The well being of staff is crucial to the continued success of an organisation. In this month’s show, we hear from a Director of HR and a Chief Executive who share with us the impact that Well Being initiatives are having on their organisations.
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Carol Mills is Director of Human Resources at Lancashire County Council, who are one of the largest local government employers in the Country. Carol believes that the key to a healthy workforce is to empower employees to do something for themselves and as a progressive employer, the Council recognises that if they don’t look after their staff - their staff won’t look after their customers. In this interview, Carol talks about some of the Well Being initiatives she has introduced.
When considering the best approach to Well Being, Carol’s advice includes:
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LOOK AT WHAT IS BEING DONE ELSEWHERE - and learn about the things that can go wrong
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TALK TO YOUR STAFF AND TRADE UNIONS - about the sort of initiatives they feel might benefit them
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LOOK AT THE PRIVATE SECTOR - they’ve been at this a lot longer than we have, so learn from them
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PILOT THE NEW IIP WELL BEING STANDARD - and learn from the feedback
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CHERRY PICK SOME OF THE GOOD THINGS - and test these out on a few willing staff to find out what works for your organisation
Carol is also the PPMA (Public Sector People Managers Association) lead for Well Being and to find out more about her work you can contact her through their website www.ppma.org.uk or at Lancashire County Council. Other sources of information are: CIPD, your own healthcare provider, local Employers Organisation and local PCT’s.
In this second interview Geoff Walker, Chief Executive at Sandwell CCT talks passionately about Well Being and the enormous benefits the Trust, it’s staff and service users have gained by delivering their services on an individual basis through human relationships, rather than being driven by policies and procedures.
This approach has clearly paid off as they have been named as 2nd best company to work for in the UK by The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For Survey for the second year running and they came out top for Well Being.
The benefits they have experienced include:
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REDUCED SICKNESS ABSENCE - from an average of 22 days per year to 0.3 days, achieving a saving of £600,000 pa by not doing anything other than making people feel good about themselves and feel good about being at work
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REDUCED STAFF TURNOVER - currently 4% pa
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QUALITY OF STAFF - 87% of staff are appropriately qualified according to their regulator
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CONTINUITY - over 60% of the workforce has been with us for more than 7 years
Geoff’s key tip is that managers have to create time to be with people and as such he insists that each manager keeps 30% of their diary time non-committed to do that. As a result, in the last Sunday Times survey which 87% of the workforce completed, the Trust came 1st for both Managers who listen and Mangers who motivate. Clearly emphasising Geoff’s philosophy of making people feel good about being at work.
Geoff is happy to speak to anyone who would like to find out more about the Trust’s work in this area and you can contact him via their website www.sandwellcct.org.uk or call him on 0121 553 2722.
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I would love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for further shows. Either email me directly at karen@publicsectorhrpodcast.co.uk or click on ‘Comment’ underneath the show title and type away.
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