Lord Price spoke about Engaging Works
See the tweets from @EngagingWorks and @Rehman_Chishti
Tuesday 29th January, 2019
“Fairness for All’ – Lord Price on Employee Welfare and Engaging Works
On Tuesday 29th January, the CFFC welcomed Lord Price as our guest speaker to talk on the importance of maximising employee happiness in order to improve productivity, in other words “nourish in order to flourish”. Mark Price is a businessman, writer and former government Minister of Trade from July 2016-2017. However as former Managing Director of Waitrose, Deputy of the John Lewis Partnership and Chairman of Business in the Community, Mark has also spent over 30 years unlocking the power of people in organisations. He is passionate about creating engaged and happy workforces who in turn create longer term sustainable success for businesses.
During the session, he discussed the concept of workplace happiness alongside inclusive capitalism, the idea that motivated his book “Fairness for All”. He highlighted the benefits of the ‘virtuous circle’ that results from a happier workforce who will stay longer, be better trained, work harder, deliver a higher quality of work and therefore deliver better service which ultimately result in improved customer loyalty and higher pay for the employees.
He has created Engaging Works, along with his daughter Holly. The ground breaking new online mentoring and welfare service aims to drive forward the power of a happier workforce. Rooted in their belief in the potential of happier employees to transform business, they have developed a platform with a set of simple tools for both companies and individuals to use, including a short 5 minute survey that can be used to tangibly quantify and gauge happiness across a range of industries and allow for comparisons.
Key messages from the session:
- Discourages the use of the expression ‘Work-Life Balance’ as it implies life and therefore happiness can only exist outside of work. Instead, employers should focus on achieving ‘Workplace Happiness’ for their employees.
- In the past, the ultimate goal of the CEO was to maximise shareholder value but it should be about maximising employee happiness as Business School rhetoric talks increasingly about a balanced scorecard.
- Research shows a more engaged workforce increase productivity by 20%.
- Compared to other European countries, UK is the laggard in terms of productivity – needs addressing.
- There is a clear correlation as those countries with highest scores on happiness have the highest levels of productivity
- Engaging Works and Engaging Business is all about helping people at work to be happier and more engaged. It uses a survey to assess workplace happiness, something they believe to be tangible. This gives power back to the individual, can be used for comparison between different industries and ultimately leads to stronger organisations which are better for society.
- 6 Key Criteria need to be fulfilled in order for employees to feel happy and engaged:
- Reward (appropriate pay)
- Recognition
- Empowerment
- Well-being
- Pride
- Job Satisfaction
- 85% of people leave a job due to the lack of relationship with their line manager
- Biggest frustration cited is “my career is not allowing me to develop”. The most important elements for employees are Self-Worth and Career Development.
