Our previous events

Jackie Orme, CEO of CIPD joined us for our fifth event to give HR professionals the opportunity to discuss employee engagement and the characteristics of successful leaders in the future.

From Jackie's insight as an HR professional with 17 years' experience and the 35 senior HR professionals in the room, some of the key tactics for achieving high levels of employee engagement discussed included:

• The importance of measuring the organisation's health through a combination of employee engagement and agility. Building a workforce that can adapt swiftly and positively to changing demands was accepted as essential in the current working world.
• Happy workers don't necessarily equate to being engaged workers but engaged workers will be happy. Engagement has a real impact on performance and productivity so finding out what makes your people happy is a good place to start.
• Continuous open and honest dialogue, which has context, with employees at every level of the organisation is key. And make sure this starts at the very top of the organisation with the chief exec or MD visible "on the shop floor." The senior leaders of any business set the tone for the rest.
• Showing you care for employees through offering good pastoral support has had its successes for organisations. Mentoring programmes are a good way to achieve this.
• Ensuring employees understand the culture of the organisation is essential. Values that are evident in daily behaviour should underpin the culture. It's those employees that live and breath the values who will be far more engaged with the business.
• Orme believes that a partnership approach should be the style used by today's leaders. Authenticity, humility and strong communication skills are pivotal to the success of any leader – and are much needed by HR professionals too. Acting as business partners and provocateurs is the solution to HR adding value according to Orme. Combine your understanding of what drives performance in the business with the ability to challenge the status quo – all delivered with what Orme calls a 'light touch'.
• Measuring the impact HR has on business performance is key to the success of any HR function; particularly for those professionals that want to make it to the Board or achieve a CEO position.

Speaker profile

Jackie Orme

Jackie's early years were spent in the Department of Employment and the Institute of Chartered Accountants before moving to work in the steel industry based in South Wales.

For 12 years Jackie worked for PepsiCo - including 7 years leading the UK and Ireland HR function and sitting on both the UK Executive Board of PepsiCo International and the global PepsiCo International HR Council, during a time of impressive business growth and success. She left PepsiCo to join the CIPD in 2008.

Mary Gober gave the assembled crowd of around 50 senior HR specialists an insight into her method for engaging staff at all levels in an organisation in order to deliver a great customer experience.

The living proof of the success of her method was well supported on the day by living case studies from two organisations, as well as plenty of anecdotal evidence from Mary in referencing her work with other major worldwide employers. And for any cynics in the room, there were plenty of metrics to demonstrate the business success of changing the way an organisation thinks and communicates.

Whilst there was no way all her secrets could be shared in a morning session, we were certainly tempted by the psychology and language of great service, the undisputed attraction of a truly engaged workforce and the clear links between these and business success. The simple notion that engaged employees stay with an organisation for what they can Give, whereas disengaged employees stay with an organisation for what they can Get, summed up the employee engagement piece beautifully.

Instilling a sense of ownership and responsibility in individuals for delivering business goals seems easy to talk about. But, if it was that easy to achieve, then many businesses would be more successful than they are now and presumably Mary and her method wouldn't be in such demand.

Speaker profile

Mary Gober

As an advisor to executives in organisations world-wide, Mary Gober is acclaimed as one of the leading authorities in customer service culture development today. Mary is an expert in engaging people at all levels of an organisation to take ownership and responsibility for achievement of organisational visions, values and business results. Mary will share with you a professional lifetime of insights to generate more success for you, your people and your organisation.

Tuesday 16 June 2009, 9am - 12pm

Duncan Ward from Badenoch & Clark used this session to give an invaluable insight into his experiences of recruiting for numerous employers across the public sector. By discussing the challenges and current market trends, Duncan provided a ten step guide to what you need to consider when recruiting senior level hires.

Lisa Gibson from the Youth Justice Board shared her experience of working as both a headhunter and an HR professional in the private sector and more recently in the public sector. Lisa's presentation helped the members consider fundamental approaches to attract and manage talent in the current climate.

The presentations and group session gave guests the opportunity to discuss the following issues;

• Current public sector market trends
• The escalating war for talent
• Challenges faced by public sector employers
• What to consider when recruiting senior level, critical hires
• Identifying the right talent
• Attracting potential employees and what they expect from future employers
• How organisations are flexing attraction and recruitment practices in the current climate and in response to other external pressures
• Stakeholder engagement: how to better engage hiring managers and interviewing panels across the organisation in the recruitment process
• How to develop the talent within your organisation.

The 25 members, from organisations including Moat Housing Association, Home Office and Transport for London, developed some practical solutions and offered valuable advice in response to the issues raised. As one member said 'This was a useful arena in which to air problems, talk over solutions and regain motivation.'

