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    • CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition 2024: highlights from day two
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    CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition 2024: highlights from day two

    Online Niel Posted on

    On the final day of the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition in Manchester yesterday (7 November), attendees were invigorated by impactful sessions on inclusion, wellbeing and workforce strategy.

    The day began with a call to action to expand representation in fields such as STEM, highlighting the need for industries that truly reflect society. The conversation about employee well-being has prompted quick fixes, prompting companies to create environments where people feel truly supported and valued.

    From fostering diverse talent pipelines to reshaping employee development, the sessions offered unique insights into creating workplaces that support equality and adaptability.

    People management has brought together this key information, offering practical ideas for building more supportive and inclusive workplaces.

    We need to make STEM more diverse

    “If STEM is only done by a small demographic, we are not serving humanity well,” space scientist Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock told delegates in her speech entitled “Reaching for the stars – inspiring the next generation of people of science.

    She pointed out that ethnic minority men are 28% less likely to go into science, technology, engineering or maths, while the LGBTQ+ community are also less likely to have careers in these industries due to fear of discrimination. Furthermore, only 22% of the core STEM workforce is female.

    “We need to overcome this hurdle, we need to make STEM more diverse,” Aderin-Pocock said. Since founding her own company, Science Innovation, in 2004, she has conducted public engagement activities and spoken to more than 550,000 people to counter STEM’s “image problem” and overcome the perception of those working in these professions as ” others’ and ‘not like the rest of mankind’.

    Aderin-Pocock also opened up about her own experiences growing up: “I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I went to many different schools and often people would say to me, “Why don’t you go back home?” And I don’t think they meant around the corner, I think they meant Africa.”

    However, despite her parents coming from Nigeria, Aderin-Pocock said she felt she didn’t belong either because she had never visited and didn’t speak the language. “One of the glorious things about space is that when you look at our planet from space, you don’t see barriers, you don’t see borders, you just see our planet,” she said.

    We can’t take no for an answer when breaking down barriers to inclusion

    The opening speech about Corinthians, a women’s football club formed during the FA’s ban on women playing football, spoke of the power to overcome adversity and remove barriers to inclusion.

    Helen Tither, producer and director of a new film which aims to bring recognition to the successful team, said she was inspired by the Corinthians’ determination to never take no for an answer. She highlighted the challenges in securing funding as she was told women’s sport was a “bit of a niche”.

    Furthermore, she also emphasized the need for greater representation, noting that only 25 percent of documentaries are about women.

    Despite being one of the most successful women’s football teams in history, the players have been silenced by the ban and stigma attached to women’s football and are only now being given the recognition they deserve.

    The importance of good wellness initiatives and employee engagement

    “The relationship between environment and wellbeing is significant,” said Elly Tomlins, Britvic’s people director, at a discussion on thriving in the workplace and improving employee wellbeing.

    “It’s about creating spaces where people can feel good about where they work and giving them as much agency as possible.”

    She highlighted the danger of “smorgasbord initiatives like office yoga” masking real wellbeing issues.

    “Often you see a welfare problem, but the root cause is elsewhere. You have to look at the whole picture, taking into account whether the team has enough resources.”

    Laura Fink, director of people and culture at Hi-Bob, also emphasized the importance of environment, saying, “You can’t put a plant in unsafe soil and expect it to grow.”

    “It’s about measuring how things are going, understanding and taking specific action.”

    A “people-centred approach” was crucial to Emma Illingworth, head of people transformation at OVO Energy. “It’s about being deeply human and recognizing that people need different things at different times.”

    Rachel Suff, senior policy and practice adviser in industrial relations at the CIPD, noted that “a major barrier to wellbeing initiatives is employee engagement”.

    Both Tomlins and Illingworth emphasized the importance of employee-led initiatives, with Illingworth highlighting OVO’s “strong wellbeing networks, which are self-driven by our people”.

    Fink summarized: “If you invest in your culture and leadership and make sure there’s a healthy environment, that makes a difference.”

    If you treat your people well, they will exert more discretionary effort

    As part of a case study on fair compensation, reward, recognition and the importance of pay transparency, David Keogh, Head of Rewards at Bank of Ireland, informed delegates about the steps the organization has taken to influence reward and recognition on employee motivation. , engagement and retention.

