Wellbeing

Why Summer is Important for Wellbeing

Jul 29, 2021

Rachel Ward Lilley shares her thoughts on why we should embrace summertime and how the season benefits our health and wellbeing. Most of us will be familiar with the song, “Summertime, and the living is easy…” It has been popular since it was a hit way back in 1934. Perhaps that’s because it is so evocative of the subject and it strikes a visceral and universal chord with our human psyche, proof – if any were...

How to Make the Most of Your Annual Leave: A Sideways Look at Holidays

Jul 21, 2021

Summer has arrived and many of us will be planning a week or two off to relax or take a holiday. Our resident psychologist, Rachel Ward Lilley, will be sharing a series of articles over the next couple of months talking about the benefits of taking a break and relaxing over the summer. This week, Rachel focuses on how to enjoy and make the most of your annual leave. These last eighteen months have been life-changing in...

The Benefits of Corporate Reflexology

Jul 14, 2021

Clinical reflexologist Nicola Stewart shares her expertise on the importance of corporate reflexology and how it can improve staff wellbeing. I am a clinical reflexologist based in Cheshire and part of my services include corporate reflexology. To kick things off, I’ll explain what reflexology is and how it works. What is reflexology? Reflexology is a complementary therapy based on the principle that different points, or...

June Reads: Wellbeing Book Recommendations

Jun 28, 2021

Here’s this month’s list of our favourite books that aim to improve your performance and wellbeing. Whether you want to reduce stress, become more productive or unleash your full potential, we hope these books help you feel more inspired and positive. Ten Times Happier by Owen O’Kane (HQ, Paperback/Ebook/Audiobook, May 2020) Owen O’Kane is a psychotherapist, former NHS Clinical Lead and author of...

Tips for Parents Working from Home

Jun 25, 2021

Many of us have become accustomed to working from home but it's still a struggle balancing work and family life. Mette Theilmann from Predictable Parenting shares her tips on managing working from home as a parent. During the pandemic I have worked very closely with a number of parents who have had to work from home while having their children around. Although the world has started to open up again, many of us have...

7 Ways to Become More Resilient

Jun 16, 2021

Resilience. We hear this word a lot. We hear people refer to resilience when they speak about change. But what exactly is resilience and how can we unleash its benefits to develop and fulfil our potential? Kathryn Eade, resilience expert and founder of Up+thrive, shares her insights and strategies on recognising and building resilience. Does an elastic band have qualities? I launched my business with a goal, that goal was...

Supporting LGBT Mental Health at Work

Jun 01, 2021

Health Assured , the UK and Ireland's largest independent and award-winning employee assistance programme provider, share their advice on how to support and promote LGBT mental health in the workplace. Research carried out by Anglia Ruskin University has found that gay and lesbian jobseekers are 5% less likely to be offered a job interview than heterosexual applicants with comparable skills and experience. As an employer, you have a...

How to Deal with Bullying at Work

May 26, 2021

Bullying at work can take shape in many different forms. We expect the perpetrator's actions to be aggressive and in-your-face but in reality workplace bullying is more subtle so harder to spot. Lioness Recruitment's helpful guide will show you how to identify and stop bullying at work and help you get the advice and support you need. Workplace bullying generally includes acts or verbal comments that could hurt or mentally isolate...

Signal Boost for Digital Skills

May 19, 2021

We Are Digital’s chief executive, Matt Adam, outlines the digital skills gap facing the UK’s employers and the digital marketing roles opening up across the job market for tenants as a result. Finding work and income-generating opportunities for tenants is an ongoing concern for housing providers. The pandemic has changed the workplace, possibly forever, and finding a job offline in lockdown has become impossible for many....

May Reads: Top Nature and Wellbeing Books

May 13, 2021

Since the pandemic hit, we have been confined to living and, for some of us, working indoors. During lockdown, our encounters with nature have had a huge impact on our wellbeing. Going for a walk in the park, listening to bird song and the sound of the wind in the trees overhead has given us some much-needed solace in these difficult times. Understandably, this year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week is nature so we’ve...

How to Re-Evaluate the ‘Return to Normal’

May 12, 2021

To mark Mental Health Awareness Week (10-16 May), Sandy McKay, certified Co-Active Coach, tells us how Co-Active Coaching can help us re-evaluate our lives as we 'return to normal' after a very difficult year. Coaching the person, not the problem Many people have been re-evaluating their lives since the pandemic started and as a Co-Active coach, it is a topic that’s recurring with my clients. It’s at the very crux of...

How to Look After Your Mental Health Whilst Job Searching

May 11, 2021

Lioness Recruitment share their advice on how to manage your mental health whilst job hunting so that you have a happier and more productive experience. Job hunting is usually an intense process and can have a huge impact on your mental wellbeing. Especially, as for most people, their career is closely linked to their identity, so searching for a job is like searching for a piece of themselves and until that piece is in place,...

