LinkedIn image
Get A Quote
Howdy
Let's put wellbeing on the agenda

The Wellbeing Dialogue

The wellbeing dialogue is not always easy to start. Here are some tips and tricks on how to put wellbeing and Howdy on the agenda for your next team or department meeting, or perhaps your next one-on-one.

Starting a dialogue
General tips
One-on-one dialogue
Team meeting

Starting a wellbeing dialogue based on your Howdy data

The wellbeing data and dialogue can provide you with insight and understanding of what strengthens or challenges the wellbeing in your workplace. This enables you to work with the most relevant wellbeing issues.

We recommend you log into your Howdy dashboard and consider:

How to frame your dialogue and data

Make sure to appreciate honest answers more than a high Howdy score.

You can do this by focusing on trying to understand what affects the Howdy score over how many Howdy stars you have.

What data to focus on

Take into account, that the wellbeing bars show how many employees are currently in the green, yellow, and red zones. This could encourage a focus on “who is in the red?”, which might not necessarily be the discussion you want.

So, if you decide to show the wellbeing bars, make sure to maintain your focus and consider whether your team will benefit from seeing the graph or not – you know your team best.

View our webinar- for free

Facilitate a good wellbeing meeting

(Webinar is in Danish)

General tips for talking about wellbeing

1.
Meet input with openness, curiosity, and appreciation.

When you are open, curious, and appreciative, you show respect for the issues presented to you, even when you do not perceive the issue as a problem.

Examples:
“Do you have something to add?”
“What does it mean to you in your everyday life when…?”
“Why do you think this is a good idea?”

2.
Ask open-ended questions – as a manager you do not always have the answers, so feel free to ask questions instead of answering questions.

Examples:
“What do you think, when you see the wellbeing curve / score?”
“What have we done well in the past 14 days?”
“How would you like us to do something else?”
“How have you solved similar challenges in the past?”

3.
Encourage reflection: Allow all meeting participants to think for 2 minutes, before you start a joint dialogue or ask them to answer a question.

As human beings we highly influence each other’s thoughts, which is why the first person to speak at a meeting often has a subconscious influence on other meeting participants.

4.
Show courage - Take initiative to open up and share your own wellbeing situation, especially when the employees find the dialogue difficult to start.

5.
Make sure to wrap up the dialogue and provide a summary, or ask one or more of the meeting participants "what do you take from our wellbeing dialogue/meeting?"

Feel free to make a plan for the next steps – so you can follow up the next time, you talk about Howdy.

“Thank you for a good dialogue within the team. We’ve touched on (…) and can take the following (…) with us. I/we/they continue to work with (…)”

Six tips for a one-on-one dialogue with your employee

1.
Start the dialogue in a safe environment.

2.
Make your purpose and the framework of the conversation clear.

Example:
“I want to hear how you are doing and help you, if needed”

3.
Ask open-ended and curious questions.

“How is your situation right now?”
“What is it important to you that we talk about today?”
“What is the best way for me to help you?”

You can ask, whether the employee wants a Howdy check-in:

“Where are you in Howdy right now?”
“Have you experienced changes?”

4.
Share your observations but avoid judging.

“I have noticed that you are smiling less.”
“I have noticed that you have not been joining lunch lately.”
“I have noticed that you have come up with many good ideas in recent weeks.”

5.
Speak to the employee's motivation and strengths, as well as how these can be used to solve specific challenges.

An example of motivation can be good at helping others: Ask the employee: “When is helping others an advantage for you?”, “when can it become an challenge helping others?”

An example of strength can be useful in working relations: “How can you use your relational skills to overcome a challenge?”

Ask the employee: “How would you advise a colleague, who was in your situation, on what to do?”

6.
Wrap up with a summary of the conversation and agree how to proceed from here.

“Thank you for a good dialogue within the team. We’ve touched on (…) and can take the following (…) with us. I/we/they continue to work with (…)”

Good advice for the department or team meeting

Here, you have a concrete plan and good advice on how you can talk about wellbeing at the department- or team meeting

1.
Align your expectations.

“How do we, as a group, want to work with Howdy?”
“What do you expect from me, as a manager, in relation to Howdy?”
”How do we want to work with the group’s wellbeing in the future? What are we already doing today? And where can we improve?”

2.
Structure the dialogue.

Find a meeting facilitator – this could be a team member or yourself.
Make sure that everyone says something at the meeting, e.g. doing a round table.
Feel free to use a specific dialogue tool, e.g., the post-it-method or IGLO model (se dialogue tools).

3.
Work in themes, let the employees set the agenda, and make sure the meeting has a specific focus.

For example, by summarising:

“You bring (…) themes to the table”
“I have further observed (…)”
“Today we have (…) time”
“What do you say we focus on (…) and (…)? The other themes (…) and (…) we can work with on (…)”

Examples of themes: Howdy score, work pressure, general wellbeing development, trust and psychological safety.

4.
Remember to wrap things up.

Summarise, or let one of the meeting participants summarise, the themes you have been through. You can also ask around the room and let each participant say what they take with them from the meeting.

Agree on a reasonable deadline for when the next steps should be taken and/or arrange a follow-up meeting.