The Happiness Index - Data. Insight. Stories

What if the metrics we're obsessing over in business are fundamentally flawed? What if true progress lies in something far more nuanced than just the bottom line?

We had a truly fascinating conversation that stretched from the digital foundations of government to the radical pursuit of happiness in a nation's DNA.

Our guest is the brilliant Tiffany St. James, Chief Commercial Officer at Vitalis Capital. We were wowed by Tiffany's deep understanding of measuring impact beyond simple economic growth. We delve into Vitalis Capital's work, their frameworks rooted in global institutions, and their focus on creating genuine socioeconomic development.

Can we truly measure a nation's success by the well-being of its people? Is there a way to balance economic progress with genuine human flourishing?

Tiffany offers compelling insights, drawing on her diverse experience and her direct engagement with these groundbreaking ideas.

Ready to challenge your assumptions about what truly drives progress and prosperity?

Join us as we go Beyond GDP.

What ignites the spark in your team? How do you balance commercial needs with the well-being of your people?

In this episode, Zoe Rumford, a seasoned Chief People Officer, shares her wisdom on cultivating a culture of clarity, kindness, and unstoppable passion.

• Explore: Zoe's journey from advisory roles to leading global teams.
• Discover: Practical tips for context-switching and staying commercially minded without sacrificing your peo
• ple.
• Learn: How to frame the "why" to fuel your team's drive and help them reach their full potential.
• Reflect: On the importance of empathy, honest feedback, and creating a workplace where everyone feels seen and heard.

Curious about how to unlock your people's potential? Let's go...

Can Lawyers Be Happy?

The insightful Chris Morse joins us to dissect the wellbeing of legal professionals. High pressure, long hours – can happiness thrive? And crucially, what's the business impact if it doesn't?

Forget fluffy notions. We're talking tangible results. Happy people = boosted productivity, sharper innovation, and stronger retention. The data backs it up, across all sectors, including the demanding legal field.

So, how do you measure and improve happiness, even in high-stakes environments like law? That's what Chris and I are unpacking. Evidence-based insights to move beyond guesswork.

Ready to see how a focus on wellbeing – for everyone – directly fuels your bottom line?

Intrigued by the happy lawyer paradox? Tune in now.

Ever felt that spark of pure happiness, that feeling you wish you could bottle? This week on the Happiness Index Podcast, Matt chats with the brilliant Andrea Callender, Inclusion & Diversity Director at Alexander McQueen, about chasing and recreating those very moments.

What if happiness isn't just fleeting? What if understanding those peak experiences could unlock a more engaged and thriving workforce? Andrea shares a truly insightful moment that sparked a profound thought: happiness often resides in the simple act of being present with people you care about.

Could focusing on these human connections be the key to a happier, more productive organisation? Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that might just shift how you think about happiness at work.

Curious about the happiness levels of your people? Let's explore how understanding their experiences can drive real performance.

Happy to help,

The Team at The Happiness Index - Let's make work happier!

La Fosse CPO Hannah Thompson joins Matt Phelan on the Happiness Index Podcast!

They explore the power of curiosity in HR, the vital link between employee experience and business success, and the unique impact of employee ownership.

Get actionable insights on fostering employee voice, building trust, and levelling up your HR career.

Entrepreneur Matt Phelan sits down with multi-award-winning diversity and inclusion expert Mo Kanjilal to discuss her book the Inclusion Journey and what is next up on the journey.

About Mo Kanjilal

Co-Creator of multi-award-winning diversity and inclusion company, Watch This Sp_ce. TedX speaker, Non-Exec Director, Trustee, writer, and campaigner for equality.
Our book 'The Inclusion Journey' is published by Kogan Page.
My experience as an award-winning Vice-President at a global corporation has seen me lead change management, diversity, inclusion and employee engagement programs across a range of sectors.
My work includes:
- Co-Creator at Watch This Sp_ce helping you with your inclusion journey. Watch This Sp_ce works across sectors, has won many awards and we speak regularly at events.
- Non-Exec Director at Here – Care Unbound, a healthcare social enterprise in Sussex leading on communications, diversity and inclusion.
- Vice-Chair at The Clock Tower Sanctuary charity, leading on diversity and inclusion.
And I am a Tedx speaker, Author, and mentor for the Girls' Network charity.

• Tell us about your career

• Why do employees act the way they do?

• What factors influence employee engagement scores?

• How can we foster curiosity in the workplace?

• How can we shift from reactive "firefighting" to proactive problem-solving?

