6 Tips for Giving & Receiving Constructive Feedback
Learning how to give and receive constructive feedback is an essential tool in both your personal and work life.
The Mystery of the Humongous Excel File
My colleague Rachael sent me an interesting email today. She had tried to send one of our usually svelte Excel exercise files to a trainer, only to find that the file had grown from a perfectly reasonable 108KB to a frankly shocking 30MB!
Why Every Company Needs a Chief Happiness Officer
Henry was inspired by Alex Kjerulf of Woohoo! inc to change his job title from Chief Executive Officer to Chief Happiness Officer – as this better expresses what the CEO of an organisation should be doing. Watch the video to find out more.
Interview with Henry Stewart by Lisa Minogue-White of
Learning Now TV
– thanks very much!
Louise Beardmore: Building Connected Service Through Engaged Employees
Building Connected Service Through Engaged Employees Louise Beardmore is passionate about people, her customers, colleagues and staff. Not only does Louise value people, but she also does everything she can to understand people. Louise recognises how workplaces have changed over the years and that the days of command and control are happily no more. She says: “People want to be respected, valued, heard. I am not going to do what you tell me to do. I want you to treat me like a human being. I think human resources is the worst name in the world for HR. Human resources, human remains. I am a human being. Don’t call me a human resource. Stop counting and make me count. I love that.” Louise talked at the 2017 Happy Workplaces Conference about the value of employee engagement: “Increase your employee engagement, improve your customer service.For me the correlation between employee engagement and customer service is huge.” In order to improve engagement Louise decided to work with David McLeod and Nita Clarke at Engage for Success where she learnt the four behaviours of highly engaged organisations: Clear strategic narrative, engaging line managers, employee voice and integrity. In this video, Louise explains what each of these behaviours looks like, how they were put into action at United Utilities and the astonishing results that came from investing in and engaging with the workforce. “In the last 12 months, taking over a customer service operation – I deal with about 85,000 customer interactions every single week. My employee engagement levels have gone up to 91% in the last year and my customer service is the most improved in the sector. We have reduced written complaints by 50%. I have done absolutely nothing to invest in that horror called technology. All I have done is invested in my people and empowered them to do some things that are different.” About the speaker: Louise Beardmore Louise spoke at the 2017 Happy Workplaces Conference held on 14th June 2017 at etc.venues Norton Folgate in London. Working for the United Utilities Group as Customer Services Director, Louise has held a number of senior positions at North West Water, Norweb Plc, Vertex and United Utilities, leading business in Operations, Customer Services and HR both here in the UK and internationally for a number of utility and retail brands. Prior to her current role, Louise was Head of Business Transformation for United Utilities, managing all aspects of transformation across the Group driving people, process and technology changes to improve service and drive efficiency. Louise is a huge advocate of the power of employee engagement to drive improved customer service and is a Non-Executive Director of Engage for Success as well as a Vice President of the Institute of Customer Service. You can connect with Louise on LinkedIn here and you can tweet to United Utilities @uugroupplc.
Great Leaders Aren’t Always Great Managers
People management is a crucial role, and it is different from leadership.
The Importance of Communication When Transforming an Organisation’s Culture
In this short video, Tracy Jelfs (formerly Head of Children’s Services at Monmouthshire County Council) explains the importance of communication when transforming the office culture.
The Importance of Trust in the National Audit Office
In this short three-minute video, Susan Ronaldson and Steve Mirfin of the National Audit Office explain about why they have made trust the centre of their workplace culture.
Happy Workplaces Save Lives
In this two-minute video, Henry Stewart explains the financial evidence and academic research behind happy workplaces. The Best Workplaces have a Four Factor Alpha of 3.5% on the stock market, compared to ordinary workplaces. Plus, happy workplaces save lives – for every 96 deaths in a happy and engaged hospital, 103 people die in a hospital where staff are disengaged and unhappy.
The Happy Manifesto: A ‘Pisstaker’s Charter’?
In this short video, Brendan O’Keefe of Epic CIC explains about some of the difficulties he had at Epic CIC when first implementing The Happy Manifesto principles of a culture based on autonomy, trust and freedom.
Are Leaders in Charge?
Henry Stewart speaks to the Eth Word about leadership and the concept of being ‘in charge’ of Happy.
“I don’t think about being in charge, I think about trying to inspire people here and elsewhere, and enabling them to be their best,” says Henry.
