Insight and news

Not all exclusion is direct and intentional. The majority of exclusions we experience are micro-exclusions i.e. small behaviours that go under the radar but when experienced consistently are causal in our feelings of individual exclusion. As a result, people often come to believe that things will never change and, eventually, leave their roles. At Fika, we propose some micro-behaviour changes you and your teams should make that will help your colleagues feel more included.

Temperatures have dropped and summer is well and truly over. And as sunrise gets later so does our wake up time which means early morning runs and gym routines start to slide.

Team morale is essential for effective collaboration and results. However, with our world of work changing rapidly, it has never been more difficult to keep teams engaged, committed, and connected.

More than 1/4 of new hires leave a company within 6 weeks. More than 1/3 leave in the first 6 months. And of those who leave in the first year, half were thinking of leaving for 6 months or more. The impact of disengaged, one-foot-out-the-door employees on existing employees and clients is well known not to mention their reduced productivity levels and larger number of errors (Jaman et al, 2002). 

At Fika we champion flexibility by being a remote first business. However, working remotely can be daunting at first, especially for new hires. So, we sat down for a conversation with one of our team members to learn more about his experience.

Flexible working patterns (location and hours) remain the number one sought employee benefit. The opportunities to avoid rush hour traffic, to walk children to school and to repurpose commute times to exercise have all been cited as key quality of life reasons to continue working flexibly.

The rise in agile, digital and knowledge-based businesses is making effective teamwork more important than ever, as companies compete to innovate. At the same time, the increase in remote working is challenging teams in ways they’ve never been challenged before. So, what can businesses do to ensure confident and cohesive team performance, despite the challenges that come with working remotely?

What if a digital solution existed that had the potential to grant permission and structure for every employee in the workplace to have a voice and be heard? Would this increase their sense of belonging and inclusion? And more importantly, could it tackle the lack of diversity in some workplaces?

Breakfast with family, longer sleep, quieter space to focus, few unwelcome interruptions, you would be forgiven for thinking that hybrid working was one of the few perfect outcomes from a two year long pandemic. It presents a crystal clear antidote for those employees who want to keep in person social connections with colleagues and those who have found their true life balance in working from home.

Taking time off is essential for wellbeing. Our physical and mental health benefit from hitting pause. But many of us are unable to keep the pause button on. We check our emails, our messaging channels and even attend some meetings in our downtime. A staggering 65% of us eat into our leave time with work, making it a regular, almost expected occurrence. 

Recent reports into the great resignation suggest as many as a quarter of us are intending to leave our jobs within the next six months, and resignation rates are already at their highest since 2009. The financial impact of this mass exodus could be enormous, with the average cost of employee turnover in those earning over £25,000 a year estimated to be £30,614.

Housebuilder Crest Nicholson has today announced a pioneering new partnership with mental fitness platform Fika to proactively prevent mental health decline and improve performance by building the mental fitness skills of its 700 employees.

Fika Mental Fitness has partnered with Zurich Municipal insurance to address mental health in education - as four in five school leaders say mental health is the biggest challenge facing their organisation.

COVID-19. Hybrid. The Great Resignation. Mass reports of staff burnout.

When it comes to talking - there's talking, and there's really talking, isn't there?

When it comes to important conversations - don't underestimate the power of active listening.

‘What tools and techniques can I give to my staff to help them better manage stress?’ This is one of the most common requests that I get as a Psychologist. And it’s a perfectly reasonable request in view of the fact that last year UK employees were found to be working an extra 2 hours each day. 

Culture starts at the top - so as leaders, the first step we can take to creating a culture of mental fitness in our organisations is to become mental fitness role models ourselves. 

DFS Group has joined forces with Fika Mental Fitness to embed mental fitness training into its employee experience - aiming to improve staff engagement and productivity, and proactively train its people in how to be the best versions of themselves.

The Great Resignation. COVID-19. Hybrid. Today’s managers and leaders face the perfect storm of headwinds – and two years on from the start of the pandemic, they’re running on empty.

Fika Mental Fitness has been selected as one of the The Elite 200, the acclaimed list of semifinalists in The GSV Cup — the world’s largest pitch competition for EdTech startups run by female-led, multi-stage venture capital firm GSV Ventures. 

Today Fika Mental Fitness is proud to announce we are one of the 21 digital health companies selected for DigitalHealth.London’s Accelerator programme. The 21 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) selected for the Accelerator 2022 programme have digital solutions or services that have the highest potential to meet London’s NHS and social care challenges.

A new study has shown that over 54% of workers who take two or more mental health absences would ultimately leave their current job with the direct cost of absences throughout 2021 estimated to be a shocking £43 billion (excluding additional costs such as overtime, temporary staff, admin fees etc)

‍Fika and NCFE have worked together to recover vital career skills like connection, confidence and motivation for more than 18,000 young people across 69 further education centres in the wake of COVID-19

The truth is it’s no wonder we’re so bad at acknowledging our mental fitness as our own responsibility, when as a society we haven’t been given the knowledge, skills or value system that would enable us to manage it. 

I’m sure at some point in our career we’ve all sat in front of a line manager and had a conversation about how overwhelmed or overworked we feel.

Earlier this week I spoke about the importance of building mental fitness before different career transitions. It was a timely reminder as I’m currently going through undoubtedly the biggest transition in my career to date.

I am a Sports Psychologist, and in sport, we take career transitions extremely seriously. We spend a huge amount of time working with athletes to better prepare them for the next stage of their career. Whether that be moving from junior to senior competition or preparing for life after sport.

When are we going to start celebrating it, not just keep trying to 'fix' it?

Fika Co-Founder & Co-CEO shares the 'why' behind Fika Mental Fitness

I'd been told returning from maternity leave would be challenging ... but no one could have prepared me for how tough it would be.

As the dust settles and we assess life after lockdown, we will need to equip today’s learners with the skills they need to rebuild the economy, culture and society. Further education and post-16 education will play a vital role in this rebuilding – ‘ensuring more people can gain the skills they need to get ahead as the Skills Minister notes.