Hamish Clark
Chief Wellness Officer and Health Industries Partner, PwC Middle East
Dear Alumni
What does wellness mean to you? Is it something fluffy, intangible, esoteric? For me it is deeply personal. Wellness is how I look after myself, my family and my teams from not only a physical and social perspective, but most importantly a mental wellbeing perspective.
Bruce Daisley, the award-winning author of The Joy of Work and creator/host of the podcast Eat, Sleep, Work Repeat speaks about creating psychologically safe and happy workplaces. I totally believe in this ethos. I also believe our people give their best and it is therefore up to us as leaders to create the environment for our people to thrive, underpinned by action oriented Wellness.
As a leading global professional advisory business on a rocket ship of growth in the Middle East, we are facing a complex set of challenges at the moment on the people front including, increased competition for talent, hybrid working making it harder to connect socially and the pandemic driving us to question our own purpose. Given this context, it is really energising that our ME Leadership Team have set a positive tone by leading and investing in wellness for our people, including:
- Being the first firm in the global Network to build and implement the Digital Wellbeing App, providing positive mental wellbeing for our staff on demand when they need it
- Professionally training over 180 xLoS staff as Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA) in conjunction with The Lighthouse Arabia, the only accredited provider of MHFA in the UAE
- Implementing a bespoke Wellness Program for our Partners to help their own resilience in managing sleep, nutrition, exercise and psychology in leading great teams
- Launching the Resilience Redefined Podcast series where we hear from business leaders, clinical psychologists and eminent authors who share their insights and perspective on wellness. The first three episodes are linked below:
- Episode #1 : Mental Resilience and the Future of Work with Bruce Daisley
- Episode #2 : Practical Insights into Happiness with Professor Paul Dolan
- Episode #3 : A conversation on self-awareness with Dr. Saliha Afridi
- Hosting a firmwide livestream with Mo Gawdat, the award winning author of Solve for Happy, Scary Smart and that Little Voice in your Head on his perspective on Happiness
- In May, 21 of our colleagues cycled 220 kilometres from Aqaba on the Red Sea to the Dead Sea in Jordan over 2 days to raise money for Refugee education. We’re very proud of their efforts to give back to our communities, make new friends and stay fit.
In my role as Chief Wellness Officer it is hugely encouraging to see the diversity, energy and action oriented approach to wellness coming to life. As PwC Alumni it would be great to connect with any of you on this agenda, particularly if you have any good practice to share in your roles since leaving the firm.
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