Episode 15: How Tech Empowers Employee Wellbeing and Organizational Change - with Andrew Stephenson
Our guest today is Andrew Stephenson, Group HR Director at Equiniti and a leader with deep expertise in developing customer-centric, tech-enabled people strategies across multi-sector organizations.
This conversation explores how Andrew and his team have transformed HR by leveraging digital tools and AI, while keeping workplace wellbeing front and centre.
Andrew shares his unconventional journey into HR, his foundational belief in making work better for people, and how Equiniti’s approach has dramatically improved engagement, retention, and wellbeing. Together with host Tobba Vigfúsdóttir, they explore practical examples of how technology can free up HR teams for more strategic work, as well as the real-world challenges and opportunities presented by change, remote work, and increasing commercial pressure.
Episode Highlights:
Why being “in the right place at the right time,” personal motivation, and a passion for improvement shaped his career.
How Equiniti aligns people strategy with overall business strategy by digitizing HR processes, making them faster and more efficient.
What HR chatbots can handle for managers, and how freeing up HR from “menial” work leads to meaningful impact.
How Equiniti uses predictive attrition models to anticipate turnover and streamline recruitment planning.
The benefits of real-time, high-response pulse surveys and AI-generated action plans for managers.
How the company combines questions on culture, values, DEI, wellbeing, and transformation in a single, adaptive survey platform.
From meeting structure changes to walking challenges, Andrew shares how simple tweaks and larger programs encourage both mental and physical health.
Tips on leveraging available data (even in small companies) to link wellbeing programs to real business outcomes like productivity and cost savings.
Why responding to feedback - whether actioned or not - builds trust, ownership, and repeat engagement.
How HR leaders can equip knowledge workers for new ways of working, including AI augmentation, skill-building, and pipeline management.
Andrew’s transparent approach to mental health, taking breaks, and leading by example in sharing his own wellbeing story.
If you’re looking for grounded, actionable ideas on blending technology, people, and wellbeing to build high-performing organizations, this episode is full of practical takeaways.
About Kara Connect
Wellbeing at work begins with meeting your team’s needs on their terms. With Kara Connect's Wellbeing Hubs, your employees are free to choose from 3000+ expert practitioners to support their mental health and Wellbeing. Because when your employees feel better, your company does better.
Our mission is to make it easy for your employees to manage their wellbeing through direct access to best-in-class support. Whenever they need it.
Learn more at www.KaraConnect.com.