DTP

Brian Fielkow:

It is easy to get caught up with the day to day practicalities without looking at the causes of the pain points in our businesses.  Brian talked through a number of issues and how the solutions had evolved by getting staff engagement and taking ownership of the issues.  In the afternoon he then hosted the workshop session where the attendees broke into teams to work on a series of questions.  There was some great interaction and solutions which could be taken home and applied in the business environment.

The take home thought: "Culture in your business affects every outcome".

Dr Kathleen Wills:

Dr Kathleen really brought into perspective the seriousness of staff burnout to the workplace, noting the long term effects on productivity.  It really is a lot easier to manage work environment and pressures to prevent burnout than it is to treat it after the event.  The message clearly impacted on the attendees as a number subsequently purchased Kathleen’s ‘Beat Burnout’ book to follow through on the subject.

Sarah Gilbert:

Sarah has a background which covers not only personal training but also corporate HR so has personally observed how the lifestyle disciplines of individual staff affects their productivity.  She gave some top tips as well as a simple exercise.  She got us to write down one word describing how we felt in that moment.  For many it was ‘tired’.  She then had us do a series of squats, imaging that we were doing them at our desk.  We then recorded how we felt and the majority had written down ‘energised’.  It was an enlightening exercise which just goes to show how developing some simple daily habits can improve our productivity and mental function.

Keith Robinson:

Keith harks from the health & safety environment and for years the focus has for many businesses has been on making the business site safe from a physical point of view whilst totally ignoring the health perspective.  Keith gave some very revealing examples of where it is important for employers to be taking a closer look at such areas as fatigue management for shift workers and how, when we get down to the nuts and bolts, that it is about treating staff as people again and engaging with peer support to get the best results.   Health first to deliver safety.