WIREDGOV

The ability of employee well-being programmes to drive organisation performance and success is well documented. But, in an increasingly competitive environment, an organisation’s ability to adapt and grow is also crucial to success, and this brings with it stresses and strains that can harm well-being, creating a vicious circle that can be hard to escape. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Well-being for High Performance Conference and Workshop will provide the practical guidance needed to allow HR professionals and managers to develop wellbeing programmes that can break that circle and drive organisations forward.

The conference opens with an introduction from Wendy Cartwright, Head of HR, Olympic Delivery Authority. Expert speakers will then offer insights into how a healthy organisation functions, exploring the link between employee well-being and increased employee productivity, resilience and engagement, resulting in improved business performance. They will also demonstrate how important it is for an organisation to communicate its well-being strategy, to not only gain the appropriate commitment from senior leadership, but also the buy-in from all employees.

Afternoon sessions will look into the issues of workplace well-being:

- Managing and mitigating stress and mental health in the workplace – understanding the impact of job insecurity, increasing awareness of stress and mental health and reducing the cost of presenteeism. Catherine Kilfedder, Group Health Advisor, BT
- Building resilience and managing change in the workplace – the business case for resilience and how to develop it. David Miller, CEO, Changefirst.
- Embedding well-being into the organisational culture – defining and embedding the well-being approach and ensuring long-term sustainability. Gary Tideswell, Director of Wellbeing Safety and Health, University of Leeds.

The second day will be a workshop on Managing Absence in the Workplace. Mike Payne, Director, Benson Payne Ltd, will help HR practitioners and line managers to develop and perfect the skills needed to tackle sickness absence and move from policy to practice effectively. He will go through practical exercises and offer tools and techniques, which will help practitioners to create a clear and robust absence management policy.

Ben Willmott, Head of Public Policy, CIPD, says: “The business case for employers investing in the well-being of their staff is extremely clear in terms of reduced levels of employee ill health and absence, as well as lower risk of accidents, fewer tribunal claims and increased employee engagement and productivity. The starting point for building employee well-being and resilience is how people are led and managed on a day-to-day basis. Employers also need to ensure that they have effective systems for identifying and managing absence and provide support such as access to occupational health and flexible working where appropriate.”