• What is the role of leadership in creating a supportive work environment?

• How can we create an environment where employees feel empowered and free to be human?

  
  

  About Anne Burt

  
  

  With two decades of experience in change, engagement, communications and continuous improvement, I have a wide range of skills in understanding and reaching audiences. I have designed and implemented award-winning and industry-recognised solutions for hard to reach staff and stakeholders.

  
  I have extensive experience of leading, designing, creating and driving business change strategies.
  My innovative and collaborative working style, along with my expertise in people issues and strong facilitation skills, means I am a trusted adviser during major organisation change.

Workplace Happiness expert Matt Phelan and Global Communications and HR Leader Stephanie Sampiere sit down to discuss the DNA of the workplace culture and how that manifests in a healthy EVP.

About Stephanie Sampiere

Accomplished global communications, people, change and culture strategist who partners with executives to lead employee communications, engagement, experience, culture, talent and change programmes and activities for global organisations. Award-winning leader focused on creating narratives and building and developing the teams, projects and initiatives to engage and excite employees. Steers multiple, concurrent projects and activities within deadlines and on budget. DE&I and inclusive culture champion.

Matt asks Stephanie the following questions.

1) What makes you happy?2) How can you make room to hear the voices that matter?3) Why do they work here? 4) Where do they want to go?5) How do you build an EVP?6) What is a company's DNA?7) How do you support managers in times of change?

Matt Phelan sits down to discuss with Jo Dodds her career and work with Engage for Success. Jo defines the 4 enablers of Employee Engagement and how you can use them to drive employee engagement.

The Four Enablers of Engagement are 1) Strategic Narrative · 2) Organisational Integrity · 3) Engaging Managers · 4) Employee Voice.

Matt asks Jo the following questions

What makes you happy?Tell us about your career?How do you find a career with purpose ?How did you get involved in engage for success?Can you give us a brief summary of the Engage for success 4 enablers ???What have you learnt about Strategic narrative?How do you Engage managers?Are there any key lessons for listening to voice of the Employee? What is Organisational integrity and why is it important?

Jo in her own words

I'm an employee engagement consultant. I also coach, speak, train, consult and facilitate depending on the need. I am co-Strategy Director for Engage for Success.
My key strengths are around communication, individualisation and collecting and translating knowledge into learning for others. Aside from my consulting and speaking work, this works really well when I have the opportunity to chair a conference!
Specialties: Personal Productivity | Wellbeing | Speaker | Facilitator | Trainer | Coach | Consultant Employee Engagement | Organisational Development | Leadership Development | Employee Communications | Employee Collaboration | HR | Human Resources | Business Networking |

Matt Phelan co-founder of The Happiness Index sits down with Richard Reid a Behavioural Psychologist and Psychotherapist to discuss the importance of Psychological Safety in modern leadership.

Richard in his own words

As a seasoned executive coach, psychologist, and consultant with decades of experience, I am committed to working with senior leaders, entrepreneurs, and public figures in addressing complex problems and taking advantage of strategic opportunities. As an in-demand media spokesperson and keynote speaker, I provide a unique combination of psychological acumen and business insight while supporting organisations in reaching their full potential and prospering in an increasingly fast-changing world.

In this episode Matt asks Richard these questions.

What makes you Happy?Tell us about your career?What is psychological safety?How can you have an honest supportive environment?How open is an open door?How do you encourage people to speak up?Is vulnerability important?

How does feedback and authentic conversations work?What are your managers afraid of asking?How much is the cost of keeping a high fee earner with bad behavior?How do you start a difficult conversation?What does excellence look like?

Chief People Office Kevin Green discusses how listening and acting on feedback improved Employee Engagement and saved First Bus £10,000,000 per year.

Kevin answers the following questions;

Tell us about your career in HR? Why do you think HR gets over complicated? What do you mean by measuring HR? Do you have any good stats from First Bus you can share on the impact of your work? How can HR get investment and get their ideas on the agenda? What is the future of HR Kevin?

Kevin in his own words

I am an experienced business and HR leader .

I am currently the Chief People Officer of First Bus the second largest Bus company in the UK with 14,000 employees. First Bus is part FTSE 250 company First Group PLC.

I continue to be the Chairman of Timewise and a Non Executive Director of Brookson and FRS in Ireland. A TEDx speaker, commentator and blogger on Jobs, people lead business transformation, leadership and competing with your culture.

I am also the proud author of the best selling Competitive People Strategy which was Short listed for the 2020 business book of the year.

