Topics & Themes
Innovative reward practices
Exploring creative approaches to employee benefits
The art of feedback
Diversity & inclusion and employee recognition
Predicting trends in workplace wellness
How to engage with a difficult to reach workforce
Resilience
Financial wellbeing
Mental Health for all
Implementing employee rewards/ benefits on a large scale
If you are interested in a speaking opportunity, please contact eventteam@summit-events.com
Eliza Manningham-Buller headed Britain’s Security Service (MI5) from 2002 to 2007, leading the organisation through substantial change in the wake of 9/11 and the threat from Al-Qaeda. During her time at the helm MI5 doubled in size, opened eight new offices and altered its approach to the professional development of staff with the establishment of a training academy.
Earlier in her career, Eliza led the Service’s investigation into the Lockerbie bombing. She served in Washington during the first Gulf war, returning to establish MI5’s intelligence effort against the Provisional IRA in mainland Britain. She joined the board and assumed lead responsibility for work on Irish terrorism, surveillance, technical collection, finance and IT before becoming Deputy Director General in charge of intelligence operations.
Eliza Manningham-Buller is an active cross-bench Peer serving on numerous committees including the Science and Technology Committee, and the Chair of the Wellcome Trust, the world’s second largest non-governmental provider
(behind the Gates Foundation) of funds for scientific research. She was also chosen to deliver the prestigious BBC Reith Lectures and her analysis of the theme Securing Freedom formed the basis of her book of the same title.
In presentations Eliza draws on her experience in the most demanding of environments to stress the need for leaders in any walk of life to engage in frank dialogue and invite criticism: “Do not try to be something you’re not, take responsibility for your team and remember that praising people takes seconds and can make an enormous difference. And don’t forget that humour can be found even in the most awful situations.”
At the Rewards, Benefits & Wellbeing Summit Eliza will talk about what she has learned about leadership during her career and touch on some of the conference’s themes including diversity and inclusion.
I started my first business during my 2nd year of University and never went back.
In the process of building the business, raising investment and dealing with its failure, I burned out. I was crippled with anxiety and had began having panic attacks. I'd pushed myself to the limit for 3 years working on something I wasn't truly passionate about, and lived my life as someone else in my quest for "success". Mental health became important to me as I started to feel all the feelings I'd quashed down for years. I knew nothing about mental health, I was frightened and felt ashamed. Yet I knew it didn't have to be this way.
I set up Sanctus to create the brand that I wish had existed for me and for millions of others. A brand that redefines mental health as a whole and that inspires people to be themselves. We do this through coaching in the workplace, storytelling on our podcast and creating an environment for people to openly talk about mental health. Our mission is to put the world's first mental health gym's on the high street and make mental health as mainstream physical health.
In this talk I'm going to do what I find most difficult, and what I believe most people find incredibly hard. I'm going to talk about how I feel right there, in the moment, raw. I'm going to be me, completely me and all of me. I'll share the bits of myself I like, the parts of myself that I don't, the creative, the loud, the quiet, the scared, the anxious - all of it.
I'll share my mental health story and reflect on how I believe that being who we are, being ourselves in each moment is our greatest challenge and greatest opportunity in the workplace and beyond.
Asif is Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion for Adidas. He was formerly the Head of Diversity and Inclusiveness for EY Financial Services and previously the Head of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Unit for the City of London Police. He is a Multi-Award Winning Diversity and Inclusion expert with over 15 years experience and a proven track record in achieving operational and strategic targets, managing quality, performance, risk and change.
He is a passionate and inspirational Global Leader, co-author and a renowned keynote speaker with the ability to empower individuals and create a truly inclusive environment for all. Asif has been key in implementing D&I activities and programmes as well as connecting with stakeholders at all levels of organisations to build strong and influential relationships with influencers. Asif acts as a role model, providing governance across businesses on D&I and is committed to creating a strong sense of belonging for all.
Asif has received a number of accolades for his work that include the Mosaic (Prince’s Trust) Award for mentoring, Police Officer of the Year Award, the Civil Servant of the Year Award, the prestigious Asian Professional Award and the highly commended Head of Diversity Award at the European Diversity Awards. Asif was honoured in 2017 in the Queen’s birthday honours list with an MBE for his services to Policing and Communities and is a member of the HR Guild, The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals, a Leadership Fellow at St George's House and is a Freeman of the City.
He is currently the Chair of the London Hate Crime Board, a Judge for numerous Awards including the CIPD Awards, BIMA Awards, Personnel Today Awards and the Lord Mayor's Dragon Awards, an Ambassador for Remembering Srebrenica, Member of the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on Hate Crime, Special Advisory to the charity Penny Appeal, a trainer for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and a Special Sergeant with the City of London Police.
Diversity and Inclusion continues to be at the forefront of discussions at the top levels of many organisations and recent events have further highlighted the need to get it right. We are all aware of the work that is being done in this space and the developments in the area over the last ten years or so. But whilst we have achieved a lot and brought key challenges to the boardroom table, there is still something lacking.
