Health and Wellbeing (“HWB”) Inspiration is a collaborative effort founded by two North West U.K. based organisations, PACE and Aspire, to help other organisations achieve a healthy workplace by keeping their staff happy, healthy, and in work. We achieve this through our evidence-based strategic approaches and easy-to-use toolkit, both of which we offer to organisations to provide a bespoke service to suit their needs.
Who are HWB Inspiration?
HWB Inspiration is a health & wellbeing-focused initiative run by PACE and Aspire, two North West based organisations with an ambition to use evidence based approaches to inspire organisations, and teams to improve employee health and wellbeing in the work place.
This drive comes from the work we do every day, recognising that employers may need support to think about what needs to be in place to make sure that people stay healthy, well and in work. We want to learn from the best and share good practice, tools and techniques that mean that work places have the right conditions to get the best from the most important asset – the people.
How can HWB Inspiration help you achieve a healthy workplace?
Each organisation is different, so will be at different points in their journey in developing and implementing their approach to Health and Wellbeing. Our framework and strategic approach, along with our years of experience, strong evidence-base, and industry connections allow us to provide unique support for organisations of many sizes, backgrounds, and industries. We want to make sure as many organisations as possible have the chance to keep their staff happy, healthy, and in work.
Why should you trust us to improve your organisation’s workplace health and wellbeing?
Over the last 10 years we have worked to help individuals, teams and organisations develop and implement strategies to achieve high performance. We have worked in both public and private sectors including education, NHS, and Health and Safety Executive.
You can read about HWB Inspiration’s key product, the HWB Baseline Assessment Framework, and why it benefits your organisation to invest in workplace health and wellbeing, here.
Tools:
We have two key tools which we bring together to keep your staff happy, healthy, and in work. The first is our Health and Wellbeing assessment toolkit, and the second is our evidence-based strategic approach to workplace health and wellbeing. You can read more about each tool by clicking on the tabs below.
What is the HWB assessment toolkit?
In 2017 we were commissioned by the Manchester Health and Wellbeing Board to review what NHS, Local Authorities, and Voluntary sectors were doing to improve the wellbeing of their workforce. As a result of this work we developed a unique Health and Wellbeing Assessment Framework and range of support interventions. We developed this framework into an easy-to-use toolkit, which our clients can use to assess their organisation’s workplace health and wellbeing including key strengths and areas for improvement.
We’ve created an infographic to let you know about our toolkit, and how it can improve your workplace. You can check it out here – HWB Assessment: Why should you invest in workplace health and wellbeing?
You can access a preview copy of our HWB Assessment Toolkit here – HWB Assessment: Toolkit Preview
What does the HWB assessment toolkit do?
Our Health and Wellbeing Assessment Framework enables you to:
- Develop your strategy through assessing your current approach i.e. what are you doing well? Where can you improve?
- Assess and capture the impact of your strategy
The framework is unique because:
- It assesses four areas of Health and Wellbeing including mental health and disability and long-term conditions (no other Health and Wellbeing tool has this focus)
- You can self-assess against the criteria and develop your own strategy, we can support you to undertake the assessment, or we can take it off your hands and conduct the assessment for you
- The framework is editable, meaning you can use it periodically to capture and compare organisational performance and build on your strategy’s success over time
Our framework, along with our years of experience, strong evidence-base, and industry connections allows us to provide unique support for organisations of many sizes, backgrounds, and industries. We want to make sure as many organisations as possible have the chance to keep their staff happy, healthy, and in work.
You can access this tool for FREE by signing up to our newsletter here. Start assessing your organisational health and wellbeing today!
What does our evidence-based strategic approach include?
It includes 4 key areas of work which are outlined below.
