We recently guest-hosted a very special edition of the HR Grapevine podcast to uncover some of the ways in which the UK's Best Workplaces for Wellbeingâ„¢ and UK's Best Workplaces for Developmentâ„¢ are able to ensure all their employees can thrive.
Episode 2: Key Takeaways
In this episode, James Bufton, Organisational Trends Analyst, and Sara Silvonen, Wellbeing Lead and Senior Consultant, at Great Place To Work, are joined by guests:
- Kim Clarke, HR Manager at Unigloves (UK)
- Nicola Riley, Health and Wellbeing Consultant, and Laura Charlton, Senior Talent Development Programme Consultant, at Unum
During their conversation, guests reflected on the differences between employee wellness versus wellbeing; how to ensure all employees can experience sustained high levels of wellbeing; and how to embed learning and development effectively into the daily employee experience across all levels of the workforce.
Kim Clarke, HR Manager at Unigloves (UK) – a 2024 UK's Best Workplace for Wellbeing (Small size category) – shared her take on:
Enacting change: As a small business, for us wellbeing is about enacting change in the workplace... We've tried to help really set really good boundaries around switching off. So as an example, our MD [Chris] plays tennis and that's what he uses as his stress reliever. And so we now know that on Tuesday mornings, Chris comes into the office late because he plays tennis. And at first he would kind of hide some of that in his diary. He wouldn't be open about it...but if you take that time for you, it gives everybody else permission and makes them feel like they can do that too...it's some of those small, real examples that help to set a culture where we can all do the same.
Flexibility and autonomy: We have run specific training courses for our line managers around working in a progressive environment, and it's because we needed to enact this change to be able to become leading and most responsible, and most responsible is key... We would come together as line managers every couple of months and just pick different topics up... nowadays, you can walk into a supermarket, you pick up your hand scanner, you go and scan your own food, you pay, and you leave. Nobody checks what you're doing. So there should be no less trust in your workplace than what you have in Tesco's or in Sainsbury's. And let's make sure that we're living to those same principles, because that is nowadays what people expect. It's what they're getting used to.
Don't wait: As an organisation, don't wait until you're bigger to start some of this stuff. Start right at the beginning, start when you're small. Often it's quite easy to manoeuvre some of these things as a smaller organisation, and so start straight away. Get some of your plans in place. Start having conversations. And go for it!
Nicola Riley, Health & Wellbeing Consultant, and Laura Charlton, Senior Talent Development Programme Consultant, at Unum – ranked among both the UK's Best Workplaces for Development and UK's Best Workplaces for Wellbeing 2024 (Large size category) –shared their take on:
An individualised approach to wellbeing: Our focus really is on creating a health-supporting environment in which people feel they can do their best work and they're supported across life's moments... this is very much where employee health and wellbeing is going. So it's not one size fits all. It's really about understanding the different nuance of our different employees within our employee population. So our strategy and the work that we do is very much data-driven... [For example] we've introduced paid carers leave and we've also introduced a new carers benefit programme this year, off the back of our data, which told us that 16 percent of our employees currently identify as a carer.
Development for all: At Unum, we've worked really hard to help everyone take the broadest view they can when it comes to their learning and to their stretch. And we use a tagline: Everyone at Unum is talent. So we're ensuring everyone at every level has sight of the development opportunities that we have on offer and also have an understanding not only of what is there formally, but also what informal development opportunities are within their reach. So what can they achieve in their role, in their team and within their department? Or even potentially outside of those three areas?... between us, the talent team and people across the organisation, we're making sure that there is that conduit of comms to enable people to be able to see as much of the offering as possible, and to relate to it... [for example] we've been spending time visiting teams to help individuals understand what formal learning is on offer and also get the rationale behind the items that we've picked, because this is evolving. It's not standing still. This is just the start. There's more to come. So we want people to identify exactly what's suitable for them... We're also really clearly sharing success stories. We want to inspire people around the organisation to hear from peers who have put themselves out of their comfort zone and to understand that actually giving yourself that little push to acquire a new skill, a role potentially, or maybe even a qualification, is a great thing and it's achievable for most of us. The communication of learner experiences is something that we really think is very powerful. We're trying to bring learning to life.
AI tooling: ...gives us a daily learning habit. And this was something that the organisation wasn't used to. It was brand new, but we are all very much on board. On a daily basis, we get a couple of questions via the AI-based learning platform. We're answering questions on compulsory topics, given the industry that we're in. This gamification and bite-sized learning has really helped people build and reinforce their knowledge on these topics. Some of which [are] not the most riveting content, but the way that we can deliver this and reinforce it – it's working! It's offering a conversation point around the office when people compare where they are on the leaderboards. And some of our most competitive people in this space are in our Exec Committee. So it's landing at all levels, and it's working really well.
Missed Episode 1? Listen to the conversation
In our first episode of this series, leaders from Admiral Group and Booking.com share key people practices and insights into what makes for a truly great company culture.
best workplaces
