EXCLUSIVE: Nick Davison, partner and head of health, leisure and hotels for John Lewis Partnership, will discuss the benefits of putting health and wellbeing at the core of an organisation's strategy at Employee Benefits Live 2018.
The session, titled 'Building a health and wellbeing culture for competitive advantage', will form part of the 'benefits on a budget' conference stream on Wednesday 3 October.
The session will be chaired by Neil Goodwin, reward director in human resources at Countrywide Group, and Davison will discuss what sets John Lewis Partnership apart from the competition in terms of its employee offering. He will explain how his organisation sees its people as its competitive advantage.
"Our health and wellbeing culture goes back to 1929," Davison explained. "We're an employee-owned organisation, and a democracy. The happiness and wellbeing of our partners is actually written into the first principle of our constitution. We have 83,000 co-owners and it's important we look after the body, mind and soul of those people.
"It's about creating a sense of belonging and caring for our prized assets, which are our people. We also need to make sure they understand and recognise that, and believe it to be true."
To make this happen, Davison believes the approach needs to be both proactive and reactive.
He explained: "Our benefits are designed to build relationships, community and engagement, but also to allow people to enjoy a wider aspect of their personal wellbeing rather than just work. Then there is the reactive wellbeing focus around the support we provide.
"Despite all the talk of technology, people are still core to business. Without people there wouldn't be any business.
"To deliver the level of service we provide to customers, we need our people to be fit, healthy, engaged and motivated. So their health and wellbeing is right at the core of what sets us apart from our competitors."
Employee Benefits Live 2018 will take place on Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 October 2018 at ExCeL London.