1- Health and wellbeing strategy
Embed health and wellbeing into your overall organisational strategy and culture through:
- Securing executive level commitment
- Developing your Health and Wellbeing Strategy
- Assessing and evaluating the impact of your Health and Wellbeing Strategy (with our easy-to-use HWB assessment framework)
- Supporting you to engage, communicate, and work with your stakeholders to share/implement your strategy
2- Interventions – people, policies, and processes
Support you to develop and implement a programme of health and wellbeing interventions by:
- Developing a Wellbeing Champions programme to ensure the sustainability of your Health and Wellbeing Strategy
- Developing HR policies and process such as flexible working
- Offering training and development such as; resilience, stress management, and change management
- Developing Key Performance Indicators to measure impact
3- Support with mental health
Develop your approach to managing mental health in the workplace through:
- Mental Health First Aid Training
4- Leadership and management support and development
Support your Leaders, Managers, and People to implement your Health and Wellbeing strategy through:
- Leadership and Management Development including psychometrics
- Coaching and mentoring
HWB Ninjas:
HWB Inspiration was co-founded by Su Fowler-Johnson and Claire Harris, long-term colleagues and business owners who share a passion for keeping people happy, healthy, and in work. You can read more about their individual areas of expertise below by clicking on each tab.
Su is the co-founder of HWB Inspiration and founder of PACE ltd.
She has gained significant senior management experience in both the public and private sectors; she has worked in academia, general practice, the NHS, the Department of Health, and in private sector consultancy.
Su’s NHS career path led her to various senior roles in strategic organisations. She has focused her expertise on: workforce planning; education commissioning; organisation development and quality; change management; leadership development; and reform across the public sector.
Consultancy
As a consultant Su has taken the lead on a range of large-scale consultancy projects that have spanned change programmes including: clinical engagement in response to NHS reforms; service and workforce redesign to align workforce service and financial planning; and international evaluation, developing regional frameworks to support strategic alliances and partnership working. She has always been able to bring her experience in the private sector to support businesses in their development and functionality.
Su also has experience working with boards and senior teams, designing interventions to support changes in: services; culture, team & organisational resilience; and leadership. Her client list includes the NHS, local government, the police, and voluntary sector organisations.
Coaching
Su has over 500 hours of coaching experience. She has worked with executives, senior managers, clinicians, and business owners on a range of coaching assignments. The emphasis of her coaching work is to enable managers and team leaders to focus on the issues that are important to them i.e. developing resilience, encouraging emotional intelligence, creating high performing teams, or overall career development.
Qualifications and professional membership
Su has a number of academic and professional qualifications including an accredited coaching qualification and a post-graduate diploma. She is also a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).
Su is an energetic and enthusiastic facilitator, bringing constructive challenge and support to all her projects. She has particular expertise in the design and delivery of organisational development programmes, including service commissioning, service re-design and team coaching. This work spans national and local delivery and has also included working in complex and politically sensitive settings.
Claire is the co-founder of HWB Inspiration and founder of Aspire Ltd.
She is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist specialising in: selection and assessment; executive coaching; leadership and management development; and stress health and wellbeing. Claire supports individuals and teams to excel by providing focus, as well as the tools to enable them to grow and develop.
Claire has worked as: a Lecturer and Research Fellow for several business schools; a Project Manager within the NHS; and as a Consultant within both the public and private sectors. Claire still retains her link with academia as a visiting Research Fellow for Manchester Business School, currently working as a tutor on the global MBA programme.
Consultancy
In her consultancy, Claire has worked with many senior teams, designing and delivering assessment centres to recruit for senior positions. She has also worked on several management and leadership development programmes and has coached over 60 clients. She is accredited to deliver a range of psychometrics including MBTI, FIRO-B, Hogan and OPQ and has designed her own bespoke 360-appraisal system.
Coaching
Claire is a highly experienced coach and has coached clients from both public and private sectors. She has built up her client list over 5 years and has worked with a wide range of people, from head teachers, to business and senior leaders, to managers and clinicians in the NHS.
Qualifications and professional membership
Claire holds a number of academic and professional qualifications and is a member of the Association for Coaching. She is also a member of the International Stress Management Association, and the British Psychological Society.
Claire is enthusiastic coach and facilitator. She enjoys developing bespoke, evidence based yet practical interventions for clients.
Our Latest work:
Team pathway to developing a wellbeing culture
HWBInspiration were commissioned by NHS England and the NHS North West Leadership Academy to work with them to co-produce an interactive guide to take teams on a journey to grow their team wellbeing culture. For more information, click here (pages 14-15).
