April 24, 2015, by ICCSR
Wellness in the Workplace – a call for collaboration
On behalf of Nottingham University Business School we would like to thank all our participants and contributors at Wellness in the Workplace. This conference, in partnership with Business in the Community (BitC), formed part of Responsible Business Week (#RBweek). Our aim was to offer opportunities for like-minded people to: share new ideas, engage in dialogue on contemporary responsibility, and achieve greater social impact together.
At the events, we combined perspectives from leading charities, businesses, academia, and healthcare providers. Our key-note speeches included Prof Stephen Bevan of The Work Foundation on “Is your boss bad for your mental health?” and Liz Egan of Macmillan on “Working through cancer” you can see videos of the event here.
Our topic of “Wellness in the Workplace” frames some very contemporary and pertinent issues. As we move closer to the General Election, the future of health provision can be seen to be a fundamental part of the political discourse. After a period of prolonged budgetary constraint, we face a changing future landscape with emergent healthcare providers, an ageing workforce, and still greater demands for ethical and responsible leadership.
The role of employers in this changing landscape provokes some challenging questions: To what extent should employers be accountable for wellness? What values are associated with happier-healthier workforces? How might organisations promote greater inclusion and reduce wellness inequalities across society?
The prizes for those employers who can find solutions to wellness in the workplace are far-reaching; leading to gains in reputation, retention, recruitment, efficiency, engagement, and considerable social impact.
Some common themes emerging from the conference seem to be:
Realisation that more transparency, awareness and openness is needed around wellness in the workplace
- Calls for more individual and human engagement with employees around their wellness needs
- Prospects for greater training for managers to hone soft-skills, emotional intelligence, and support their employees more
- Potential for partnerships and new operating models for delivering quality wellness in the workplace whilst adding economic and social benefits
Rather than the end of a conference, we at ICCSR and CHILL feel this is the beginning of a journey. We shall be conducting research to deepen understanding of wellness in the workplace in the coming months.
Thanks to all who joined us and we hope everyone enjoys these videos.
Paul Caulfield
Director of MBA in CSR, ICCSR
Simon Bishop
Director of Executive MBA in Healthcare, CHILL
Links:
Videos: http://vimeopro.com/user8336514/iccsrwell
Mental Health In The Workplace
Is Your Boss Dangerous To Your Health? By Prof Stephen Bevan, The Work Foundation
Tweets and Slides: https://storify.com/caulfieldp/mental-wellbing-in-the-workplace
Working Through Cancer
Wellness At Work After Cancer By Liz Egan, Macmillan
Tweets and Slides: https://storify.com/caulfieldp/working-through-cancer
Centre for Health Innovation, Leadership and Learning (CHILL)
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/business/businesscentres/chill/index.aspx
International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ICCSR)
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/business/ICCSR/
Some really useful ‘take-outs’ from this conference. How can employers not fail to find the free MacMillan resources (including coaching) useful? Also The Comedy Trust presents a wonderful training and development opportunity, which is run as a social enterprise, as opposed to using run-of-the-mill consultants.
It is time to improve the workplace setting and get employers involved in encouraging their employees in maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle. A healthy employee has greater potential and increase in productivity. This conference will help shape the workplace to a better environment that fosters better health among the colleagues and employees.