Workforce Wellbeing: Supporting Our Colleagues Through Tough Times

When we first started planning the Empowering Communities training and events programme in late 2021, we identified workforce wellbeing and the wellbeing of volunteers as being one of the topics we wanted to address through our Good Practice Workshops.  After almost two years of the Pandemic, local VCSE organisations tell us that their volunteers are exhausted. They also told us that many volunteers were leaving roles.

So, in response we invited Dr. Helen Fitzhugh from the UEA Business School to speak at our workshop about her research into workplace wellbeing for Evolve Workplace Wellbeing. Focusing particularly on volunteer wellbeing, you can watch a recording of Helen’s presentation here.

Why is workforce wellbeing important?

As 2022 has progressed the topic of wellbeing has not gone away. In fact it has become even more central and does not just affect volunteers but the wider VCSE workforce too.  As a sector we are still recovering from the Lockdowns of 2020 and 2021:  an HSE report states that of the 822,000 workers suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2020/21 an estimated 449,000 reported that this was caused or made worse by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

On top of this recovery process, we are now facing the challenges brought to us by the current cost-of-living crisis. This is a devastating impact on the communities and people we work with. It is also making day to day life more challenging for our colleagues, our volunteers and ourselves.  It is not surprising then that we are hearing stories from our Networks about difficulties in recruiting staff and rising sickness levels.

VCSE Sector Conference Day 2

It is for these reasons that Day Two of our VCSE Conference will focus on workforce wellbeing and resilience.  We are delighted that one of Helen’s colleagues from Evolve Workplace Wellbeing, Professor Kevin Daniels, will be joining us for a panel discussion about workforce retention, engagement and resilience.

Kevin is a Professor of Organizational Behaviour in Norwich Business School at UEA. He leads the Workplace Wellbeing research team. He has over 30 years of experience in the fields of workplace wellbeing, health and safety.  Kevin has been heavily involved in the development of the Evolve website. There you can access evidence-informed workplace wellbeing resources drawing upon cutting edge research.

The website includes practical tools such as a cost effectiveness calculator to help organisations build a business case for investing in wellbeing initiatives.  Alongside Kevin on the conference panel will be HR expert Nicola McCall from CBR Solutions and Rebecca White, CEO and Founder of Your Own Place, talking about creative approaches to supporting existing staff, exploring ways to improve recruitment and even on how investing in your staff’s wellbeing can save your organisation money.

Book your place

This virtual session will explore how to recruit, support and retain staff in the current climate. Join our panel of guest speakers explore how to develop organisational and workforce resilience from staff recruitment to wellbeing.

Click here for more details and to register for this online session.