Virtual Digital Workplace Conference

For centuries we have behaved as though organizations were machines, treating people as parts of those machines.
But organizations are living, dynamic systems, that thrive through relationships, natural growth and organic structures.
‘Nature of Work’ is a new approach and new language for the world of work, drawing on patterns from forests and the natural world to illustrate a dynamic, vital and more beautiful world of work that our hearts and minds know is possible.
As at 2019, there were 3.46 billion people working globally, representing 41% of the world’s population. Any changes in work have a dramatic impact on all aspects of life. And not only do these changes affect working people, they ripple out to affect all those who receive services or products as customers too.
Through the lens of nature, Nature of Work explores 12 essential workplace elements, such as health, habitat, regeneration, intelligence, relationships and purpose, underpinned by real-life stories of organizations and people already on this journey to new ways of working.

– People are the single biggest influencer on the success of any business.
– After all, it is the employees who come up with innovations, develop and market products and look after customers.
– A company would be nothing without its employees.
– And that’s why the role of HR managers is so critical – to recruit the employees, to develop them professionally, and even to make sure that we receive our salary at the end of the month.
– We believe, HR managers are the real heroes of a company.
– With Personio you can digitalize and automate everything from recruiting to HR management and payroll. So you have time for value-adding tasks.

Like many businesses, Disneyland Paris is currently going through many transformations in terms of product, as well as operating and HR model. Bruno will examine how Europe #1 tourist destination renewing its L&D model and programs to align them to the current context and to prepare for the company’s future.

I will explain how BT Group moved the delivery of its apprenticeship programmes (all 70 of them) to digital delivery overnight at the beginning of lockdown 1. I will outline the initial steps we took and what worked well and where we faced challenges.
As Tiers came in and Lockdowns #2 and #3 arrived, we hit a different set of problems. I believe it is the combined learnings from the whole lockdown cycles across all four nations, that now puts us in a good place to establish what digital apprenticeship delivery looks like post-Covid.
I propose to share these with audience and hopefully encourage some debate around digital delivery and apprenticeships.

I will cover:

• Background to BT and Openreach apprenticeship programmes and me
• Establishing a large apprenticeship programme since 2017 reforms
• Timeline and key numbers, key focus, challenges, solutions
• Strategy, principles and operating model
• Career progression after apprenticeships
• Wellbeing
• Post-covid recovery and digital opportunities and necessities

The future of work is rapidly changing. It is becoming more flexible and dynamic requiring more agile ways of working. Expectations are also changing. Today’s workforce is challenging old traditions and looking for better collaboration, connection and opportunities across the entire organization. This requires us to reimagine the future of work and re-think how best to keep people engaged.

In the global work from home experiment, 2020 was the year of doing it fast. 2021 however is now the year of doing it right.

In a constantly shifting landscape, building a new way of working has become increasingly difficult. What has become apparent to many is the immediate need for new planning data and insight.

In this presentation we’ll cover the opportunities that exist today to:

• Successfully industrialise the work from home experiment
• Understand how your newly transformed business impacts each employee and the overall business
• Build a digital business that drives your ESG agenda

An exclusive interview with Tahni Morrison, Senior Engagement Manager at SocialChorus

Join Tahni as she explores how businesses need to offer a more fulfilling experience for all their employees, no matter where they’re based.

In the fast-paced, ever-changing world of retail technology, against the backdrop of a global pandemic and remote working, how do you supercharge colleague experience? What can engagement teams learn from software development squads?

In this session, Naomi Sayers – Senior Colleague Experience Manager for Sainsbury’s Tech, will be sharing the way they’ve pivoted the traditional approach to engagement surveys, using Colleague Voice data to build trust and drive colleague happiness.

