World Mental Health Day | The role of tech in ensuring advisers feel they belong – Linda Johnstone, Novia Global

October 10, 2025

As part of IFA Magazine’s World Mental Health Day coverage, Linda Johnstone of Novia Global explores how technology can foster belonging, support mental wellbeing, and transform the experience of working remotely. For advisers working across borders and time zones, staying connected is no longer a convenience—it’s a lifeline.

Thanks to the nature and geography of my role, I have worked from home since 2013. This has given me what I consider a healthy work/life balance, a key part of which is being physically close to my children.

There was a time, of course, when WFH, as it has become known, was thought of as a privilege enjoyed only by a fortunate few – of whom I was one. The oft-cited benefits included not only improved work/life balance but enhanced productivity.

Yet perceptions have shifted somewhat since the COVID-19 crisis. WFH is now frequently associated with isolation, angst and even burnout, as well as the threat of shirking.

Needless to say, this gives rise to serious challenges for businesses and their staff. Ultimately, the goal must be to maximise the acknowledged pros of WFH and minimise the emerging cons – mental health issues foremost among them.

It could be argued that the adviser community has plenty of experience in these matters. After all, like me, many advisers were accustomed to a comparatively lonely existence long before the pandemic dramatically reshaped huge swathes of the professional landscape.

For a company like ours, whose network is genuinely international, stakeholder wellbeing is perhaps an even more significant concern. Most of the advisers we partner with are not merely separated from their broader workforce: they live and operate outside their home country.

This means they face much more than the everyday pressure of achieving optimum outcomes for clients. They have the additional task of learning new cultures, new languages and maybe even new ways of life – all without the immediate, tangible support of their colleagues or wider family.

It sounds like a recipe for anxiety – and it certainly can be. So what steps can we take with a view to ensuring no-one is left feeling hopelessly out of the loop?

Clear expectations around considerations such as hours, schedules and deliverables is vital. At a more personal level, as I know very well, avoiding micromanagement can make a real difference.

Measures such as these are well recognised and can go a long way towards safeguarding wellbeing. This is a big part of the battle.

But what does it take to cultivate a genuine sense of belonging, which should be seen as at the very heart of any worker’s mental health? In this context, as in so many others in our industry, it is increasingly obvious that much of the answer lies in technology.

More so then ever before, tech is responsible for “the death of distance”. We all know it enables the 21^st-century version of face-to-face engagement. It facilitates and maintains communication. It serves as the next-best alternative to “being there”.

We also know tech underpins resource utilisation. It is inherently empowering, because it reduces administrative burdens and leaves a lot more time for meaningful interaction with clients. Particularly in the age of AI, it makes an adviser’s job not only possible but much simpler and less stressful.

It is therefore essential that firms provide easy access to appropriate technology. By helping keep them connected and calm, the right tech can offer advisers a lifeline in more than one respect.

It might be tempting to think this amounts to dishing out a few smartphones. Guess again. Not least with mental health in mind, tech provision demands rather more than that.

This is why, for example, our own website has been designed to act as a one-stop portal for everything our international advisers require. We continue to refine and update it in response to feedback and in light of developments in the financial services arena as a whole.

The aim is to continue to give all our users what they want and need. Make no mistake: this is easier said than done and is not an undertaking to be treated lightly.

The debate over WFH will doubtless rage on. There will be times when the pros are believed to outweigh the cons, and there will be times when the reverse is deemed true.

Regardless, there will always be millions of people around the world whose working lives are somehow removed from any kind of centralised HQ. Since advisers are bound to be among them, we should all continue to treat this ever-evolving challenge with the gravity it deserves.