#engaging staff

[hrmanagementsystemindia-blog]

Getting the Best Out Of a Digital Wellness Program

With the evolving nature of work and workplace, organizations are rethinking employee health with personalized, holistic and data-driven wellness programs. Unsurprisingly, insurance companies are b…

[blaynerush]

The Importance of Engaging Staff in Urgent Care

The Importance of Engaging Staff in Urgent Care

Hiring the optimal group of employees is essential to creating a lasting first impression fpr your urgent care.  However, although hiring the right staff is important, there are other measures that need to be taken into account.  The Ambulatory M&A Advisor digs deeper into hiring the right staff, and keeping staff engaged to improve the patient experience and quality of care.

Hiring Staff

Ida…

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[bowarts]

Greening the Open

The Green Team have been plotting our next moves – and one area of focus is to make our flagship annual open studios event more sustainable. Since they are at the heart of the success of the Open, we hope to combine this with our aim of working more closely with artists to raise awareness and encourage them to take steps to be greener.

We’re at the early planning (paperless, of course) stages but already have a few ideas about how we can go about this:

Waste and recycling is a biggie for us; there are lots of glass bottles and disposable cups and plates thrown away at the Open, so we want to ensure recycling options are very visible and, as far as possible, we use recyclable goods. In addition, there’s always a big clean up before the event so we hope to recycle as much as we can as part of this.

Looking at our suppliers: we buy in alcohol and soft drinks and have external people providing food. We are looking into the logistics of using local business with positive green credentials.

Sustainable travel: we hope to encourage visitors to walk, cycle, get the train or bus to see us by signposting options like Boris Bikes and nearby pleasant walking and cycling options.

Shouting about sustainability: we’ve got green team representation on the Open working group to ensure it’s kept high on the agenda. We’re thinking about profiling sustainability at the event itself through display or participation. We’re planning to keep the blog updated about how this goes for us.

As always, we’ve done a bit of research into greening events, such as this case study from Julie’s Bicycle on the Isle of Wight festival, which provide great initial ideas to get us started. We'll let you know our progress...

[bowarts]

With a little help from our friends

The Bow Arts Energy Awareness Campaign continues and at our staff meeting this morning, we had an inspirational visit from Terry O’ Dwyer from Circus Space telling us all about the work that they’ve done in making the organisation more sustainable.

As we’ve established, a focus on sustainability is a relatively new area for us; sometimes you just need a bit of encouragement if you’re feeling a bit unsure of the way forwards, and so far we’ve been getting information and advice from some of our friends. This has proven really important in making progress and feeling confident about what we’re doing.  

Indeed, a recurrent theme throughout Terry’s presentation was about how important networks and partnerships are in this area of work; because industry standards and practices are evolving all the time, sharing resources, research and ideas is really key in pushing this work forwards.  

Circus Space have been fantastic (and very generous) in allowing us access to their work and telling us about how they overcame initial challenges, and this has informed how Bow Arts has taken on the sustainability agenda. Circus Space have done great things over the last couple of years; commendations, certifications and, most crucially, carbon, water and waste reductions. Hearing about someone else’s achievements has helped us feel brave enough to take those crucial steps forwards. The Bow Arts team were really inspired to learn about Circus Space’s initiatives this morning, and cogs were definitely whirring about how we could apply some of those to our own organisation.

As well as Circus Space, Julie’s Bicycle have been a great support. They advised us on our Environmental Policy and Action Plan way back when we started this process, and more recently completed a Carbon Snapshot Audit for us over the summer. We also attended their comprehensive training on Industry Green Tools earlier this year, which all Arts Council National Portfolio Organisations will be required to use. Generally, they’ve got great resources on their website and a helpful and approachable team.

So thanks to our friends who have supported us so far, and we’re always open to hearing about how others are tackling the green agenda. They say that one good turn deserves another and we really hope we can be of assistance to others as we become a more sustainable organisation.

