As we gear up for an upcoming webinar on the competencies and capabilities of successful wellbeing professionals, we’ve been reflecting on the current state of the wellbeing profession and the challenges it faces. Wellbeing management is still a new role, and there is not a lot of consistency across the industry.
Here are some of our observations:
1. People have gravitated towards the wellbeing profession from really broad backgrounds – anything from learning and development, HR, health and safety, nursing to physiotherapy or lived experience. This means that any two wellbeing professionals may have vastly different educational backgrounds, professional experiences, or views on what it takes to successfully promote workplace wellbeing.
2. With very few set tertiary education pathways (as there are in accounting or law, for example), entering and maintaining professional development in the profession is challenging (which is why we do what we do!).
3. What employers are looking for is really varied so it can be very hard to go from one wellbeing job to another. You could have two ‘wellbeing manager’ jobs advertised and, while they have the same title, one is at a co-ordinator level and the other is at a senior level with the expectation of experience in trauma, counselling or board reporting. That’s a big difference!
4. There can be a difference between what employers want and what they need. An employer might think they want someone with certain technical skills such as health promotion, but what they need is someone who can understand the business and re-design work, or work with leaders and influence internally.
5. And finally, some of the top capabilities that wellbeing managers we work with are looking to upskill in include: influencing leaders, being more strategic and engaging tough-to-reach audiences.
If you’re looking to develop your professional competence in wellbeing, check out our free downloadable template.