The progress we have made so far in D&I has been through the support of people who have an affiliation to a diversity characteristic or believe that it is the right thing to do. But we have now started to stall, and I believe that we need the power of the majority if we are really going to move the dial on inclusion in the workplace.
This brings us onto Belonging and why it is such an important area of D&I. We have strengthened diversity to a certain extent by recognising that people are different and that individuals have protected characteristics. As organisations we have been working hard on creating a truly inclusive workplace that is reflective of the diversity we see, but how will we know when we are truly inclusive? That's where belonging comes in − the output of true inclusion is a sense of belonging for everyone.
An accomplished Reward Professional with 14 years’ experience across the whole spectrum of Reward including Payroll/Employee Benefits/Compensation/Global Mobility/Employee Engagement and Pensions experience. Having worked for some of the most iconic brands like Ralph Lauren and Charlotte Tilbury I have led through both transformational change and start up growth around the globe. I am continually looking to improve my skill set and disrupt the HR world which has led me to my current role leading the Consumer Reward function at BT Plc.
Employee Engagement is a term often thrown around as a measure of employee happiness at work, but is that what it really is? Surveys, focus groups, roundtables…ways in which we tend to measure this happiness but in reality is this just something that employers feel like they ‘have’ to do? A tick box exercise if you will….
During my session I want to be really frank about how as Reward leaders we can help to really ensure employees are not only happy at work but also love working for the business they do. I don’t know many people that really become ambassadors for their business without being engaged, and without those people being understood, valued, listened to, they wont be giving their absolute all in the work they do. Keeping this up day in day out is tough but during my session I will aim to give you pragmatic advice alongside real examples of how I have seen this work, not just for a survey score, but for the long run!
I have been working a long time (!) and have over 30 years’ experience of working in a wide variety of international industries where I have held Head of Reward positions - oil & Gas (Texaco), container shipping & logistics (P&O Nedlloyd), luxury retail (Burberry), financial services (Legal & General) and I am currently Group Head of Reward for the global professional recruiting company Hays. I really enjoy learning about different businesses.
I am a co-opted member of the Remuneration Committee for the London Metropolitan University and also a member of the Government's Money and Pensions Association (previously known as the Money Advice Service) Steering Committee charged with increasing the financial capability of working people across the UK.
In 2018, I was honoured to be recognised by the Reward & Employee Benefits Association (‘REBA’) by winning the REBA Vanguard Award for my work across my career in promoting and recognising the importance of employee wellbeing. In 2019, I was also delighted to win the Reward Industry Luminary Award from the Reward 300.
In September 2018 I had my first book published called “What’s Your Excuse for Not Getting Your Dream Job?” Subsequently, I have been invited to give talks on the changing world of work and the importance of maintaining skills, personal branding and networking.
I am a member of Hays Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee and throughout my career have taken an active interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”). I recently wrote a series of LinkedIn blogs on the plastics problem and attempted to go plastic free for a week!
Outside of work I am mum to one “Millennial” son and one “Gen Z” daughter and so have first hand experience of the challenges they face and their expectations in the world of work.
The working environment and expectations of the next generation of employees is changing fast. In this talk I will explore what impact areas such as technology, financial pressures, longer life-spans, and social purpose are having on the future workforce and what companies need to do to attract and retain talent going forwards.
What impact do these changes have on traditional benefits and pension?
How should companies adapt?
How much does it cost and where can we start?
I hope to give practical examples of steps companies can take and demonstrate how they can work through a case study of Hays.
Paul has spent the majority of his career with General Electric where he worked in a variety of Reward roles, spanning Europe, the Middle East and Africa over a 25 year period. During this time he has obtained a deep knowledge of compensation programs, employee benefits, job evaluation and grading.
He joined Orange Business Services in 2017 as Global Pensions and EMEA Benefits Manager and is now Head of Global Benefits. In this role he has responsibility for employee benefits across 60+ countries, including the global employee assistance program, and was instrumental in creating a Financial Wellbeing site on the flexible benefits platform in the UK.
As the world emerges from the Covid19 pandemic, it is expected that there will be a number of previously strong businesses that will have been weakened by a combination of the enforced lockdown and also a change in the purchasing behaviour of their customers. As a result, we are likely to see an increase in Merger & Acquisition (M&A) activity. Although such deals are often led by Finance, HR and Reward will also have an important role to play in making any such activity a success.
This presentation will look at the critical role that HR & Reward plays throughout the M&A process from the initial due diligence phase and into the integration of the acquired company. Whilst there are a variety of reasons for a company to engage in M&A activity, virtually all deals involve people and as such it is vital that thought be given to how those people will be impacted by the deal. Failure to do so could result in the destruction of the reason for doing the deal in the first place!
As an experienced Reward and Benefits Specialist with a demonstrated track record of working in the Civil Service and Public and Private Sectors including previous experience working in the Banking Sector, I understand the importance of aligning the commercial goals of an organisation with having honest employee buy in. I am currently the Employee Offer and Benefits Lead in the DEFRA group HR Team, working alongside senior stakeholders, employees, project teams and partnerships/suppliers.
