Workforce Health + Benefits Podcast

The Social Determinants of Happiness

Happy and healthy. As it turns out, there's more of a link here than you'd think.

There is an entire body of scientific research about happiness and individual and community well-being, so we brought in Dr. Rhonda Phillips from Purdue University to fill us in on some of the details because the definition of "community" isn't just about the neighborhood or city that we live in. The workplace is also a community—one that most of us spend our waking hours in.

Topics include:

  • The scientific definition of "happiness."
  • Why happiness and flourishing are very relevant measures and the 3 factors that influence them. 
  • What employers can do to foster employee engagement and happiness.
  • The link between happiness and resilience.
  • How and why employers should invest in the communities that they operate in and give examples of companies who heavily invest in their communities where their employees live and raise the next generation workforce. 
  • The differences between needs-based and asset-based community planning and why one has substantial benefits over the other.

 

About Our Guest

Dr. Rhonda Phillips is a past President of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies and serves on the site visitor team of the national Planning Accreditation Board. Dr. Phillips received her doctorate in city and regional planning and a M.S. in economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a M.S. in economic development and a B.S. in geography from the University of Southern Mississippi. She was the first woman to graduate from the doctoral program in city and regional planning at Georgia Tech.

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