Policies that Promote Work-life Balance With Lisa Finnegan
In today’s episode of The Work Well Podcast, we welcome recently promoted VP of International HRBP for LinkedIn, Lisa Finnegan. Lisa has worked at LinkedIn for 5 years and has over 17 years of experience in HR within the technology sector in Ireland. In this episode, Lisa shares her thoughts on remote work and wellbeing based on her own experience of working from home over the past year.
In addition to her role at LinkedIn, Lisa is also a wellness ambassador and a gym and fitness enthusiast, mom to a golden cockapoo named Bear and a self-proclaimed building project manager and interior design expert having recently renovated her home in the midst of a pandemic.
Those details will have to wait for another time. What we discuss in this episode is how to promote well-being in a large company such as LinkedIn in creative and applicable ways that can work for small and large teams.
Wellbeing initiatives to make work-life balance easier
Lisa starts this episode by telling us about some of the policies adopted by LinkedIn during the pandemic to support employee wellbeing. Policies like a company-wide day-off or 60 days of paid annual leave are just some of the interventions that LinkedIn has put into practice. The day off was particularly effective as it was applied to the whole company on the same day. As Lisa said herself, you avoid having to come back to work with an inbox full of emails (as there was no one in work to send you anything!).
Another great initiative is the LiftUp programme. The Ukulele Rock Project with Bressie was a standout intervention as part of LiftUp as it resulted in a 20% increase in people’s mood. It is not known how many LinkedIn colleagues were motivated to move to Stoneybatter after this project :-)
We have a plan, but how do we make it engaging?
Something we see often is that wellbeing initiatives can become boring and dull when used too often and fail to meet the needs and desires of employees. Lisa explains that most team members don’t want to spend more time in front of their computers after finishing their shifts. Surprised? Me neither. This is where creativity and participation come into play. Acknowledging what employees really want is the best way of supporting their well-being.
“It’s about trying to respect that flexibility, what works for the individual as much as what works for the company”, says Lisa in this regard.
Mastering remote team management
How can you manage a team that is spread all over the world in different time zones and cultures? The answer is not that simple, but Lisa tells us, from her experience, that understanding different schedules and adopting wellbeing interventions that are relative to local requirements are LinkedIn’s biggest advantages.
Scheduling meetings at convenient times and days for each team, depending on their location, and also empowering local teams and employees to lead initiatives at a local level can go a long way. All of this is on top of the cultural foundation that sees LinkedIn as a company that is genuinely inclusive and shows empathy towards its employees and minority groups such as the LGBTQ+ community.
Creating a psychologically safe environment
Lisa spoke about the fact that fertility issues are still a taboo topic in the workplace. Lisa shared her own story recently with her colleagues and is also an advocate for the #MyWholeSelf campaign. As a leader, Lisa sees this as a way to create an environment that is receptive to people’s needs and offers a safe space to talk about personal issues that might impact their work life. Lisa uses her journey as an example of how personal events have strong psychological effects on people’s performances, not just for women, in this case, but for their partners.
Her approach is an empathic one, creating an environment that encourages employees to talk about these issues and reducing the stigma associated with them.
What can we expect of working models for the future?
For Lisa, and LinkedIn, remote work isn’t a contingency measure anymore. Following a consultation with staff (listening to needs and wants yet again), the company is considering the idea of allowing employees to work remotely up to 50% of the time and choosing their own time to work in the office.
This form of assertive and transparent communication allows for a more participative work environment, and, as Lisa said, can promote the wellbeing and overall performance of the employees. The future of work at LinkedIn will be led by employees.
Listen to the entire podcast above or search for ‘The Work Well Podcast’ on your preferred podcast platform (including Spotify), and you can watch the video of our conversation through this link.
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.
If you want to bring sustainable wellbeing to your workplace then check out The Work Well Institute’s flagship programme, Developing a Workplace Wellness Programme that Lasts.
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
Competition Time
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