An HR professional by experience and Qualification. I am a regular contributor to broadcast and print media on the UK labour market.

Chief People Officer Chloe Cameron and Matt Phelan discuss the workforce and workplace of the future.

Matt asks Chloe the following questions

What do you mean by workforce and workplace? What is our relationship with work? 4 generations in the workplace, how will that work? Discuss technology in the workplace and how it will impact work in the future? Is belonging going to be important in the future? How can we use AI to reflect the future society we want and who controls it? Is brilliant culture possible in any organisation? Are people good? is agile HR a real thing? Why do you think cognitive dissonance is such a big threat to culture? How can you raise expectations on what work can be? Can you rant about performance management please?

About Chloe

An unashamed book nerd who loves working in a digital world, Chloe came to her career in B2B technology via a history degree believing the Internet to be the Guttenberg Press of the 21st Century.
Starting out in channel marketing for first Micorosoft and then Vodafone, Chloe left behind the corporate behemoths for the lure of the start up journey, joining a small cloud hosting start up called Wirehive in 2013 as employee number seven.
Throughout her time at Wirehive Chloe rose to become Managing Partner overseeing three major business pivots creating the go to market and branding strategy behind the business transforming to become a multi-cloud reseller, then cloud consultancy and finally Microsoft cloud distributor. Alongside these strategic commercial initiatives Chloe took lead on the People function in 2018, building out the tools and programmes to scale and sustain a modern flat structure and values driven culture.
Chloe joined Pax8 when they acquired Wirehive in January 2021. As VP of Operations she is responsible for ensuring the new Pax8 UK entity has the structure and systems in place to give our rapidly growing team the clarity and confidence to use their unique talents to best serve our partners at scale with speed and in a meaningful collaboration with their colleagues. Her current goal is nothing short of enabling people to do the best work of their lives here.

Susan Ní Chríodáin the author of Leading Beyond the Numbers joins us to discuss her book and work focused on Integrating Business with Emotions.

Susan answers the following questions;

What makes you happy?

Why did you write Leading Beyond the Numbers?

What are the key lessons you want a reader to take away?

How can someone listening, go back to their organisation and start to help people see beyond the numbers?

In a time where many companies are struggling financially can this book help?

Have there been any unexpected consequences of writing the book?

Why I Do What I Do
I believe that when leaders approach challenges with Curiosity + Courage, they unlock Possibilities often hidden beneath the surface. My mission is to partner with leaders and teams to uncover these possibilities, foster genuine connections, and create workplaces where people and organisations thrive together. By creating space for individual strengths, we build sustainable success that has real impact.
What I Offer
In pivotal moments — navigating transitions, breaking down silos, or leading transformations — growth isn’t about quick fixes. My Evolve, Express, Expand model guides leaders beyond the status quo, revealing new perspectives and paths to sustained growth. With a blend of strategic insight, business acumen, and emotional intelligence, I work alongside you to respect individual perspectives while driving organisational success.
How We’ll Work Together
My approach is tailored to meet you where you are:
- Consulting for fresh perspectives and strategic insight
- Facilitation to strengthen team cohesion and alignment
- Coaching to navigate uncertainty and foster personal growth
- Leadership Development to build resilience and create a lasting impact
With over 25 years of experience across Europe, Africa, and Asia, I bring a deep understanding of diverse, high-stakes environments, from landmine clearance to complex negotiations. Numbers, processes and systems matter — but people are the true drivers of performance and profitability. By integrating brain, body and emotions, I help leaders make better decisions, strengthen team dynamics, and achieve business outcomes — a concept I explore deeply in my book, Leading Beyond the Numbers.
Why People Work with Me
Clients tell me that my energy and insights support them to communicate effectively, drive meaningful change and achieve sustained performance. I’m most effective with leaders who value people, seek to balance high performance with a sustainable, people-centred culture and are ready to put insights into action.

HR expert Mirela Oana joins the podcast to discuss the impact of AI on the future of work.

Mirela answers these questions

• What makes you happy?
• Definition of what we mean by AI?
• Which of the drivers of happiness and engagement will AI be able to help most on, which ones the least 
• Any practical examples of how businesses can help people feel more safe with the topic of AI e.g. is there concern about AI replacing jobs? What training and enablement do people need?
• Can AI help me be happier?
• Is happiness of an AI important?




