The Happiness Index - Data. Insight. Stories

Matt Phelan
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Research, data, evidence and the stories of people focused on employee engagement, workplace happiness and driving performance at work. Connect with Matt via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewphelan/

  1. Clarity as a superpower with Dr. Amanda Henwood

    1D AGO

    Clarity as a superpower with Dr. Amanda Henwood

    This week, we’re handing the host chair to Stefan Tornquist. He's the lead author of our Global Workplace Happiness Report. Stefan is interviewing the experts shaping the future of work. His guest today is the fascinating Dr Amanda Henwood. Amanda is a practising behavioural scientist at Influence at Work. She advises world-class organisations on how to change mindsets and resolve complex behavioural challenges. Amanda brings a wealth of expertise in how clarity impacts everything from individual anxiety to broader business performance. We explore: 🧠 The threat response. Unclear situations light up the threat centres in the brain. This triggers avoidance and procrastination instead of engagement. 🎯 Role clarity. Training your leaders to be clear creates a trickle-down effect for everyone. It makes the process of doing the work much easier for your people. 📈 The anxiety recipe. Forcing people to constantly predict unclear outcomes leads directly to workplace anxiety. This drains the focus needed for productive tasks. 🤝 Building trust. Lack of clarity breaks down teamwork and erodes trust in leadership. Clear paths help cut through the chaos of modern business. 🤖 AI as a thinking partner. Stress testing your arguments with AI can improve the clarity of your strategy. It helps managers find the "holes" in their communication. Amanda argues that wellbeing comes from being free within clear limits. Like a game of chess, your people thrive when they know the rules and their role in winning. Are you ready to stop the second-guessing and start building a culture of certainty?

    44 min
  2. The human capital factor with David Van Adelsberg

    MAR 6

    The human capital factor with David Van Adelsberg

    This week, we’re handing the host chair to Stefan Tornquist- lead author of our Global Workplace Happiness Report. Stefan is interviewing the experts contributing to the report. His guest today is the fascinating David Van Adelsberg. David is the co-founder of Irrational Capital. He bridges the gap between technology, human capital, and finance. David has spent years quantifying the connection between how your people are treated and future equity value. He's a veteran of IBM and human capital consulting who pivoted to the financial world to prove that people are a company's most important asset. 📈 The equity value connection. Workplace well-being links directly to the total economic value of your company. David calls this the human capital factor.🧠 Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivators. Pay and benefits matter, but they're modest compared to emotive drivers. Trust, psychological safety, and a sense of pride are what really light up the board.💰 Hard evidence over soft metrics. Treating people well isn't just a nice-to-have. David’s large-cap index has outperformed the S&P 500 by over 170 basis points.🛡️ The volatility buffer. Thriving cultures act as a cushion against negative market factors. High-performance environments show lower drawdowns when things get tough.🙌 The power of appreciation. Building a relationship where your people feel appreciated is the most impactful lever for a CEO to pull. It’s a straightforward way to improve your future performance.David argues that human capital is the most fundamental asset a business owns. He’s moved beyond words and pictures to prove this with money. Are you ready to turn your culture into a measurable financial advantage?

    36 min
  3. Collabureaucracy and the art of the precision meeting with Dr Carrie Goucher

    FEB 26

    Collabureaucracy and the art of the precision meeting with Dr Carrie Goucher

    This week, we’re handing the host chair to Stefan Tornquist. He's the lead author of our Global Workplace Happiness Report.Stefan is interviewing the experts shaping the future of work. His guest today is the expert-friendly Dr Carrie Goucher. Carrie has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and founded Fewer Faster Bolder. She's transformed the meeting culture at over 150 companies. Carrie spent nearly 20 years leading real change in organisations before her academic journey began. We explore: 🪤 The collabureaucracy trap. Many organisations have a great strategy but struggle to deliver it. This happens when we use industrial era habits for knowledge era work.❌ The bottleneck of the 21st century. Production is no longer the rate-limiting factor. Inefficient collaboration is the new drag on your business.🧟 Zombie meeting invites. We often send and receive random invitations with no clear goal. This creates a system of power and status that settles into a free-for-all.👬 Adult-to-adult relationships. Projects often fail because your people feel too much like children to flag a risk. Breaking the parent-child cycle is the only way to build a culture that is safe to learn.📢 The extrovert bias cascade. Traditional meetings reward the first person to speak. This anchors the group and silences half of your room.Carrie argues that meetings are the site where your culture actually manifests. We need just enough structure to create flow. This isn't just about saving time. It's about productively including every voice to drive performance. Are you ready to stop freestyling and start designing meetings that actually work?

    1h 7m
  4. Performance, pressure and the AI paradox with Dr James Hewitt

    FEB 18

    Performance, pressure and the AI paradox with Dr James Hewitt

    This week, we’re handing the host chair to Stefan Tornquist, author of our Global Workplace Happiness Report, as he interviews the experts shaping the future of work. His guest today is the fascinating Dr James Hewitt. James is a human performance scientist who advises some of the world’s largest organisations on how to build thriving environments and is the author of Regenerative Performance. From his background as a racing cyclist to his current work with Formula One world champions, James has spent over 20 years studying how humans can transform extreme pressure into peak performance. We explore: The "Middle Gear" Trap: Why most knowledge workers are stuck in a "no-man's land" of overflowing inboxes and constant task-switching that kills productivity.Digital Debt: The staggering reality of losing four and a half working weeks a year to fragmented attention and notification overload.AI Risks: How AI could either be a catalyst for excellence or an "activity avalanche" that drowns us in even more low-value noise.Cognitive Endurance: Why we need to treat our brains like elite athletes, balancing high-intensity focus with genuine recovery.James argues that before we upgrade our tech, we must upgrade our human operating system. This isn't just about efficiency—it's about the evidence-based science of working in a way that is sustainable, innovative, and, ultimately, human. Are you ready to stop the "productivity theatre" and start driving real business value?

