Workplace Wellbeing & Stress Summit 2013 – Documentation

Neil Shah, Chief DeStressor, The Stress Management Society Neil Shah is a leading international expert on Stress Management and Wellbeing issues. A highly engaging and inspiring motivational speaker and facilitator and an award winning serial entrepreneur, Neil has travelled the world to deliver his programmes and solutions. He is the author of ‘NLP: A Practical Guide’ (Icon Books) and ‘The 10-Step Stress Solution’ (Random House). Neil is regularly featured in the media as a BBC expert on Stress, as well as in newspapers and magazines such as The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, Men’s Health and Top Sante.

Ivan’s main role is as Founding Director of Robertson Cooper Ltd – a leading provider of well-being services to organizations. He is also Visiting Professor of Organisational Psychology at Leeds University Business School and Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Fellow of the British Academy of Management. He has published over 40 books on Work & Organizational Psychology and approaching 200 scholarly articles/conference papers. He has held visiting posts in the USA, Singapore and Australia. His latest book (co-authored with Professor Cary Cooper), “Well-Being: Happiness and Productivity at Work”, was published in the spring of 2011.

Mike Schofield is a Specialist Practitioner in Occupational Health and currently holds national responsibilities in a Management position at the AA, the UK’s leading provider of motoring, home emergency and insurance products. His career in Occupational Health launched in 1988 when he was invited to develop a service for Local Government, namely the schools, colleges and youth centres of Sheffield City Council’s Education Department. Thereafter he worked in NHS Occupational Health before moving to Procter & Gamble’s European Diaper and Tissue-Towel manufacturing environment. Here he developed health surveillance, technical, process and health systems expertise and was selected to audit against P&G’s Global Health Standards in France, Germany and Italy. Mike contributes the strategic delivery of occupational health within the AA’s HR management systems and supports corporate and business-unit wellbeing initiatives to promote employee engagement.

Ian Mackenzie manages the Bank’s benefits for staff, including the health, wellbeing and occupational health services. He has led the implementation of a large number of health and wellbeing initiatives internally and introduced a health and wellbeing scorecard to identify trends and direct resources. These initiatives are now starting to deliver measurable improvements in the health of staff. He was previously a pension consultant at large consulting firms and initially joined BNP Paribas in 2005 to manage the staff pension schemes. As such he describes himself as an ‘enthusiastic amateur’ in the wellbeing arena.

Theresa Dent-Gater is the Organisational Health Co-ordinator at Croydon Council, her background is in teaching health-related subjects to adults, mainly in the fitness industry. Theresa has been in post since January 2012 and has introduced a wide range of wellbeing initiatives for council employees. The Council signed the Time to Change pledge in January 2013. Theresa is a qualified Mental Health First Aid Instructor.

The Financial Ombudsman Service is a values driven organisation which has experienced a considerable increase in growth in the last two years. During this growth it has continued to deliver outstanding services to its customers which Karen Smith, well-being manager at the ombudsman, believes comes from ensuring its own staff feel valued and nurtured in the work place. Karen has worked at the Financial Ombudsman Service for 8 years during which time her passion for enhancing employee engagement has facilitated the creation of a well-being team. Her responsibilities currently include creating the strategic plan for well-being, a vision which is now being delivered throughout the organisation with the support of the well-being team.

Howard has worked in the health insurance industry for over 27 years with 15 years in marketing. Howard has a BA (Hons) in History and Politics and MBA. As Head of Employer Marketing at Simplyhealth, Howard’s role involves helping companies understand the broad range of employee benefits and how they add value to the business. Howard is a family man. He has three children and a dog called Poppy. Howard also follows Newport Gwent Dragons and is a fluent Welsh speaker.

Helen is the Health and Wellbeing Manager for Mars Chocolate UK and has 20 plus years experience in occupational health. Currently a business partner leading Mars’ award winning wellbeing strategy including the resilience programme as well as managing the full remit of an in house occupational health service. Helen is committed to the belief that Mars associates are at the heart of the business and drive performance. The strategy supports associates in managing their wellbeing and is a mutual benefit to Mars, associates and their families. Understanding wellbeing and the impact on engagement and performance is key in delivering key business objectives and the ability to compete in a competitive market both today and tomorrow.

