Wendy O’Beirne

Wendy O’Beirne is a firm believer that a huge part of job satisfaction is not necessarily ‘the job’, but the culture, communication and understanding of individuals in a collective manner.  By looking at leadership and culture, Wendy enables teams to see where they can create changes that have long lasting success and effect not only in the development of staff, but in job satisfaction, staff retention and perception of what they feel about what they do.

During the Pandemic, Wendy noticed a lot of discussion around feeling ‘purpose’ and almost a negative association with corporate and employment.  She started to see a large amount of talk about not wanting to return to the office or even to their job.  Having insights into statistics around sick leave, mental health and staff retention, it is clear to anyone that there is a need for companies to review things.  Wendy has watched many companies introduce ‘wellness’ programmes to staff, specifically designed to reduce stress.  Whilst this has its place, a feeling of connection is not always to be found in trying to manage the symptom – which presents itself as burn out, stress or leave.  When we look at the cause and dig deeper into that we can see that individuals and teams need to feel a sense of belonging, value from being seen and heard and as if they are truly contributing in some way.

When we do this, Wendy believes that what then happens is that we see a healthier workforce who feel part of something.  As more people return to working in the office and also return to employment from self-employment, it is a great opportunity to cultivate a culture that inspires potential and has a natural effect on sick leave, wellbeing and staff retention.

Working with the leadership team also means that there is an opportunity to help people whose strongest skills may be in the area of their expertise and not necessarily communication or managing people – those in positions where responsibility and accountability may be driving their own behaviour resulting in them also feeling unfulfilled.  Wendy helps teams recognise ways to team build outside of one-off days or reward systems, and instead drive change from within the culture from the top down. It is at this point that leaders and employees are able to see things from a different perspective, creating a long term shift which can continue to built upon even when there are key staff changes.