Advances in technology coupled with the falling prices of mobile devices has enabled the digital workplace to become possible for an increasing number of employees over the last decade. For many job roles, we no longer need to be in the same place to collaborate, communicate and innovate. COVID-19 has highlighted this at scale, proving that it’s possible for huge numbers of employees to work remotely and still be productive. The digital workplace is evolving outside the office too, including for delivery drivers, warehouse staff and healthcare professionals. The quest for optimising employee performance has not changed; what has changed is the ways in which organisations engage their employees to achieve this goal. Technology has made it possible to deliver a customised employee experience, and make it easier to monitor whether various organisational initiatives are effective. Alongside these opportunities come ethical considerations such as privacy. Ultimately, the challenge for people professionals is to find ways for employees and technology to work harmoniously towards common organisational goals.

While digital transformations have been supercharged due to the pandemic, it could be easy to put plans for physical workspaces on pause – or forget about them entirely.

But the big brands who were at the forefront of digital transformation, already well-equipped to weather the Covid-19 storm, aren’t sitting still on the topic. They’ve turned their attention to the purpose, function and designs of their physical workplaces, in anticipation for a new approach to working life when colleagues finally return. Here’s why.

In this ‘new normal’ environment much has been said about the benefits, joys and the upside of working from home. Work-life balance has become a balancing act between your household and your work (where your sons, daughters, spouses, partners, dogs, cats, plants, parents, guitars and bicycles have all become a part of this fine balance).

But is it all that it is made out to be?

In this presentation Sneh will share how some critical signs of disengagement can be missed as a result of the ‘new normal’ and what some of the tell-tale signs are when something is ‘rotten in the state of Denmark’.

Join us for this session where Richard will share his insights on developing a digital communications strategy that is aligned, meaningful and measurable. Drawing on both the theory and real-world application of Agile techniques, Richard will share best practices on the importance of asking the right questions, and then choosing the right ones to answer to win leadership support, align stakeholders and motivate delivery teams.
In this session, you’ll learn:
• Why managing questions is so critical
• What questions you should prioritise to define a meaningful strategy
• How you can use questions on an ongoing basis to maintain momentum through uncertain time

Did you know that between 30-50% of all executive transitions fail during the first 18-24 months? Typically, organisations work extremely hard to identify and hire new executive talent…but then rely on hope when it comes to making their new investment successful. The cost of replacing an executive can be anywhere between 2.5 to 10 times their salary. Given the high stakes, it is surprising how little good guidance is available to new executives on how to transition more effectively and efficiently into a new leadership role. And this is particularly true during a global pandemic! Together we will explore the reasons for failure as well as what actually works in successful transitions, also in a virtual setting.

Attendees will:
o Understand what makes executive transitions so challenging & exciting
o Learn about the most common types of executive transition challenges
o Avoid the 10 biggest mistakes made during executive transitions
o Learn 5 key interventions to transition more successfully into a new role
o Bonus: Learn how to transition effectively virtually (e.g. during a global pandemic)

Abigail will be sharing the story of how Stella McCartney has scrapped it’s traditional annual employee engagement survey in favour of a far more regular way of engaging with colleagues. She will examine how the organisation has used that feedback to implement meaningful change through listening to what people are saying and taking action appropriate action.

The global pandemic has forced us all to participate in the largest ‘work from home’ experiment in history. The experiences and lessons learnt have changed the way Deutsche Bank is currently working and how employees will work in the future. This new perspective has made very clear that the environment in which we operate is constantly changing and a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not sustainable. Therefore, it is essential to apply an ‘Agile Mind-Set’ to the Digital Workplace in order to ensure we are able to adapt to the evolving requirements.

This presentation, will cover:
– An introduction to Agile Mind-Set
– Agile Mind-Set relevance to the Digital Workplace
– Lessons Learnt from COVID-19 which are shaping the Digital Workplace in 2021 and beyond
– Reflection on how Agile Mind-Set should continue to be applied to the Future Workplace

Avon Cosmetics was stuck in the last century, until the pandemic and national lockdown forced the acceleration of a digital agenda that was initially met with much resistance. Suddenly sales representatives were unable to go door-to-door with paper brochures making the adoption of a digital brochure essential, and embracing e-Commerce a do-or-die decision.
And we’ll look inwardly at the culture within head office, which overnight embraced the flexible working approach we’d been trying as an HR team to embed for years.