    46 min
  5. A practical history of workplace wellbeing with Mark Fabian

    FEB 11

    A practical history of workplace wellbeing with Mark Fabian

    Most leaders treat "wellbeing" as a surface-level perk. Mark Fabian treats it as a science. In our latest episode, our new (temporary) host Stefan Tornquist sits down with the University of Warwick policy expert and Cambridge researcher who literally wrote the history of wellbeing for our upcoming report. Mark moves past the clichés to explain the living debates and connections between philosophy, science and day to day wellbeing in the workplace and our lives. We dive into: * The "Big Three" psychological needs that drive performance. * The Misery of Bureaucracy: Why control is killing your culture. * Job Crafting: Why your best people need autonomy, not just a fancy title. * The Satisfaction Flatline: Where money stops working and "meaning" takes over. 🛑 Stop measuring what’s easy   ➡️ Start focusing on what matters.

    42 min
  6. Passing the baton: An emotional farewell

    FEB 5

    Passing the baton: An emotional farewell

    Matt is handing over the microphone. In this emotional episode, he passes the hosting chair to Stefan Torvquist. Stefan is the lead researcher and editor behind the upcoming Global Workplace Happiness Report. He’s taking the baton to lead a special series of interviews with the academics and experts who’ve mapped the current state of world joy. This isn't just a change of voice. It's a deep dive into the data. Stefan shares how drumming helped him find balance and how that same resilience is vital for your people. They discuss the massive task of pulling together global insights to move beyond "nice-to-have" perks and into real business impact. Stefan is bridging the gap between high-level research and your daily operations. Here is what you’ll learn in the coming weeks. Expert-led insights. Interviews with the minds behind the report. They cover everything from AI’s impact to the history of wellbeing. Happiness as a strategy. Wellbeing isn't a "peacetime activity" for when business is easy. It’s the engine that drives you through market chaos. The engagement trap. Highly engaged employees often need help switching off. Purpose creates a drive that leaders must manage to prevent burnout. Tangible business value. Organisations prioritising wellbeing see greater long-term innovation and higher equity value. Why this series is essential for leaders

    9 min
  7. A productive brain does much more than thinking with Petra Kis-Herczegh

    JAN 9

    A productive brain does much more than thinking with Petra Kis-Herczegh

    Petra shares a bold claim from neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett: Your brain isn't for thinking. It's busy keeping your heart beating and managing your body's energy budget. Thinking is just a side hustle. We explore body budget. It's the energy you have available to do things. Simple tasks cost wildly different amounts depending on your mental state. Leaders love providing training but if people are overworked, they can't use it. You're adding another item to an already maxed out budget. We tackle the cognitive offloading panic. Headlines screamed that AI would turn our brains to mush. But it was one preprint study in a very specific context. We love blaming technology for human faults. Were we all thinking perfectly critically before ChatGPT? Petra explains why you can't foster growth mindset without safety. We shouldn't glorify people who beat terrible systems. We should fix the systems. Early support and maternal warmth are huge predictors of resilience later. We discuss why neuroscience matters for business. Your people make or break your company. Most companies spend 50 to 70% of their budget on wages. Understanding how brains actually work isn't academic curiosity. It's strategic necessity. Your people aren't machines. Their brains are complex prediction engines running on limited energy budgets. Understanding this isn't soft. It's financial. It's the difference between systems that work and systems that accidentally sabotage the outcomes you're paying people to deliver.

    33 min
  8. Can AI Make People Happy?

    12/03/2025

    Can AI Make People Happy?

    What if AI isn't the job-stealing villain we've been told to fear, but actually the key to unlocking workplace happiness? Join Matt Phelan, Co-CEO of The Happiness Index, and Suvodeep Das, VP of Global Marketing at Pluxee, for a conversation that flips the AI narrative on its head. Every business leader right now is being squeezed: their core business is under pressure, they're building for an uncertain future, and AI is disrupting everything faster than predicted. But what if we've been asking the wrong question? Part one explores the mind. Discover how AI acts as a co-pilot for your brain—offering clarity, amplifying purpose, personalising career development, and giving employees something precious back: time itself. The evidence is compelling. Part two explores the heart. Can technology help us build better relationships, create psychological safety, and enable the specific acknowledgement different brains need? Suvo shares a powerful reframe: "The CEOs who win won't see AI as a cost-cutting tool, but as a capacity-creating one." From coaching autistic children with AI strategies to understanding why people "job hug" (staying in unhappy roles from fear), this conversation weaves global research, neuroscience, and deeply human stories. The big reveal? On 26th March, The Happiness Index and Pluxee launch the world's deepest study into workplace engagement and happiness. Be part of it. Productivity isn't the goal; it's the outcome. And it only happens when people feel brilliantly human.

    40 min
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Research, data, evidence and the stories of people focused on employee engagement, workplace happiness and driving performance at work. Connect with Matt via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewphelan/

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