Published book chapter – The Holy Grail of ‘Healthy Leadership’: What Leadership Behaviours Build Healthy Workplace Cultures?
Just out on Amazon, a new ebook ‘WORKPLACE WELLBEING – 21 lessons for the new world of work’. This is a collection of articles on the organisational & personal aspects of stress and wellbeing. Written by ISMAUK experts. We have contributed Chapter 5 to the book. For an insight into the chapter, see our promotional YouTube. Get your copy of the book here.
The Healthy Leadership Framework Self-Assessment is now available
HWBInspiration was commissioned by NHS North West Leadership Academy (NHSNWLA) to develop the Healthy Leadership Framework to help you to build a supportive work environment that promotes health and wellbeing. You can now use the framework to inform your healthy leadership behaviours using the NHSNWLA self-assessment toolkit. You can find the Healthy Leadership Framework Self-Assessment here.
Health and Wellbeing Programme is highly commended
HWBinspiration was commissioned by Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership to seek feedback on how the GM wellbeing programme has supported individuals and teams to focus on and enhance their wellbeing. The Partnership also wanted to use the feedback to inform a refresh of their GM Wellbeing Toolkit. The feedback highlighted many benefits, including a greater focus on individual and team wellbeing as a result of accessing the programme. The feedback was well received and informed the re-fresh of the toolkit “HWBInspiration were flexible and responsive to our needs, we appreciated the robust approach they took to the evaluation and provided us with a well-structured and useful report that has helped inform the planning of our programme as we moved into the new Integrated Care Structures”. Details of the GM Wellbeing Programme can be found here.
Supporting GP’s to look after their own health and wellbeing
HWBinspiration was commissioned to make recommendations around how the wellbeing offer for the Primary Care Workforce could be enhanced and made more accessible. A number of recommendations were made based on qualitative and quantitative feedback. The resultant report and recommendations were well received “Well-structured and clear recommendations which can be readily translated into actions” ….“Thank you very much Su, Claire and Louise I have really appreciated the approach you have taken on this and commend you on an excellent final report” to find out more please click here (pages 12-13)
What is the cost of an unhealthy workplace?
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Employee Sickness impacts on organisational performance and profit:
The annual cost of sickness absence for UK business is around £550 per employee (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) 2020)
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Mental ill health is the most common cause of long-term absence:
In 2020, mental ill health (such as anxiety and depression) was the top cause of long-term employee absence and 60% of People Professionals reported common mental health conditions have increased in their organisation (CIPD 2020)
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“Health and well-being” is now a concept:
In 2000 “well-being” wasn’t discussed at work, and employers focussed on the much narrower management of “health and safety”. Since then, employee “health and well-being” has risen sharply up with the workplace agenda (CIPD 2020).
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Organisations are taking steps to support employee wellbeing:
CIPD found that 51% of organisations are taking a strategic approach to employee wellbeing (CIPD 2022). However, presenteeism (working when ill) and leaveism (such as using holiday entitlement to work or when sick) remain prevalent. 89% report people coming into work when they are unwell and 73% of People Professionals have seen a form of leaveism (CIPD 2020)
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Line managers play a crucial role in supporting employee well-being but often lack the skills required:
Management style remains among the most common cause of stress at work (CIPD 2022). 60% of organisations provide managers with training in handling short-term absence, and 65% provide them with tailored support for managing long-term absence (CIPD 2022)
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Developing a strategic approach to health and wellbeing and upskilling your teams can positively impact your organisations through:
• Improved business performance
• Improved employee morale and engagement
• Reduction in sickness absence and presenteeism
• Enhanced creativity and innovation
- We have the experience to help you avoid these unnecessary costs. You can read more about them on our "about us" and 'tools' pages.
What does a good strategic approach to health and wellbeing include?