About Mirela




HR Director with progressive experience in fast-paced organisations across FMCG, Fintech and Media Technology. I have people management experience in international setting and a track record of building teams that add value by helping organisations to drive their digital transformation and HR strategy execution, facilitating change to unlock operational agility and service transformation.
I’m a great believer in the power of technology to reshape HR, driving operational excellence and a continuous improvement culture, one that is focus on the employee experience, with simplicity and the agility needed to add value to the business.
Through my roles in Centre of Expertise and People Service Operations, I developed a solid knowledge of in-country statutory requirements and practices across many geographies, blending strategical, tactical and operational delivery acumen to meet business needs.

Matt P, Matt S and Sharon discuss the previous episode (please scroll back) that was 100% AI generated.

Matt shared his observations that:

 - The AI consumed over 100 research studies but didn’t reference them all.

- This tech could be a really useful learning aid if audio is your preference. For example you could take any document, upload it and listen to it back as a podcast

- Apparently one of the most listened to podcasts in retail is now built and read by AI. It’s called something like Retail Economics. 

- I think we are entering a world where we need to tag content as including AI. A bit like we do with food ingredients.

- I find the AI having a point of view discombobulating. As a listener of podcasts it’s the POV I come for. I want to trust it due to the rich research I’ve fed it but I struggle to trust it. Is this a generational thing? Will future generations laugh at this observation?

- The AI image of me fails to capture my receding hairline and increasingly grey hair.

- If you want to use the tech go to Google notebook LM

As an experiment I just fed all the publicly available Employee Happiness research papers focused on Performance from the last 10 years into Google AI.

I then used that AI to turn the findings into a podcast.

The entire process took 2 mins max.

Have a listen and let me know what you think...

Scary?

Useful?

Am I out of a job?

Better than my normal episodes?

In this episode we explore Aoife’s career around the world and her path to working to create happier workplaces. Aoife has worked on organisations such as Unilever, Mars, Coca-Cola and Kraft-Heinz. We discuss imposter syndrome, how to create happier work places and why this is important for leading a successful business.

Matt sits down to chat about all things self-esteem and employee engagement with Senior Culture Leader, Business Consultant and Entrepreneur, Anais Nebel!

Matt sits down with Emma Woods, UK Group Head of HR at  Rotala Group Limited to discuss:

What makes you happy?

How did you get into HR?

Any advice for anyone wanting to move sectors?

Can you go from being a bus driver to MD?

What are your tips for developing managers?

Can you be a nice HR person?

What is HR excellence?

How can HR and recruitment work better together?

How do you make a difference in HR?

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Matt is joined by Paul Spiers, Founder and Host of The New P&L, as they unpack why next gen leaders are looking for a new P&L and whether happiness belongs in P&L.

Matt sits down to chat to Jules Eustance, Founder of The Corporate Success Co. to discuss career development and leadership develop for retail and e-commerce. Delving into how to create illusive measurement andaccountability, this is not one to miss!

In this episode we see Kashi takeover once again, hosting a Q&A session on the release of 'The Happiness Index - Why Todays Emotions Equal Tomorrows Business Success'.

A live Q&A with audience participation, you'll find out how this book came to be and why it's such a useful tool.

Matt is joined by Founder of The World Happiness Summit, Karen Guggenheim to delve into the story behind the 3-day event that sees the world’s leading experts in the science of happiness and wellbeing gather to share practice and tools!

Minter Dial, Keynote Speaker, NED/Advisor, Award-winning Author, Expert @APM, Podcaster: Minter Dialogue & Joy of Padel sits down to discuss 'Values' in this final instalment of our Neuroscience series.

We develop our personal values through life, and especially in our younger years. They are our emotional guide that help us know what we want to experience in terms of human connection and concepts such as fairness. Sharing our sense of values is critical to sustaining team journeys where we are engaging with others who want to share the same emotional experiences as ourselves.

Rob Turner, Culture & Engagement Manager at BT talks all things Inspiration with Matt!

Inspiration is the inner sensation which motivates us to do something important, a state where we are prepared to engage with a significant challenge regardless of the difficulties it may present. When we are inspired, we have the potential to be our best and to summon all of our personal talent. Inspiration can be triggered by our external experience or by our own internal thoughts.

Matt sits down with John Fitzgerald, the Founder of Harmonics, Executive Coach to CEO's. Described by Clients as Passionate, authentic, highly impactful, insightful and innovative. They tackle the topic of Commitment! Commitment is a state of emotional attachment to a cause. It is something we feel as a sense of belonging and purpose which is personally meaningful to our own life journey. It is a state of emotional engagement where we identify with a wider human group or purpose. At its higher energetic level, it can be described as passion

Steve Bianchi Chief People Officer at ECARX, sits down to tackle the tough subject of Information Flow, in this final part to the Clarity theme trilogy.

