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 - potentiall...

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 us...

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 sur...

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 kindl...

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/0Z...

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 ...

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.&nbs...

In this podcast, Professor Kevin Daniels speaks with Chris Tamdjidi, MD and business development director of Awaris, a multinational company that aims to strengthen the mental, emotional, and collaborative capabilities of people in companies. Kevin and Chris discuss how to cultivate resilient habits at individual and organisational level, drawing on insight drawn together in Chris' book: The Resilient Culture: How collective resilience leads to business success.

In this episode of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing podcast, Dr Helen Fitzhugh of the University of East Anglia speaks with Dr Balissa Greene, an occupational psychologist working in Accenture’s Leadership and Culture practice. Balissa has a strong track record of driving impactful change in diversity, inclusion and wellbeing across the public and private sectors. In this conversation, Balissa shares her insights on how to do 'real world' impactful research and how to overcome resistance to pro...

In this podcast, Dr Helen Fitzhugh speaks with Professor Daiga Kamerāde (University of Salford) and Professor Brendan Burchell (University of Cambridge) about their research on the four day working week and other types of working time reduction. Daiga and Brendan share insight into the research trial carried out recently at South Cambridgeshire District Council which showed how the council was able to maintain or improve performance, according to many of its key performance indicators, during...

In this edition of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing podcast, Professor Kevin Daniels speaks with Professor Paula Brough from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. She is the Director of the Research Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing (WOW) and an expert on the topic of occupational stress and coping. Here, she discusses her work on tackling stress and burnout in high risk occupations - those occupations where challenge and even danger are an integral part of the nature of the job...

In this edition of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing Podcast, Dr Helen Fitzhugh of the University of East Anglia speaks with Lisa Chamberlain, a doctoral candidate at the University of Liverpool working in the field of Human Resource Management research. Lisa's previous experience as a Sergeant in the US army and an HR manager in a small Liverpool business led her to PhD research on job quality in small businesses for hairdressers. Engaging and insightful throughout, Lisa shares examples of rela...

In this edition of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing podcast, Helen Fitzhugh speaks with Rachael Skews, Chartered Psychologist, coach and founder of Cognus Consulting on the topic of psychological flexibility at work and its relationship with wellbeing and performance.

In this edition of our regular podcast, Professor Kevin Daniels speaks to Dr Sema Etuknwa about her extensive work on improving return to work practices. Sema gives insights into good return to work from her Innovate UK part-funded knowledge transfer partnership between the University of Huddersfield and Swiss Re. She describes the toolkit she has been developing to support better communication between all the return to work stakeholders involved in each worker's absence and return jour...

In this podcast, Dr Helen Fitzhugh of the Workplace Wellbeing Research Team at the University of East Anglia talks with Chloe Jepps of CMI about the importance of good management for wellbeing, performance, retention and more. With a focus on CMI's recent Better Managers Campaign (report freely downloadable here: https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-and-insights/research/better-management-report-take-responsibility-take-action/ ) the podcast also explores other pieces of research carri...

In this podcast, Professor Kevin Daniels of the Workplace Wellbeing team at the University of East Anglia speaks with Valarie Williams-Foy, Senior Organisational Development Consultant at Imperial College London. They talk about how evidence can be used to support organisational development. A note for those who may be coming in fresh to listening to our podcasts...- Mention of 'Helen' refers to Dr Helen Fitzhugh, producer of this podcast and another member of the Workplace Wellbeing Tea...

In this podcast we will look at an issue which could influence workplaces and workplace wellbeing in the future: Universal Basic Income. Dr Mark Bryan from the University of Sheffield joins us to explain what UBI is, who is thinking about it and the potential implications for organisations, managers and HR leads. Usually on our podcast we catch-up retrospectively with ways research has been used to influence workplace wellbeing. It’s important to base action on evidence and our pod...

In this podcast Dr Emma Russell of the University of Sussex joins Dr Helen Fitzhugh from the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing Team. Emma is an expert in understanding email behaviours at work - those which support workplace wellbeing and better performance - and those which are problematic and should be avoided. In this podcast she explains four 'super actions' to beat problematic email behaviours and in doing so, improve wellbeing and performance. With colleagues she has just published an op...

We are delighted to host a takeover of the Evolve Workplace Wellbeing Podcast by the IPPO (The International Public Policy Observatory) to mark the publication of the IPPO's rapid evidence review on NHS staff wellbeing. Professor Kevin Daniels from our UEA team offers an overview of the report's findings first, then Sarah O'Meara of the IPPO asks questions of report authors Professor Sara Connolly (UEA), Dr Christian van Stolk (RAND Europe) and Professor Kevin Fong (UCL).A summary can be foun...