Terry comes to Bow to inspire the team

[bowarts]

Wool done everyone

Yesterday we staged our very first woolly jumper competition at Bow Arts where we challenged ourselves to keep the heating turned down for the day, and stayed cosy by donning our finest woolly creations instead. There’s nothing like a bit of healthy competition to motivate, so we took pictures of everyone and posted these online for all to vote for.

These efforts were in a bid to raise awareness amongst the team about the amount of energy we use for heating and whether rather than turn up, we can wrap up a bit more instead. In fact, both offices had the heating off all day which was a fantastic achievement.

A selection of entrants are posted below. I’m sure you’ll agree there are some real woolly gems and it was certainly a close-knit competition. The winner will be announced and duly awarded their prize at the end of our campaign in December.

[bowarts]

A visit from Doctor Bike

An area of focus in our environmental policy is staff, artist and audience travel, and one of the more sustainable ways of getting around is on a bike. So as part of our Energy Awareness Campaign, the Green Team decided to host a cycle surgery for the Bow Arts team to promote the art of cycling and bike maintenance.

Now, our staff are already quite good on the two-wheels front; the whole education team are regular cyclists with other members of staff not adverse to getting on a bike from time to time. Our CEO, Marcel, recently invested in a track pump and puncture repair kit for the Bow Road office and we even have a Bow Arts bike for staff use.

But we know that there’s always room for improvement. And so to enable our bikes to get some attention before the winter weather bites and to demystify their mechanics a little, we invited Patrick Field,  London School of Cycling founder and Own the Road blogger, to our Bow Road courtyard for a couple of hours last Friday lunchtime.

Patrick arrived in style on his 8Freight and soon set up a temporary workshop under our pergola. Over the next few hours he saw a steady stream of bikes and their owners and proceeded to repair punctures, fix brakes, tweak cables and tighten and loosen various screws. And the Bow Arts bike, re-christened the orphan bike, received some much needed attention, ensuring it’s roadworthy for another day.

But Patrick didn’t only patch up bikes, he explained exactly what he was doing to an engaged audience, equipping them with knowledge in order to maintain their own machines. Top tips included cleaning your bike before you take it to the shop so the mechanic knows you care about it, therefore taking you more seriously, and the importance of regularly checking for chain wear and keeping it clean and lubricated.

We rounded off the afternoon with a general chat about bikes and cycling, accompanied by the requisite tea and cake, and Patrick kindly stayed on to fix a rogue puncture. You can check out photos from the surgery, and see Patrick's 8Freight, in the post below. 

For more of Patrick’s advice, visit Made Good Bikes, which includes a free and extensive online cycling repair manual starring Patrick.

[bowarts]

A visit from Dr Bike

[bowarts]

We launch our first Energy Awareness Campaign

It's not all about numbers. As part of our sustainability strategy, it’s imperative that we engage with our stakeholders about how they can help us reduce our environmental impact. This is a huge and diverse group, including our studio holders, our gallery visitors, the schools we work with and so on. Engaging with them all is a fairly daunting prospect, so we decided to start by focusing on the staff, with the aim of getting more ambitious as our confidence grows.

So last week we launched our inaugural Energy Awareness Campaign. From now until December, the Bow Arts Green Team will be organising a series of events to promote energy awareness amongst our team and hopefully motivate and empower them to take action to reduce their carbon footprint.  Planned well, an energy awareness campaign can be a fantastic way to engage staff; the Carbon Trust have produced a really useful resource on approaching one here.

Communal meals are always a great occasion at Bow Arts, so we kicked off the campaign with a delicious staff lunch, full of homemade veggie treats. Over food, we talked about the Green Team’s progress to date and how the campaign would look as well as welcoming input and ideas from all members of staff and departments.

We’ve got loads coming up over the next couple of months, so watch this space to learn of our progress...

The Bow Arts team tuck in to our Energy Awareness Campaign Launch lunch