    These include changing benefits by introducing a group performance scheme and a fixed shared allowance, which in structure generates shares for company seniors on a quarterly basis. The organization also established a reward project that included putting peers first. Keogh said: “We wanted to make sure colleagues were at the heart of this decision.”

    Since the introduction of the system, which has been operational for a year, 99.9% of peers have accessed it, with 105,000 unique logins.

    Lucy Carter, Senior Employee Experience Manager at Seasalt Cornwall, spoke about her organisation’s holistic approach to benefits package, investment in employee experience and embarking on a transformational journey to transform ’employee engagement into employee experience’.

    She said: “It’s not rocket science, if you treat your people well, they will put in more discretionary effort, they won’t leave your business,” highlighting how it turns from “rocket science to rocket fuel.”

    Furthermore, Steve Dickinson, senior leadership and development manager at Seasalt Cornwall, told delegates that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” so the organization needed to convince the executive team that it was the right thing to do.

    The Seasalt team has introduced a number of changes, including becoming a national living wage employer, increasing pension contributions and partnering with Reward Gateway to offer wellbeing benefits.

    Many employees face obstacles to career advancement

    Experts in a session on career development discussed innovative approaches to cultivating and retaining talent within large organizations, even when faced with budgetary and structural constraints.

    Chaired by Lizzie Crowley, Senior Skills Policy Adviser at the CIPD, the discussion focused on the evolving challenges and practical solutions that organizations can adopt to drive development at all levels of employees. Crowley addressed his concerns to the audience, asking the panel about effective methods to ensure investment reaches the right people.

    JC Townend, country president of Adecco UK and Ireland, suggested a targeted approach and shared anecdotally that some of his clients prefer to invite volunteers to attend career navigation programs rather than rely on managerial selection, because it can lose “hush, ambitious people you don’t even know would be interested until you open it up and offer it to them.”

    Sophie Holmes, group head of future skills development at Sky, emphasized the need to balance resources between high-performing employees and those at more vulnerable levels.

    She introduced her concept of “gold, silver and bronze” development paths: “Think about what your gold, silver and bronze goals are? The gold is those (employees) in whom you fully invest. Silver might need a little more investment, but they are still significant. But as you mentioned, there is a large population in vulnerable situations that may not benefit as much. So think about your bronze goals – they’re cheaper but have an impact within your limits. How can you give them something, even if it’s self-guided?

    “For example, it could involve pointing them to five useful resources and setting up a conversation with their manager using specific questions like ‘what low-cost strategies could still have impact even if they don’t reach gold or silver.’ standard?'”

    Later, an audience member raised the challenge of how HR teams can support high-potential employees who may not have immediate profit-generating results, but who possess essential leadership qualities.

    Holmes emphasized the importance of defining leadership paths for technical specialists who do not fit traditional management roles. “For example, one area we’ve explored in our engineering space is the possibility of having a distinct role as an engineer – one where we don’t need to mirror others.

    “Instead, you are recognized as a deep expert whose value to the business is so significant that we want to retain you within the organization rather than risk losing you externally. This role would allow you to remain in a leadership position without feeling compelled to move into management.”

    Raza expanded the conversation by emphasizing the critical role of “cultural intelligence, CQ” for today’s leaders. He argued that “adaptability is crucial” in a dynamic workforce. “CQ, like most, like emotional intelligence or IQ, is one of those key types of skills that you have to be able to deliver.”

    Context is key to writing AI prompts that work

    Mike Chatterton, founder of the AI ​​Accelerator, told delegates that using AI is “like having Einstein with you”, but one of its fundamental problems is “it has no idea why you need this help”.

    “The reality of how this technology works is that it’s not actually a chat, what you’re actually doing is creating a collaborative document together,” he explained as part of his master’s course on writing generative AI prompts. Chatterton added that AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude will look at everything you’ve typed, and as you feed in more and more context, up to a point you’ll see a “massive increase” in its performance.

    He therefore advised HR professionals to introduce “reusable context” such as their company values, customer personas and key product information. “It’s like teaching AI why you do what you do,” he explained.

    But, Chatterton warned, when you start using context blocks, the AI ​​will naturally respond by creating a lot more information. Therefore, he said, the “world’s most powerful prompt” for generative AI tools is “read the following and just say ‘ok'”. Then you can “inject” context and the tool will just respond with “ok” instead of adding redundant text to the “collaboration document” and diluting its performance.

    In case you missed it, you can also read the highlights from the first day of this year’s conference

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