The 2021 Best Employers Eastern Region brings together experts and leading companies as East Anglia’s businesses look forward to growth.
The Best Employers Eastern Region 2021 programme starts in earnest on April 22. This year’s events have a heightened focus on how people can power recovery, as businesses look forward to emerging from the pandemic.
With its unique combination of the employee-engagement survey, events and sharing best practice, Best Employers has always been about helping companies in the East of England understand, support and develop their staff to promote business growth.
Lynn Walters, executive director at Pure and co-founder of Best Employers Eastern Region, said: “Following a year of incredible change, this is a great forum to share experiences and learnings - to learn from each other and understand how the change has impacted our employees, our organisations priorities, culture and values.”
This positive and practical approach starts with the launch event. In previous years, this would have seen company leaders and HR specialists gathering in person, but this year will see an online event with two world-class speakers sharing their knowledge and experience.
Having worked at a senior level in businesses as diverse as Gap Inc, Honeywell and Merlin Entertainment Debra Corey has done more than just write the book on people management – she's written three of the most-respected and best-selling HR handbooks and is a top 100 influencer on employee engagement. She is an internationally respected speaker, addressing not just employee engagement but also company culture, reward and recognition, and the changing world of work.
Debra will be looking at the importance of employee engagement as businesses adapt to new ways of working. She will be sharing tips and stories – both from her own experience and from the companies she has interviewed for her books.
Joining Debra at the launch webinar is Tamara Lohan MBE, CEO of travel firm Mr & Mrs Smith and a non-executive director at online retail giant Not on The High Street. With a background in marketing for international businesses including Honda, Unilever and Ericsson, she’s an expert in technology, harnessing data and building successful CRM systems for online businesses.
Tamara will be sharing her experience of leading a team through the most difficult conditions to face the travel industry. As well as crisis management, she will be looking at the secrets of innovation, effective leadership and communication.
One of the big advantages of having moved the launch event online is that there’s no limit to the number of staff who can attend from participating businesses. Every member of the team who would benefit can log on to the two-hour event.
This is true of every subsequent event in the Best Employers 2021 programme, with webinars covering subjects such as engaging and leading remote and onsite teams; wellbeing and building staff resilience; fostering a culture of innovation; and effective recruitment and onboarding.
Best Employers survey
April 22 also sees the start of the Best Employers survey, which runs until July 31. “The opportunity for organisations to gather feedback from their staff at this time, when we have many people working remotely, is invaluable and we expect to see some significant shift in the levels of engagement,” says George Sik, consultant psychologist at eras ltd.
The survey is easy to use and can be tailored to the needs of individual businesses, while still allowing comparisons both within individual sectors and across the region. “The opportunity to track your progress and benchmark your organisation against other top employers is incredibly valuable,” says George.
As part of the not-for-profit programme, companies can apply for accreditation as Best Employers. “As a professional recruitment consultancy for our region, we have seen first-hand the significant impact that the pandemic has had,” explains Lynn. “Engagement, culture and values are essential to retain and attract the best talent and despite the recession, top talent in specialist areas are still in high demand.”
For further information and to register for this year’s Best Employers Easter Region programme, see www.best-employers.co.uk
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