Workplace Wellbeing: top speakers driving healthy corporate cultures
Healthy, high-performing workplaces start with people. The culture a business creates - how it leads, communicates and supports its teams - shapes whether people feel able to contribute, collaborate and do their best work.
There is evidence behind that connection. Research from the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, drawing on around one million employee surveys across 1,782 publicly listed US companies, found that higher employee wellbeing was associated with stronger profitability and company value. How people feel at work deserves a place in the conversation about business performance.
Wellbeing is part of the everyday experience: how managers respond when someone is struggling, whether colleagues feel comfortable asking for help, and what happens when workloads become too much. These are the moments that put an organisation’s values into practice.
The right workplace wellbeing speakers can help businesses explore that connection between people, culture and performance. They bring fresh perspectives, relatable experiences and practical ideas that audiences can take back to their teams.
From coaches and culture specialists to mental health speakers with powerful personal stories, here are six voices from Pomona Partners to consider for your next event.
Grace Marshall: rethinking the way we work
Perpetual busyness. Perfectionism. Saying yes when there’s already too much to do. These are familiar workplace behaviours, and the starting point for Grace Marshall’s exploration of what she calls High Functioning Fear®.
An author, keynote speaker and productivity expert, Grace helps audiences examine how unspoken fears influence working habits, confidence and culture. Her approach gives leaders and teams a practical way to explore how they work together through change.
Consider Grace for: team away days, HR and learning events, and organisations looking to address the habits behind constant busyness.
Phil Lewis: understanding energy at work
Coach, consultant and keynote speaker Phil Lewis explores the relationship between organisational culture, energy and performance.
His experiential approach invites leaders to consider what gives their people energy, what drains it, and how the working environment shapes both. It’s a useful perspective for businesses looking to connect their wellbeing ambitions with everyday management decisions.
Consider Phil for: leadership away days, culture programmes and teams exploring how to sustain energy through organisational change.
Caroline Cavanagh: a different perspective on anxiety
Anxiety specialist Caroline Cavanagh invites audiences to reconsider their relationship with anxiety, exploring what it can tell us about our concerns, priorities and responses to pressure.
Her talks focus on understanding anxiety and building mental resilience, giving event organisers a specialist voice for conversations about stress and emotional wellbeing.
Consider Caroline for: employee wellbeing programmes, workplace stress discussions and events exploring how people respond to uncertainty.
Alex Staniforth: resilience with honesty and vulnerability
Adventurer, author and charity founder Alex Staniforth combines extraordinary experiences with an openness about his own mental health.
Having survived disasters on Everest, Alex brings a distinctive perspective to adversity. His talks also explore the challenges closer to home, drawing on his experience of mental ill health and the role of nature in wellbeing.
For organisations seeking motivational speakers, his approach offers adventure, vulnerability and practical ideas through his “Resilience Rucksack” toolkit.
Consider Alex for: company conferences, resilience workshops and events connecting mental health, personal experience and the outdoors.
Choosing the right workplace wellbeing speaker
Start with the conversation your organisation needs to have. Are you helping managers support their teams? Opening up discussion about mental health? Exploring workloads, digital habits or the pressures of change?
That brief will help determine whether you need a coach, a specialist practitioner, a speaker with lived experience or a combination of perspectives. Be specific about the audience, the challenges they face and what you want them to take away.
A speaker can open the conversation and give people a shared starting point. The next step is making space for those ideas in everyday working life.
Looking for workplace wellbeing speakers for your next event? Explore Pomona Partners’ speakers, or get in touch for a shortlist shaped around your audience and objectives.