Just give them a sense of where you are, let them provide you with some pointers and start from there. 

"So come and have a chat, give us a sense of where you are. The fact you're having the conversation means you're further ahead than you think you are because you're already beginning to think this way. While the four steps remain the same for any organisation, what we do is very bespoke. We will meet you where you are."

The commitment to continuous improvement is built into the process

Continuous improvement is a big part of being a company that gets accredited as a healthy place to work. A health and wellness programme can be an important part of a companies' employee value proposition; therefore, Healthy Place to Work takes their accreditations very seriously. They will do periodical checks to make sure the programme is evolving, that the company is building on the practice that was already in place. 

The most important aspect is that the company sticks to the programme for the benefits it brings to its people. Workplace wellness programmes are not a textbook set of rules but rather a structure that can be improved by listening to employees and implementing their feedback.

What’s the difference between Healthy Place to Work and Great Place to Work?

Great Place to Work is a well-established brand in the Irish market. The easiest way to differentiate the two is to look at the core of each business. Great Place to Work has trust at its core, and its model and programmes are measuring precisely that. It is mainly based on leadership and management behaviours. 

For Healthy Place to Work, learning is at the core of the model. The focus is on an individual's ability to adapt, be agile and learn on the go. It's based on individual behaviours; there are many more "I" statements in the Healthy Place to Work surveys. 

Which one should an organisation choose? Fania says this decision should be based on the organisation's priorities. "What is the talent base they are looking to recruit? What do they want from the process, and what are their outcomes?"

When talking about workplace wellness in times of COVID, Fania thinks the most important thing for companies to do is to keep their core fundamentals the same. Maintaining communication and connections strong and finding ways to adapt them into a new reality are the next two essential aspects. 

Listen to the entire podcast here or you can watch the video of the full conversation through this link. 

Want to learn more about Fania Stoney's work at Healthy Place to Work? Visit their website, LinkedIn or reach out to Fania directly on her LinkedIn page.

Competition Time 

We've teamed up with The Fruit People to give you the chance of winning a delicious Fresh Fruit & Healthy Snack Pack delivered direct to your door. There’s a pack available for each episode of Season 3 of The Work Well Podcast and a new winner will be chosen each week.

The competition takes place on Instagram.

To enter, simply:

Follow @thefruitpeople and @workwellireland

Tag 2 friends in the comments who would love to win this prize

Share either the @thefruitpeople or @workwellireland weekly competition post to your story including the hashtag #workwellpodcast (don't forget to tag us!)

To double your chances of winning, screenshot the #workwellpodcast while listening and share to your story!

The weekly competition opens as soon as that week’s episode is released (episodes will be released every Wednesday for Season 3). The competition closes the following Monday at 10pm and one lucky winner will be announced at lunchtime on Tuesday (we'll be checking each step has been followed).

Best of luck!

Terms and Conditions

Competition is open to residents of ROI only.

This competition consists of 12 weekly giveaways.

One winner will be chosen at random from the comments each week.

You can enter each week and as often as you wish 😊

About Your Host

Brian Crooke is a wellbeing educator, speaker and adviser, empowering Irish organisations to promote and sustain wellbeing within their workplaces.

He is the founder of The Work Well Institute and the Workplace Wellbeing Ireland community and is Course Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin. He is the host of The Work Well Podcast.

In his spare time, Brian is bringing free resistance training to every county and community in Ireland through his parkHIIT social enterprise.

If you have any suggestions for future topics you'd like to hear on the show, email Brian directly, brian@workwellpodcast.com