Employee Engagement in a New World Environment” (How to maximise performance and wellbeing in tough times.)

Keynote Speaker: John Housego

1.Background

Both the inter-related worlds of business and society pre-Covid and pre-Brexit are rapidly becoming more of a rosy, if distorted, memory than they are realities of contemporary times. Restoring the past for leaders is not an option – so the challenge for all lies in creating the future. 

So that opens doors for both radical thinking and the potential of creating a new and hopefully  more effective world with new ways of better living and working than previously existed.

2. Pertinent Questions asked in the New World.

For a start, what might “employment” look like post-furlough for employees? And likewise, what is the lot of erstwhile long serving, but now redundant, executives “in transition”? And just where might they be transitioning to anyway?

The skills that served leaders well in the past, including command, planning and control, are not the same as those required to create the future. So, what are the required new skills to be mastered by tomorrow’s leaders – irrespective of their chosen sectors or size of operations?

At the economic level there is a clear need to re-float both production levels and jobs which prompts reflecting on alternative legal entities and structures. What might these structures be?

(One rapidly growing option is that of Employee Ownership which as a concept and a reality that precedes Covid. The Employee Trust initiative has the strategic support from government agencies with some funding and there are now almost a hundred such companies.in Scotland – see link  Ownership Dividend Report

This interactive workshop of reflective learning will be facilitated by John Housego (see bio).

3. Workshop Content

This highly interactive workshop that enable delegates to (re)consider a number of key questions relating to what working from home and what future work practices/ structures are most likely to emerge post Covid  – whenever that may be?

John will consider the big picture questions outlined in section 2 above and will encourage participants to reflect on some of the more personal challenges reflected in the following questions:

Participants may consider some key personal  questions as summarised over the page. 

·       How engaged are you at work under current working from home regulations ?

·       How does that compare to the level of engagement shown by other people?

·       What drives engagement?

·       How can engaging your people add value for your organisation and to you personally?

·       How much is “engagement” a core component of your organisational strategy?

·       Why doesn’t engagement just happen by itself?

·       How does your leadership behaviour engage and motivate your people? Or not?

·       How can you inspire people to want to do their best  to deliver high performance?

·       How clearly communicated are your values and vision for engagement in the workplace?

4 Workshop Outputs

The style of this facilitated discussion means that you can learn from others in the room and your own reflections as much as from John’s content. You will gain insights into your own leadership style and mindset as well as experiencing practical tools for an engagement framework which you can then implement in your own organisation as you see appropriate.

The intended benefits from following today’s guidelines for you  as a leader are:

A heightened awareness of organisation structures that promote engagement.

Higher productivity creativity and better teamwork

Awareness of the blocks you may have inadvertently placed on your own team’s productivity.

Real life examples of considering development as an opportunity not of one of additional cost.

How to encourage a simple mindset change in employees through increased opportunities.

Maintaining productivity gained in in Covid, but also awareness of the implications for teams.

5. John Housego -Keynote Speaker and facilitator

John become MD of Aquascot in early 2020.A specialist fish processor based in Alness primarily supplying the Waitrose partnership. (John had been a non-executive for the past 14 years and for the past 18 months he has been on the board of Scotland For Employee Ownership).

For the previous 24 years John had a “got the tee-shirt” experience in specialist textile  manufacturing with W L Gore & Associates

For his last 4 years at Gore John led an enterprise manufacturing supply chain project designing consistent process and data solutions covering all of Gore’s diverse products globally .The team built a full IT technical solution providing consistent data sets and processes

Prior to that John was the plant leader at the Livingston manufacturing location. During 2005-2008 Gore won the award for being the  best company to work for in the UK for  4 consecutive years – a feat never repeated by any other company in the UK.

The initial ten years of his career was in process control with  Kodak. He is  a graduate from  Loughborough University with a degree in in Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

John is much recognised as a visionary thinker. His field of vision encompasses both the economics of  industry with the needs of society which when coupled with his years of operating experience provide a compelling platform as a keynote speaker .