People need to have access to the right information to enable them to do their jobs effectively. This needs to include primary information for task execution and supporting information to provide context. The contextual information offers room for more creative ideas as to how task responsibilities can evolve

Gemma Shambler Head Of People at The Happiness Index sits down with Matt Phelan to discuss the topic of Requirements/Resources within the theme of Clarity.

Each person needs to understand exactly what is expected of them in their role, an area classically explained in the job description and including key tasks and responsibilities. Importantly, such documents should be dynamic and evolve over time, keeping pace with the person’s learning and ability to contribute.

Fiona McDonnell International GM/ Board Advisor / Author /Speaker /VP Booking.com sits down with Matt Phelan to chat all things Clarity, specifically 'Organisational Impact' People have the opportunity to contribute more widely when they can see the bigger organisational picture. Understanding how their own role fits into the wider process flow of the end-to-end business encourages cross-functional consideration and ideas, avoiding the missed opportunities of siloed thinking.

Dan Sodergren, Founder at AI Marketing Course, joins Matt today to delve into the world of 'Enablement', more specifically the topic of 'Collaboration'

Collaboration with other teams outside of the immediate job role context can open up opportunities for wider creative contribution and more effective teamwork across the organisation.

Sope Agbelusi joins us today! The Executive Coach & Founder of Mindsetshift chats to Matt about how to give your people the resources they need to thrive. People need the right resources to be available to fulfil their responsibilities. This includes having access to the appropriate tools, systems and support services, as well as enablement through education and training.

Today's special guest is Azzy Aslam, Performance Habits Coach at Comentra! Here to chat to Matt about the Neuroscience theme of 'Enablement', specifically 'Workload'.

The level of workload and the degree of challenge within it needs to be sufficient to keep the person engaged but not overwhelmed. Listen on to find out more!

This episode, we switch things up and Matt is being interviewed by THI Community and Events Exec, Kashi Chellen

Listen on for all the things you need to know about upcoming release of Matt's book 'The Happiness Index' and the book launch!

On this episode of Happiness&Humans we have the incredible Arlette Bentzen, Chief Happiness Officer at Arbejdsglæde nu, talking about 'Team Dynamics'!

The term line manager might sound like an outdated term these days but no matter how flat your internal org chart is, there will be some kind of power dynamic in play and these relationships will impact the happiness of your employees.

Matt sits down with Cathy Courtenay Certified RLT Coach at Conscious Relating Coaching, to discuss all things 'Personal Relationships' There is a particular dynamic around teamwork that can give us a sense of community and collective bonding. Being able to connect with a team provides a vital social ingredient to our emotional needs and gives us the opportunity to feel that we belong.

Feeling energetically connected to our colleagues is that sense of just understanding each other. We are on the same wavelength and naturally click.

People and Happiness Assistant at The Happiness Index, Tony Latter, Co-founder & Chief Platform Officer at The Happiness Index & Clive Hyland, Head of Neuroscience at The Happiness Index & Founding Partner at Make Sense, sit down to chat about why energetic connections are so important in relationship building.

We are designed to evolve and grow, whilst standing still results in stagnation and inflexibility. People therefore need opportunities to expand their experience and expose themselves to new learning. This helps us feel engaged. Experiencing novelty is an important element of keeping the brain alert.

Andrew MacAskill CCO at Fraser Dove International and LinkedIn change maker shares his expertise on personal Growth and Person development.

The Happiness Index internal culture team of HR pro Laura Page, Co-Founder and technologist Tony Latter and Head of Neuroscience Clive discuss the impact of energetic on our working relationships. Feeling energetically connected to our colleagues is that sense of just understanding each other. We are on the same wavelength and naturally click. In the calmer state this is empathy, and when we are energised this can become a team that would describe themselves with terms such as buzzing or alive, a natural unforced state of understanding, togetherness and bonding.

Head of People Nadia Vatalidis sits down to share her wisdom with our host Matthew Phelan who is co-founder of The Happiness Index.

Nadia discusses her career in working in the fast pace tech world. Nadia shares insight from her career and her thoughts on building in public. This episode is wide ranging and covers a wide spectrum from inclusion through to advice on how best to support your people.

This episode is packed with new ideas and practical advice on how to build a thriving workplace culture for your people.