Build a business, create a great culture, win awards and make a profit
Dominic Monkhouse knows life is short and he doesn’t want to waste it. Dom developed the UK divisions of the web-hosting businesses, Rackspace and Peer 1, and tried to make them exciting places to work by giving employees freedom within clear guidelines and heeding the “recruit for attitude, train for skill” precept.
Dom’s acutely aware of how little time we have to make a difference. In his talk at the 2017 Happy Workplaces CEO conference, Dom poses the question, “What are you going to make a difference in? Who with?”
Read the transcript and watch Dom’s full talk below.
Implementing Happy Principles in a Public Sector Mutual
Brendan O’Keefe was inspired by the Happy Manifesto and sought to implement its ideas at Epic CiC—an education support public mutual, which was founded in response to the changing landscape of public sector funding.
Brendan knew the organisation’s existing systems were hampering performance and inhibiting staff success. Speaking at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Brendan explains how, as managing director, he took a more active role in stimulating great results and growing a happy workplace.
Read the transcript and watch Brendan’s full talk below.
Doing Things Differently in Children’s Services
As Head of Children’s Services at Monmouthshire County Council, Tracy Jelfs faced the difficult task of improving KPIs, reining in spending and creating a happy, engaged work environment. This was all happening concurrently with the commitment to deliver quality services to vulnerable children and young people.
Speaking at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Tracy details her experiences tackling these twin challenges – a task she ranks as the hardest of her professional career.
Read the transcript and watch Tracy’s full talk below.
Building a Culture of Trust at the National Audit Office
The National Audit Office exists to inspect public expenditure on behalf of parliament. It does so by auditing accounts and analysing organisational efficiency in order to determine the extent to which the given organisation is getting value for money.
Susan Ronaldson is the NAO’s Director for Engagement and Change. She was joined by Steve Mirfin, Head of Skills and Talent, at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference to speak about the measures the NAO has taken to get the best out of its people.
Read the transcript and watch the full talk below.
How the Government Digital Service creates a happy, diverse workplace
Alex Segrove is the Delivery Lead for the Government Delivery Service (GDS) – the digital transformation unit within the Cabinet Office. The role requires Alex to work in partnership with developers, designers, product managers, quality assurance people and many more.
GDS are guided by 11 core principles, which Alex outlines in her talk at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector conference. Alex believes that, by adhering to these principles, GDS are doing the right thing.
Watch the full talk below.
Creating Happy, Engaged Workplaces in a Traditional Industry
Gemma Beadle, the HR Manager at Advanced Technology Services UK, has a passion for wellbeing in the workplace. Joined by ATS Site Manager, Damien O’Neill, Gemma spoke at the 2017 Happy Workplaces conference about ATS’s achievements in creating a happy workplace.
While there are various obstacles in the way of creating a happy workplace, Gemma says ATS are committed to doing so, believing “it’s the right thing to do for your people and your organisation.”
View Gemma and Damien’s full talk below.
What Makes Foundation SP an Award-Winning Great Place to Work
Simon Grosse is the CEO of Foundation SP, a company he co-founded in 2012. Right from the get-go, he wanted FSP to be a compelling, genuine and authentic place to work.
Speaking at the 2017 Happy Workplaces conference, Simon explains the company’s ethos is to care about people and try to extract each individual’s unrealised potential. They do this by prioritising empowerment, autonomy and freedom.
Watch Simon’s full talk below.
Humanity Above Bureaucracy: How Buurtzorg Reinvented Dutch Home Care
Speaking at the 2017 Happy Workplaces conference, Madelon van Tilburg of Buurtzorg Nederland and Brendan Martin of Public World detail the advantages of a flexible, human-focused approach to home care.
Madelon has been working for Dutch home care organisation, Buurtzorg, since 2011. Buurtzorg differs from her previous employers in that it lets nurses exercise freedom and responsibility in the job they’re trained for. Brendan founded Public World with the aim of improving public service performance in the UK.
View Madelon and Brendan’s full talk below.
The Future of Work is Human
At the 2017 Happy Workplaces conference, Peter Cheese made a compelling case for why the future of work is human.
Peter is the CEO of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, which is made up of more than 140,000 human resource management professionals working in the private, public and voluntary sectors around the globe.
While Cheese admits he can’t tell us exactly what the future of work will look like, he’s optimistic that humans will maintain indispensable workplace significance even as technology continues to expand.
View Peter’s full talk below.
How John Lewis Puts the Happiness of its Staff at the Core of its Business
John Lewis Partnership has been experimenting with how to make people happy for a century. Its founder, John Spedan Lewis, was driven to create a workplace that functioned so that all parts of the ecosystem were in balance and worked to improve the whole.
Sarah Gillard joined the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership in 2010 as Head of Merchandising for John Lewis Furniture. She then worked as Head of Strategy before taking on the role of Director, Insight and Assurance within the Personnel function in 2017. Speaking at the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Sarah explains how the Partnership goes about achieving its ultimate purpose: securing the happiness of all its members.
