We're very excited this month to be recording a podcast with Anthony Ryland, for Tap'd Solutions. Anthony and Natalie will be discussing a topic that we highlighted in our May newsletter - moral injury at work and the impact on wellbeing. Our discussion will focus on HR professionals, but our discussion points will be relevant to anyone working in positions of leadership or responsibility.
Why is this relevant to you? Moral injury occurs when we feel we've been compelled to act in ways that conflict with our core values, often by the demands of our role or organisational pressures. In leadership contexts, it can quietly undermine our decision-making confidence and long-term engagement. This isn't burnout - this is deeper and most people are unaware of this common experience.
What will you learn from listening? We'll consider what moral injury looks like for HR leaders. For example, overseeing organisational change initiatives (e.g. implementing redundancies) while being fully aware of the personal and emotional impact on employees, or being required to prioritise legal risk mitigation over the wellbeing of a team. We'll offer some tips and tools to support your wellbeing through these moments, and help prevent burnout.
Watch this space - we'll let you know when the podcast is due to be released! And of course if you are keen to find out more about this topic, contact us today for a chat.
Our wellbeing isn't just affected by work, it is also impacted by bigger life issues and stressors that we are aware of but can't control. We might come home from work and watch the news or scroll social media, which only adds to our 'stress bucket'.
The circle of control (credited to Stephen Covey) is a tool for your toolkit, that helps you stay grounded when the world feels out of control, and supports you to focus your energy to the most helpful places. The idea is simple (but implementing it is easier said than done!):
We want to limit the amount of time we spend ruminating on things that are in the circle of concern i.e. things that you have no control over. These include geopolitics, how AI will influence the future of the workplace or business decisions made by the board.
Of course we can give these issues some consideration, but then we bring our focus back to things within our circle of control. These may include your own boundaries and behaviour, or writing and implementing policies or team initiatives.
You might also be able to take actions on things within your circle of influencee.g. contributing actively to a culture of psychological safety at work, or making your manager aware of your supervision preferences.
And when we put this into practice successfully? You spend less time activating your physiological threat system (your 'fight or flight' response) with worry and rumination, and therefore reduce the amount of adrenaline and cortisol that is stuck in your system. This equals better mental and physical health. Give it a try today!
💡 CEO Today Magazine has named corporate wellness the 'ultimate power status symbol of 2025'! An overstatement? Hyperbole? Wishful thinking? We don't think so! The key points echo things we regularly discuss, in particular the need to make sure that wellbeing initiatives are not tokenistic. When we see companies get this right it really does result in improved culture, engagement and a good ROI!
💡 These two research studies taken together answer the question: why add training to our wellbeing package?
This study reports that interventions that target individuals (e.g. EAP, counselling provisions, coaching, etc.) do not result in any measurable improvement in employee wellbeing! Whilst we believe that this piece of the wellbeing puzzle is essential as part of a wider package, it is not the full story.
The good news is that this study looked at group training in the workplace on skills such as emotional intelligence (this is exactly the kind of thing we offer at Empresa Psychology). They concluded that "trainings in the working environment significantly enhance emotional competencies. This training effect persisted also three months after training end".
In June we've been having conversations with leaders about psychological safety in the workplace. Here are some key themes that have come up:
💬 There is still confusion about what psychological safety actually means. We've been to several conferences recently, and there have been a few instances when a talk billed as psychological safety only spoke about wellbeing at work in general, leaving listeners wanting more.
💬 Team managers and HR leaders are seeing psychological safety as a key priority, noting the impact of low psychological safety on engagement and work output. However, barriers remain to addressing the issues, including limited funding and lack of buy in from senior leadership teams.
💬 For those who understand what psychological safety is (and is not!), questions remain on HOW to improve psychological safety in their organisations. There seems to be limited information and expertise out there on this point.
Good news! We can help!
At Empresa Psychology, we've read all of Professor Amy Edmonson's work so you don't have to. We have years of experience supporting teams and organisations to build psychologically safe cultures. We can even measure psychological safety across your teams, which will help you make the business case for why this is a business critical issue to be addressed right now!
A shout-out this month to Dr Anna McLaughlin, who is a neuroscientist and founder of Sci-translate. Her company helps bridge the gap between research and real-world application, contributing to health innovation in a truly evidence-based way. It is always such a pleasure to meet fellow academics in the world of corporate wellbeing, and I am very grateful to her for informing me about the two studies linked above (see the 'wellbeing in the news' section)! I look forward to future collaborations and mutual learning!
