Entrepreneur Kelly Swingler will be a keynote speaker this month at The Richmond Human Resources Forum in London sharing the story of her burnout experience which led her to create the world’s first Wellbeing for HR Programme.
The former HR director believes the sector needs to get better at creating their own support packages and prioritising their wellbeing too.
Kelly, whose talk is entitled: ‘What does wellbeing look like for HR people themselves?’ is an executive coach for professional women and founder of The Chrysalis Crew – an award-winning people and change consultancy.
She is also the author of the ‘What’s Your Excuse For Not Overcoming Stress?’, ‘Agile Human Resources’ and ‘How To Manage Your Career’.
“HR is always looking after everyone else, but who is looking after HR?” explained Kelly. “The pandemic has added even more pressure and complexity to the role of HR professionals all over the world and the already enormous workload was then added to with home-working arrangements, furlough and other working practices. Employee wellbeing became a number one priority, but who was looking after HR professionals whilst they too were going through their own pandemic?”
During her talk, Kelly, who now lives in Peterborough, will share her own personal burnout problems, when she experienced at first-hand what it was like to work in a stressed and sometimes toxic environment.
She has now moved on from that and, with more than 20 years’ experience in HR and people development, Kelly started her business, The Chrysalis Crew in 2014.
“Never had I ever imagined that this was a path I would take,” said Kelly. “Firstly, I had no real idea what I would do; secondly, I knew nothing about starting a business and, thirdly, my dreams of the super large global role that I would be able to take on, once my sons had finished school, was the thing that had kept me in my employed senior role for far too long. Seven and a half years later, I’m still here and growing from strength to strength.”
Kelly is particularly concerned there are too few female founders in today’s business world, and that women are disadvantaged in many ways – not just financially – compared with their male counterparts. In her own business and life, Kelly has adopted a four day week where she and her staff get 100 per cent of pay for that working week; she recommends wellbeing days when needed, a personal development day each month and a one-page only handbook for a team (not a manual).
However, HR is seen as a female-dominated profession and this trend has continued to rise, whereas female representation in other top business roles has declined.
The Richmond Human Resources Forum features delegates who are senior decision-makers or influencers and guest speakers who are experts in their fields, who address key issues, stimulate discussion and debate and provide insight into practical solutions. To find out more about Kelly Swingler and how she supports professional business women visit https://www.kellyswingler.com