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Health and wellbeing strategy:
• “As well as benefitting employees, an integrated approach to Health and Wellbeing can nurture heightened levels of employee engagement and foster a workforce where people are committed to achieving organisational success” (CIPD 2018) -
Interventions – People, policies, and processes:
• “Employees favour a workplace that cares for their wellbeing and demonstrates support for wellbeing through healthy work/life balance and strong diversity policies” (World Federation for Mental Health 2017)
• Flexible workers are likely to be engaged in potentially generating 43% more revenue and improving performance by 20% (CIPD 2018) -
Support with mental health:
• “Simple steps to improve the management of mental health in the workplace, including prevention and early identification of problems, should enable employers to save 30% or more of these costs – at least £8 billion a year” (Centre for Mental Health) -
Leadership and Management support and development:
• “To truly achieve healthy a workplace, an employer needs to ensure that its culture, leadership, and people management are the bedrock on which to build a fully integrated wellbeing approach” (CIPD 2018) - Our evidence-based strategic approach embodies all of these areas, and is paired with our wealth of experience and easy-to-use assessment framework. You can read more about them on our tools page.
What do our clients have to say?
Case studies:
We have completed several case studies to support the work we do at HWB Inspiration, which you can read here:
Manchester Health and Wellbeing Board Workplace Health Assessment
This report was published in June 2017 after Manchester Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB) made work and health a strategic priority, and set a goal that member organisations should be exemplar employing organisations in relation to workplace health. This triggered a request to “take a transparent look” at how organisations across Manchester were performing in this area.
HWB Assessment Report Case Study
Aspire and PACE were commissioned by Manchester Health and Wellbeing Board (HWBB) to take a transparent look at health and wellbeing in the workplace across the health and care system in Manchester. The commissioned work spanned 12 months. This report outlines the findings and recommendations.
Evaluation Case Study
Aspire and PACE’s Health and Wellbeing Baseline Assessment (HWBBA) project began in May 2016 and concluded July 2017 with the production of several outputs. This report takes a look at what we achieved and evaluates HWBBA’s uses, successes, and areas for improvement.
Partnership Case Study
Here, Aspire and PACE take a retrospective look at the Health and Wellbeing Baseline Assessment (HWBAA). We reflect on our approach, learning, partnership working, and impact for our commissioners.
HWB Inspiration Case Studies Compendium
Here, Aspire and PACE present a summary of the case studies from the participating organisations and the literature on the proceeding pages. We have arranged the case studies using our Health and Wellbeing Assessment Framework which covers four areas of good practice critical to developing positive health and wellbeing cultures.
HWB Wisdom:
Its #nationalfitness day and this is what it means to us at @hwbinspiration
Let us know what it means to you!
Flexible working and mental health
Recent survey shows how important we believe flexible working is for our mental health....
Handling negative emotions at work....
Happy Monday.....if not have a read of this, how to handle negative emotions at work, interesting read.
Are you happy at work?
This week: How happiness at work translates into broader well-being, and what the digital frontier looks like 25 years after the commercial internet began. Plus, Rima Assi, a senior partner in Abu Dhabi, on the importance of empowering women.
What determines your workplace wellbeing?
A third of your life is spent at work, but what determines your workplace well-being? That’s the question that Dr. Martin Boult, Senior Director Professional Services & International Training, The Myers-Briggs Company, asked before starting a three-year international study on workplace well-being.
What the NHS annual staff survey can teach us about workplace stress
The world’s biggest workforce study reveals a new way to think about emotional wellbeing, says Jennifer Gardner. Is stress a concern for your organisation? As one of the world’s largest employers, it certainly is for the NHS. Without staff, the NHS could not deliver any patient care – so it is crucial we prioritise the wellbeing of our staff and that this becomes central to our daily work.
Obesity and work - challenging stigma and discrimination
This IES research looks to enhance workplace practice surrounding obesity - a condition that many believe has reached epidemic proportion and is of global concern. Rates of overweight and obesity are still rising at an alarming rate. In the UK almost 7 out of 10 men and 6 out of 10 women are affected by the condition. There is still the common perception that obesity is caused simply by an increased calorific intake and decreased physical activity, but research indicates the causes of obesity are multi-factorial and complex, including socio-economic factors.
Flexible working and mental health
Recent survey shows how important we believe flexible working is for our mental health....
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