Download the presentation in pdf format

Download the discussion notes in pdf format

Speaker profiles

Lisa Gibson

Human Resources Director from the Youth Justice Board

Lisa is currently the Head of HR for the Youth Justice Board of England & Wales, where she has overall responsibility for delivering the HR strategic plan. Her background includes working in HR roles within blue chip organizations, including Abbey and Citigroup, and as a 'head hunter' within two significant recruitment businesses. Prior to joining the YJB, Lisa has specialised in the area of Talent Management, incorporating resourcing strategies, leadership development and career management. She is a confident, outgoing and self-motivated HR professional with strong interpersonal and presentation skills.

Duncan Ward

Senior Manager, Badenoch & Clark

We are delighted to welcome Duncan Ward as guest speaker at our event. He is a Senior Manager at Badenoch & Clark where his role incorporates strategic direction, development and delivery of our public sector offering to central and local government, NHS and charities.

Tuesday 27 January 2009, 9am - 12pm

Despite being viewed as a complex issue, Amanda Harvey provided a detailed yet manageable insight into the current legislation around TUPE. As one member said: Excellent! Gave more than I thought it would!

The session, which had guests present from a wide variety of public and third sector organisations including Ministry of Justice, One Housing Group, Learning and skills Council, UK Border Agency and Family Mosaic Housing Association, covered the following areas:

• Pensions
• Equal pay
• Unidentified employees
• Lack of accurate information
• The NHS Retained Employment Model
• Financial risks
• Post-TUPE harmonisation of T&Cs
• Union recognition

Discussing the importance of HR in being involved with a staff transfer on the grant or renewal of a public sector contract, the topic was brought to life and discussed on a practical level through what became a training workshop on Implementing a strategy to mitigate the legal and financial TUPE risks. This round table discussion provided the 39 senior HR delegates present an opportunity to consider the implications and pitfalls to be aware of.

Download Amanda's presentation in pdf format

Speaker profile

Amanda Harvey

Partner, Devonshires Solicitors

Amanda is Head of the Employment department at Devonshires and leads a team of seven solicitors which specialises in providing employment and associated pensions advice primarily to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), local authorities, NHS Trusts, and charities.

Amanda and her team advise in connection with the transfer of employees under TUPE in a range of areas on a daily basis. Recent experience includes housing stock transfers, housing management contracts, care contracts, schools, housing and leisure PFI deals, care home transfers, DLO arrangements, nursing accommodation, supporting people contracts, maintenance, cleaning, street cleaning, waste disposal and other contracts.

Amanda was the youngest female partner in a London law firm when she was appointed as a partner at Devonshires in 1999.

Tuesday 9 September, 9am - 12pm

Bill Quirke joined us for a captivating, lively and informative session on The Role of HR in Managing Change. As one Forum member said "The quality of the session was excellent. A pragmatic, informative and educational time."

Bill believes that HR plays an instrumental role in managing change as they understand their employees, appreciate how they are going to respond to the change and as a result can know how best to communicate it.

The core of his discussion looked at the following four areas:

• What's important to making different types of change
• Anticipating typical reactions to change
• What helps and hinders change
• Keeping people engaged during times of change

The session was brought to life as Bill shared with us his experiences of working on Change programmes with the likes of M&S, the RAF, British Airways and the Royal Mail in addition to a number of public sector organisations. Somewhat reassuringly, they all faced similar challenges to those organisations represented in the audience. The benefit of hearing how to resolve some of those issues was both invaluable and comforting.

As with all of these sessions, the members, from organisations such as the Healthcare Commission, DWP, Guinness Housing Trust and London Borough of Southwark, broke into groups to share their experiences and views, creating an opportunity to hear more challenges from around the floor.

Download Bill's presentation in pdf format

Speaker profile

Bill Quirke

Bill is a leading authority on internal communication and the management of change.

He is Managing Director of Synopsis, a specialist internal communication consultancy with extensive experience both in private sector and public sector organisations such as the BBC, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, DTI, HM Customs & Excise, Home Office, Ofcom, Royal Mail, Turning Point, Welsh Assembly Government, British Airways, Vodafone, BP, ABN Amro, HSBC, ING, Diageo, Roche, UBS Group, Pfizer, RBS, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, and Whitbread.

Prior to founding Synopsis Bill was a Director of Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's largest corporate communication consultancies, where he led the European change communication practice.

He is a regular speaker internationally, and is the author of the recently published book, "Making the Connections - Using internal communication to turn strategy into action" (Gower) and "Communicating Corporate Change", (McGraw Hill).

Tuesday 1 July 2008 - 9am to 12pm

Clive Pinder, Health and Performance Management expert presented to the Forum on how well being and healthy living can help control absence in the workplace. As former owner of vielife, a provider of tailored lifestyle plans and practical health & well-being services, Clive has a huge range of experience of working with organisations to increase the ability of people and organisations to be healthier, more effective and more productive in everything they do.

