Maximising staff potential: Talking the walk to wellbeing

Wednesday 25th May 2011

Thank you for attending our conference at the University of Essex on Wednesday 25th May 2011. University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester C04 3SQ.

It was a great success with over 60 delegates in attendance.

Please find below the podcasts of the various talks. You can also download a PDF of all the talks here.

We would welcome your feedback on the conference and any suggestions for future events that you would be interested in us running. Please contact via e-mail Valerie Gladwell (organiser) on vglad (non Essex users add @essex.ac.uk).

Please also contact Valerie if you wish to discuss your workplace health and wellbeing.

Health and well-being in the workplace
Speaker:  Dr Valerie Gladwell

The presentation explored why employers should act now about implementing health and well-being initiatives. Case studies of companies throughout the UK gave a flavour of what has been done and the evidence of how it improves health and well-being.

Valerie Gladwell is a Senior Lecturer and ESRC Research Fellow investigating workplace health and well-being.

Managing the madness
Speaker: Chris Tanner

This presentation looked at how communication routines can be developed in workplaces to overcome these problems, through gaining a greater insight of the emotional impact of work. It is based on outcomes of successful projects piloted in public, private and third sector organisations.

Chris Tanner is an organisational consultant and coach. He directs the University of Essex MA programme in Management and Organisational Dynamics. He has worked as an external consultant to wide range of organisations.

How the Why of Behaviour is Important for Motivation and Health in the Workplace
Speaker: Andrew Przybylski

Motivation in the workplace is often thought of in terms of quantity, yet the quality of motivation can be easily overlooked. This presentation focussed on different kinds of motivation in the workplace and discussed how they influence productivity and health. The talk provided practical advice of how to foster high quality motivation in your organization.

Andrew Przybylski is a full-time social science researcher at the University of Rochester in the United States and is a visiting research fellow in Department of Psychology at the University of Essex. He has worked with a wide range of corporations by employing basic social science principles, methods, and analytic techniques in applied settings.

The following tool may be useful for assessing your costs of implementing health and wellbeing programme-wellbeing tool. (Taken from http://www.dwp.gov.uk/health-work-and-well-being/)

Click here for Seminar 1 of this series: Using Principles from Athlete Management