Noticing and Connecting with Nature During the Pandemic

May 10, 2021

Dr Iain Hamlin, Post-Doctoral Researcher, and Miles Richardson, Professor of Human Factors and Nature Connectedness at the University of Derby and Head of the Nature Connectedness Research Group, examine how noticing, connecting with or spending time in nature during the coronavirus lockdowns has affected the wellbeing of both ourselves and our natural environment. During the restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic, people have...

Let's Walk

May 04, 2021

May is National Walking Month and during the past year walking has become more popular than ever. A recent Transport for London report found that 57% of people say they now go on more walks for exercise or walk for longer than they did before the pandemic. Rachel Ward Lilley tells us more about the health and wellbeing benefits of walking. I have no idea how many walks I have been on – short walk, long...

Nurtured by Nature: 5 Ways Nature Improves Your Wellbeing

Apr 28, 2021

There’s no doubt that spending time in nature can lift your spirits and simply going for a walk in the park has been a big comfort to many of us during lockdown. To coincide with Stress Awareness Month, Rachel Ward Lilley discusses the health and wellbeing benefits of nature. Have you been spending too much time in front of a screen during the pandemic? I certainly have. In fact, a new OFCOM report states that UK residents are...

How to Create New Habits to Manage Stress Holistically

Apr 20, 2021

Sara Smyth discusses how to create new habits to help you manage your response to stress. We’ve talked about stress and self-care more in the last year than ever before. But are we putting any of the advice into practice? Have we changed our habits for good? Most of us know we should be taking regular breaks in the fresh air, reducing our screen time, eating well and getting a good night’s sleep. We know what we...

Highly Effective Stress-Busters

Apr 12, 2021

April is Stress Awareness Month and we've listed some highly effective stress-busting activities that you can incorporate into your daily routine. Staff absence can often be caused by stress, so identifying the causes is vital for team managers and leaders. Sometimes we don't even realise we are stressed until we take some time off and, in many cases, get ill. Extreme stress at work can lead to you feeling exhausted, disengaged and...

Top 5 Stress Management Books

Apr 06, 2021

April is Stress Awareness Month and we’ll be sharing various articles here on how to manage stress during these troubled times. We thought we’d start by listing some useful books that will help you manage and reduce stress. Me Time: The Self-Care Guide That Transforms You From Surviving to Thriving by Jessica Sanders (White Lion Publishing, Hardback/Ebook, January 2021) This is a wonderfully visual and well-designed guide...

Workplace Wellbeing in Housing Survey - Let Us Know Your Thoughts

Mar 31, 2021

About the survey We launched Housing Technology Wellbeing last year to give our community the opportunity to share their experiences and learn how other organisations are approaching the creation of healthier work cultures. A recent report found that job quality has deteriorated over the last few years and the pandemic has had an even worse impact on people’s mental and physical health. It’s clear now more...

How to Take Control of Your Motivation

Mar 25, 2021

Sam Martin, mental performance coach, discusses the benefits of applying self-determination theory (SDT) to take control of our motivation levels. Motivation is fickle. It often fails to show when we need it most, and even when it does show, its appearance is short-lived. These motivation features seem to have exacerbated over the past year in which millions of people throughout the UK have had their entire work lives disrupted....

Hyde Housing: Staff Wellbeing Q&A

Mar 16, 2021

We interviewed Hyde Housing, one of the UK's leading housing providers, to find out more about their staff wellbeing initiative. Can you tell us a bit about Hyde Housing? We are one of the UK’s leading and award-winning providers of affordable housing in London, the south east of England and neighbouring areas. We have approximately 1,100 members of staff in the team. How was your employee wellbeing initiative conceived? We...

Yorkshire Housing Cuts its Gender Pay Gap

Mar 10, 2021

Yorkshire Housing has cut its average gender pay gap by 8.35%, from 9.5% to 1.15%. The median (middle) gender pay gap, influenced by the distribution of men and women in roles with different levels of pay, has also been cut from 14.7% to -0.94%. Its evolution to a fully flexible way of working, giving colleagues the choice of when and where to work, has helped boost its progress. Yorkshire Housing has also committed again this year to...

Imagination Makes Our World Work Better

Feb 24, 2021

The past year has caused stress, difficulty and confusion for many of us. Much of what we thought we knew or had come to take for granted has been challenged and changed. We all look forward to the end of the pandemic and a return to ‘normal’ but. Meanwhile, we have time to question ‘normal’ and re-set some of life’s less desirable parameters. Do we really just want to wait to see what happens, or be told what to...

As Safe As Houses: Building Resilience

Feb 18, 2021

By George Grant, CEO, Co-founder and Publisher at Housing Technology My earliest childhood memories comprise pictures in my head, randomly coming to mind. I remember being with my dad in his garage at Clapham North in south London and wondering where my mother had gone. It’s all a bit vague, but I do remember a very kind social worker and a lovely nursery school in Surrey. As a single parent building up his business, my dad was...

Supporting wellbeing in the workplace