Over 25 senior HR professional attended from organisations including Ministry of Justice, Central Office of Information, The Origin Group, Healthcare Commission and Dover District Council.

Following some invigorating breathing exercises, this prevention is better than cure approach to absence seminar set the scene by including:

• Figures to show the cost of absence and sickness on both the UK economy (£1.6 billion according to the CBI) and the NHS (A third of the UK population are 'high risk' and take on average 2.5 days sick in 3 months).
• How, by improving the well being of employees organisations can make a significant change in attendance and productivity in as little as 6 months.
• How a positive approach to managing absence can encourage employees to come back to work quicker and reduce future 'sickies'.

The round table discussions were:

How to get the Board on side
Gather absence rates over the last 3 years to show the scale of the problem
Survey your employees to show gaps in their well being
Pilot a well being plan in one department to demonstrate its impact
Show the clear benefits particularly to the bottom line - e.g. money saving to the FD
Ensure you have ways of measuring success

How to engage employees
Communication is key - ensure all activities are co-ordinated and branded in the same way
Show the benefits to the individual both long and short term
Encourage healthy competition amongst colleagues e.g. weight loss etc.
Pick a champion in your department
Measure success, circulate and gather regular feedback

A carrot or a stick approach to absence management?
It was agreed that many of the methods are a stick with a carrot on the end on it, for example:
Enforce a telephone call rather than email so the manager has a chance to ask how they are and when they are likely to be better again
Back to work interview with managers although the approach needs to be positive - so not 'why were you of' but 'I'm concerned about you'
Offer occupational health assessment
Work with unions where necessary so together you can implement a healthy living plan.

Full details of Clive's presentation can be downloaded here.

Speaker profile

Clive Pinder

Clive is a passionate advocate for the competitive advantage that can be realised by transforming the way individuals, employers, healthcare providers and governments manage physical and emotional well-being to support vibrant and resilient communities. Following the sale of his last business to CIGNA Health Solutions, he retired from full-time employment to focus on his passion for promoting greater consumer engagement in healthcare and in developing social enterprise projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

He currently sits on the Board of the Kensington & Chelsea Primary Care Trust, as well as working with Bupa, Foundation Trust Hospitals and GP groups, so has a unique perspective on the issue of engagement at work and at home for private and public organisations around the world.

In total Clive has over 28 years of international business building, marketing and operating experience in North America, Europe, Africa, AsiaPac and the Middle-East. Until recently he was the CEO of vielife which developed and delivered integrated health & well-being programmes to over 10 million users worldwide through clients including the Department of Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Citibank, BUPA, Standard Life, CIGNA, GSK, Unilever, National Grid and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Prior to joining vielife he was a Managing Partner at KPMG Consulting and Viant Consulting, which was recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the 'Best Managed Hi-Tech Companies' in 1999. His work has also been recognised internationally by Time Magazine and the American Broadcasting Company. He has contributed to two best selling books on the internet and is a frequent commentator to the BBC, Financial Times and international management and HR magazines.

Barrie Smith, Head of Learning and Development at London & Quadrant presented to the Forum on Investors in People (IIP). As an assessor on the IIP panel and responsible for London & Quadrant's IIP application, he is well placed to share his experiences of achieving IIP.

Around 20 senior HR professionals attended the seminar including the likes of Transport for London, Learning & Skills Council, Comic Relief, Sanctuary Group and Wandle Housing Association.

Over the course of the morning, Barrie talked about the following:

• The business benefits
• The IIP National Standard
• Good people management practices
• L&Q's development opportunities
• Maintaining the mementum after achieving the status
• Why do organisations fail?
• Key messages

Download Barrie's presentation (1.3Mb pdf).

A take-home approach

Keen to make this an interactive session with a practical 'take-home' approach, delegates partook in two exercises:

• The diagnostic questionnaire helped delegates to access how the IIP standards fit with business plans and management processes.
  Download the pdf (216k)
• The new investors in people standard - what evidence organisations need to give to achieve IIP.
  Download the pdf (60k)

Contact Barrie

If you would like to talk to Barrie about any of the details in his presentation, please feel free to contact him on:
Email: bsmith@lqgroup.org.uk Tel: 020 8297 7008

Speaker profile

Barrie Smith

Head of Learning & Development, London & Quadrant Housing Trust

Barrie Smith is Head of Learning & Development at London & Quadrant Housing Trust. He oversees the training and development of its 1,000 employees. He is responsible for delivering a range of strategic learning interventions to support the organisation's people and business strategies, including leadership programmes, management development, performance management and work-based learning. He has managed L&Q's Investors in People status since gaining the award in 1996 up to its most recent successful re-accreditation in October 2007. Barrie's professional background started in the Greater London Council and its successor, the London Residuary Body. He joined L&Q in 1992 to set up its Training Department. The Department has just won a National Training Award for its management of L&Q's Graduate Development Programme.