Dr Claire Dickinson is the Office of Rail Regulation’s Occupational Health Programme Manager. A human factors specialist by background, Claire has been a health and safety regulator for more than 25 years, the last 10 years covering the rail sector.

[tab: Sponsors]

In a world where so many people can’t be bothered, we’re proud to be the healthcare company that can. We believe in helping people access affordable healthcare and delivering exceptional personal customer service. We help two million individuals look after their health, and 11,000 companies choose us as their healthcare provider. You may have known us as HSA, BCWA, HealthSure, LHF, Totally Active, Remedi or Medisure. Our name has changed, but what’s not altered is our award winning commitment to do the right thing by our customers.

Unum has been providing employee insurance benefits in the UK for 40 years, offering policies to employers of all sizes, including 37 of the FTSE100. In particular we specialise in Group Income Protection. This provides staff with a back-up plan if they’re unable to work due to long-term illness or injury, by paying a proportion of their salary until they either get better and return to work, or reach retirement. This specialisation in sickness absence means we have extensive expertise in the understanding and management of – and support for – a wide range of conditions that employees may face, from mental health and stress-related conditions, to musculoskeletal; from accidents and injuries, to cancer. We were the first insurer to develop an in-house Vocational Rehabilitation team, and this is a core part of the approach we take to managing and supporting those who are off work. Their occupational therapy, occupational health and vocational rehabilitation expertise extends beyond intervention when someone’s fallen sick, and into preventative training for HR and line management that integrates into the wellness programmes that many of our clients have, and looks to promote resilience alongside physical health. In 2012, we began a partnership with the charity Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres, to raise the issue of cancer in the workplace. Through a series of free workshops, held at Maggie’s centres around the country, we’re looking to promote HR and line management awareness and capabilities, for working with, supporting and managing people with cancer. This partnership won the Rehabilitation First Initiative of the Year Award in September 2013.

WorkGuru provides on-line, supported self-help, designed to help people build mental resilience, increase effectiveness and manage workplace stress. We combine the evidence-based approaches of work-focused CBT, positive psychology and Mindfulness; alongside expert support from our team of job coaches, work and clinical psychologists; and an innovative, engaging on-line experience. We are a young company. After extensive development and piloting of our approach we began trading earlier this year. We are getting a fabulous response from organisations who love our proactive, preventative approach. Noel O’Reilly editor of Occupational Health magazine describes us as “representing a significantly new approach to building resilience and managing workplace stress”. WorkGuru (www.workguru.org) is a young, innovative company, passionate about workplace health, and committed to promoting the evidence-based approach to building resilience. We are thrilled to be sponsoring the Workplace Wellbeing & Stress Summit and look forward to contributing to the conversation on building resilience and tackling workplace stress.

The Stress Management Society is one of the UK’s leading authorities on workplace stress and works with a broad range of companies – from advising British Airways on how to reduce passenger stress (www.ba.com/wellbeing) to working with executives from organisations as diverse as Shell, Allianz Insurance, Islington Council, Procter and Gamble and The Football Association

• Highest quality Stress Management Training for your workforce – can be delivered on site
• Team of consultants delivering cutting edge stress reduction and wellbeing solutions
• Bespoke workshops and training sessions designed to improve results for your business
• Line Managers Training endorsed by the Institute of Leadership & Management
• Business Stress Risk Review to understand the cultural and commercial impact of stress to your organisation

Our services not only help companies with stress management, they also help companies attain other benefits:

• Reducing sick leave by up to 20%
• Stabilising staff turnover
• Enhancing companies’ reputation as an employer of choice

Workplace Healthcare

Workplace healthcare & wellbeing has certainly moved forward in the last ten years, quite possibly the word ‘wellbeing’ would not have even been used, but is now regularly applied in the corporate world when referring to the physical & mental state of your workforce. Keeping your staff healthy typically involved occupational health, physio and compliance with health & safety, perhaps with some health perks within your employee benefit packages. These remain important elements, however… There is a bigger picture. Increasingly companies are realizing that the ongoing wellbeing of their people is paramount. Historically treatment has been reactive, this has now been allied with a proactive approach, the philosophy ‘prevention is better than cure’ has been adopted by organisations that want to keep their people fit, active and productive.