EXCLUSIVE: David Roomes (pictured), group director, health, safety and sustainability and chief medical officer at engineering organisation Rolls-Royce, will discuss securing boardroom buy-in for health and wellbeing strategies at Employee Benefits Live 2018.
The session, titled ‘Bringing health and wellbeing into the boardroom – the business case’, will form part of the diversity and inclusion conference stream on Wednesday 3 October.
In the session, Roomes will describe how to use both data and storytelling to make the case for health and wellbeing at boardroom level. He will also explain how to make the link between employee wellbeing and organisational engagement, organisational performance and the employee value proposition (EVP).
Roomes will deliver the session with Andrew Armes, UK head of talent acquisition at Roche; they will highlight how hard data can be backed up with qualitative links with the EVP.
He said: “The social and psychological contract between employers and employees is changing. If employers are going to be successful in the future, they need to pay attention to the whole range of things that will attract and retain the next generation of high-performing individuals. I think we’re increasingly seeing the importance of playing to people’s personal mission and personal values.”
Emphasising the impact employee wellbeing has on an organisation, Roomes added: “Although health and wellbeing is personal, it’s also universal. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shop floor or top floor. Your health and wellbeing is an asset that can have a really significant effect on the employer, either for better or for worse. Good [organisations] create work environments where people can be at their best, and part of being at your best is enjoying wellbeing in all of its dimensions.”
Employers need to be made aware of the importance of investing in the wellbeing of their people, believes Roomes. “If we’re serious about performance then we have to get serious about ensuring that we create work environments that allow people to perform at their best, and that involves making some investment in employee wellbeing.”
“It goes beyond that,” he added, “because it links to inclusion and diversity and other areas where if people are preoccupied with not being themselves or not being at their best, then they can’t do their best work and can’t bring their best selves to work, and ultimately the employer doesn’t get the best out of them.”
Employee Benefits Live 2018 will take place on Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 October 2018 at ExCeL London.