Today we held our virtual Leaders event and September Social entitled "Shaping the next generation employee experience. The session began with welcomes and introductions from Board Directors Lisa Hooley and David Herd.
The Sli.do poll was really useful in getting everyone interacting and sharing their thoughts on employee experience, 44% are measuring it and 52% are using a component like engagement, wellbeing or performance. The consensus within the group was that working remotely has had a positive impact on employee experience within organisations and it is an important part of helping to recruit and retain talent.
The floor was then open for everyone to share details of personal "To do" actions to improve employee experience across teams and this created a great opportunity to share some of the actions, challenges and positives that have come from this.
Colin Garside, The Very group: We provide discount for colleagues on our website to purchase desks or chairs if they want & also got people to complete elearning for DSE to help them get the set up right at home. We also have people that struggle to work from home and prefer office work........but think it will be ablended approach for us. We also have fewer locations, so easier for us vrs multi-location businesses buthave already moved to a 50/50 split of home & office working. The office time should be focused on collaboration time, which is a strong message from our CEO & Exec team and home time is for getting things done.............BUT we will absolutely learn as we go & adapt as needed.
Lynne Bowry-Thompson, ENGIE: We are working closely with each of the teams to look at having specific 'team' days within the office to encourage the collaboration piece. DSE's have been sent to all staff and arrangements made for office equipment to be purchased as required across the board, staff have also been provided with extra screens if required for the role.
Nick Speight, The Cooperative Group shared their approach: We have a project called "Working Well for Everyone" looking at all aspects of our future ways of working. We have c500 of our over-4000 office based colleagues working in the office and want to be clear on the future before we encourage more colleagues back into Manchester. The project starting with 4 guiding principles that were created through asking our colleagues and leaders about what was good and bad about both home and office working.
Dan Foley, The Kier Group: The completion of the DSE sits with the employee but the employer must review and based on this output determine if the employee should work from home ..... role agnostic. We are doing individual 121s and surveys have indicated who needs to be back in the office full time, who shouldhave hot desk opportunities and who will be fine to WFH into the long term. Those coming back CANT workfrom home legally or safely or have mental health issues which demand actual human interaction ...
Michelle Adams, DWF: Mostly WFH has improved engagement but managers who manage larger teams have found it more difficult. There have been dips in performance measures in some teams and managers have been working extra hours at home than they would in the office. Also agree with Dan there is a priority for those returning to the office where they have found it really stressful WFH
Adam Monk, AXA: Some business leaders concerned that productivity would drop and there's evidence in some areas it has. I think sick absence reduction needs to be factored into productivity as a benefit of employee control for how they work.
The Sli.do results are available to view from Resources.
We then welcomed Samantha Woolven from t-three to the session who gave a fantastic interactive session on "Fit for the future: changing cultures, driving forwards". Samantha introduced us to the new word "Corona Coaster" and got us thinking about our changing world of work. There is a focus on inclusivity, expectations of flexibility and the power of purpose.
Samantha touched on a culture for engagement and TERA:
T: Tribe
E: Expectation
R: Rank
A: Autonomy
Samantha then split the group into breakout session where they had to discuss and share with their groups one big change that is expected of them. This really encouraged engagement, reclarification, how we stay connected to our Teams, how we have become more flexible and how we manage the work/life balance.
Samantha's presentation is available to view and download from Resources.
The last session of the day was a Lego Serious Play session with Jonathan Bannister from Make Happy. Jonathan began with a background into how the "Serious Play" concept was created and shared the top 10 skills of 2020 with complex problem solving at number 1 and cognitive flexibility new in at number 10. The groups were the then split into breakouts and asked to build something that explained something about themselves that no-one else would know. This was a great activity to get everyone interacting, thinking and sharing.
Jonathan touched on the Johari Window model and Mihály Csíkszentmihály’s Flow and then moved us on to the second activity, which was to create something to show the biggest challenge we are currently facing at work which again got the group sharing how they are planning to overcome this. The session ended witheveryone being asked to create something expressing what think we all need to continue doing within our SSF UK community. There was a common theme throughout of making connections, learning from each other, keeping things informal, keep sharing, keep supporting, celebrate the successes, share the value of Shared Services and always stay connected.
Jonathan's presentation is also available to view and download from Resources.
Just wanted to say thanks for the great session today - and also for the lovely afternoon tea. I just had the scone - delicious! Natasha Coxhead, ITV
Great session, great organisation. Dan Foley, Kier Group
I just wanted to say what a great event yesterday. I really enjoy being part of this network – I’ts so good to connect with others who are dealing with the same or similar issues. Thank you also for the cream tea - Ishared it with my daughter when she got home from school yesterday – it was lovely and a really nice thing to do. Sarah Sayer, Samworth Brothers Shared Services
Thank you so much for the sessions today, I really enjoyed it. Great to connect with like minded leaders and share our stories. Afternoon tea was amazing great idea. But I was trying to eat my scone with jam and cream as I was trying to build my tower not a good combination! Michelle Adams, DWF
Lego and afternoon tea = a great day at work! Thank you Shared Services Forum UK and our super workshop facilitators for a great leaders event today. Jessica Ritchie, Raytheon Technology
It was a great day. So many take aways. The lunch was amazing.... Martin Kirby, Business Stream
Thank you for such an inspiring session today, thoroughly enjoyed all of the speakers and playing with lego … speaking of which have attached my ‘efforts’ for you. The lunch provided was lovely, I don’t normally eat much at lunchtime but have managed to finish it all off in a very short space of time. Maybe the brain work required for the session. Lynne Bowry-Thompson, ENGIE
Thanks for a great morning - what brilliant insights from Samantha and what great tools (ahem Lego!) we now have to assist our problem solving curtesy of Jonathan. Thanks for lunch too. Katie Duxbury, Bupa UK
Another great event today & as others have commented here and in the sessions, it was great to share experiences & knowledge as always.......and of course well done to the team at SSF UK. Colin Garside, The Very Group
I really enjoyed this morning, thank you for welcoming to join the whole session. I would love to work with you guys again, so let’s make that happen. I’ve just cracked into the sandwiches! Samantha Woolven, t-three
Thank you to everyone who attended today virtual event, the feedback has been amazing and we have loved seeing all your lego creations. We hope you all enjoyed your afternoon tea and look forward to seeing you at the virtual annual conference on the 10th and 11th of November. Invites will be going out next month and will have all the details on registration, the agenda, speakers, sponsors and the FutureVision awards ceremony. Please get your nominations in before the closing date on Friday the 2nd of October. All the information on the awards is available HERE
