Yesterday I spent the day at the RobertsonCooper Wellbeing network conference. There were a host of speakers, from Dr Steve Boorman, who spoke about his work with the NHS and Royal Mail, and David Macleod, who explained his Engaging for Success report: to Jamie Mitchell, former MD of Innocent with the innocent way to do business and Annemie Ress who enlightened us on the challenge of directing HR at global .com eBay and what to say if one of your employees in Estonia demands a dragon as a pet for the office.
No, really.
If you didn't catch it live on Twitter, I tweeted some of the best words of wisdom from the talks:
At Business Wellbeing Network Annual Conference: standby for tweets as Steve Boorman starts his keynote...
- if you don't integrate health and wellbeing into the heart of the business strategy, it doesn't happen.
- Preventative health agenda will be important to NHS. NHS must become exlemplary to be credible (eg staff smoking rates)
- Smokers in NHS twice as likely to take time off, and take longer periods off
- NHS a caring profession generally not looking after itself. When it has done, huge ROI has been seen.
- Royal Mail rollercoaster. Wellbeing initiatives eg 'Feeling first class' and giving some bottom-up control back to workers
Annemie Ress, HRD, eBay:
- Wellbeing is so important to us because we believe people are basically good
- how we engage with our employees and the outside world is built on commerce, sustained by trust and inspired by opportunity
- expose your employees to their customers and they will inspire each other
David Macleod
- it's the manager's job to ensure employees are the best they can be: the thing is, they don't know how good that is
- there is alignment, which is knowing what to do, and engagement, which is wanting to do it
- If we look after ourselves, we can be atoms of energy, spreading that energy
- Look to the armed forces for engagement tips and trust your instincts: you know if it's working or not
David Macleod wins quote of the day: we have these things on two legs, they're very difficult, have opinions... we delegate them to human resources
Ivan Robertson:
- drivers of both psychological health and sense of purpose is work relationships. Don't mistake it for 'office politics'!
- foster wellbeing into the way you engage, manage and lead your organisation to deliver high productivity and more
Jamie Mitchell, formerly of Innocent, is next at the Wellbeing network conference.
- Innocent themes: natural, entreprenurial, responsible
- Jamie Mitchell: plus, be commerical and be generous - with your time with colleagues, feedback. Values are core.
- Innocent set out to be the most talent rich company in Europe. Two week inductions and academy training for all staff
- in a high growth company like Innocent there can be resistance to change: keep to your values despite changes
The conference takeaway really was that wellbeing is not a part of HR, or a part of business: it is HR and it is business. Without one, the other doesn't happen, or at least, doesn't foster productivity and successful business.
There's lots more to come on the issues raised during the conference, but in the meantime, in case you were wondering, the answer to the dragon question is yes, as long as it has enough space and is well looked after (it's a komodo dragon, by the way). Apparently some of the offices have cats and what their kittens get up to are more concerning than any dragon.
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