Over the years I have gained great knowledge and developed relationships with the many leading reward and benefit suppliers in the market, which allows me to source the best solution for the project; from increasing employee engagement with an inclusive EVP strategy, building and reviewing salary sacrifice schemes or changing a culture and people’s mindsets around Financial Wellbeing. Creating your own ambassadors for your company is key in driving engagement.
Top project achievements:
• Successfully delivered an EVP Strategy, resulting in an 8% increase in people survey results within 2 years
• Delivered on a benefits harmonisation project, producing a cost savings of 114K pa
• Implemented a financial education platform for 23,800 civil service employees, delivering a well above market average of 6% take up in just under 2 weeks.
I believe in the importance of keeping ahead of the curve, when identifying trends and new benefits, so an organisation can stay fresh, engaging and relevant to an employee.
Natalie holds a Master’s Degree focused on Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration, General CIPD.
Let’s be honest, when it comes to talking about money worries, we generally close up, internalise the stress and feel too embarrassed to ask for help. Organisations are often hesitant to get involved in their employees' finances.
However, research shows that employees do want to talk and get guidance and support from their place of work. This disconnect may be why organisations are still struggling to build and manage a financial wellbeing strategy that has a positive long-lasting impact on both employees and their bottom line.
Financial Wellbeing is a benefit close to my heart. In this interactive session, I will share my journey with you. How I came to understand what the term ‘Financial Wellbeing’ actually means and how I’ve been able to ascertain the ‘buy in’ from my Senior Leadership Team and peers in Government.
We’ll discuss the obstacles and challenges faced, as well as key learnings you can apply to your Financial Wellbeing initiative - no matter where you are in your journey or what industry you are in.
You’ll leave with 7 key takeaways that will help you in building and managing your own financial wellbeing strategy.
It’s time to break the money taboo and start to empower our employees to become leaders of their finances.
Kate is an award-winning People Operations Director and certified Agile HR practitioner. Most recently she has been shortlisted for HR Director of the year and best D&I Strategy. Beyond is a design and technology ideas company, founded in 2010 and is featured in the Sunday times 100 SME best places to work.
Kate regularly speaks at events on HR and business-related topics, producing content for publications including the Forbes HR council. She specialises in advising start-up and growth stage organizations on scaling their structure and people functions and is passionate about driving a progressive and transformational approach to HR so that the sector can support the businesses of tomorrow in a human-centric way.
Having worked across multiple industries in leadership roles, her core belief is that people are at the heart of every organisation, and that HR needs to shift away from the ivory tower mentality, evolving from dictators of best practice to facilitators of success.
We all know the impact of our employee's engagement on the business bottom line, but what about the wider subject of wellbeing? In this session, we'll discuss some of the data that backs up a more holistic approach to employee health, and the business case for prioritizing wellbeing. We'll showcase some of the ways you can incorporate this into your organizations by introducing the case study of Beyond, and an interactive ideation workshop. This will in turn give senior HR practitioners tools to use for integrating wellness in to their employee experience initiatives and strategy.
George Bell is co-founder of on:song. As a musician he has toured all over the world, and with over 15 years industry experience as a social entrepreneur he has been the driving force behind a broad range of prominent cultural, environmental and ethnomusicological projects.
Workplace singing measurably reduces stress, builds resilience, increases productivity and develops meaningful social connections. On a mission to get people singing to support global wellbeing, on:song run choirs and singing workshops for forward-thinking organisations worldwide.
on:song's approach to physical and psychological wellness draws on contemporary academic research, and combines this with engaging and inspiring musical leadership. Through our work we are continually looking to make a data-driven case for workplace wellbeing programs, supporting investment in a more creative, inspiring, and informed approach to employee wellbeing.
If we were to tell you that you were about to take part in a wellbeing session that was going to lift your mood, make you feel less stressed and in a more positive state of mind, physically relaxed, more confident, and with a sense of reinvigoration to take back into your working day... what would you say?
How would you then feel if we were then to tell you that that same activity is something that the majority of people initially find intimidating and exposing?
This stretching of the comfort zone is a very powerful process, a transition from uncomfortable and vulnerable to confident and empowered, with a real sense of collective achievement.
Join us on this participatory session as we take you through the process!
Debate Mate is an innovative global business that provides leadership and communication training across a wide variety of industry sectors. Responding to demand from the corporate world, we have built a curriculum and teaching methodology to address business-specific communication needs. Our format is based on the fundamentals of competitive debating and our facilitators are experts in their field.
Debate Mate Presents… The Great Debate 'This House believes that salary is supreme'
Does money really make the (working) world go round? Or are we reaching out for a higher (ground) level of job satisfaction, improved wellbeing, better benefits or proper work-life balance? Join Debate Mate for a quickfire debate on what matters most to current and future employees - money or... everything else.
The panel will feature two compensation, reward and benefits heavyweights, who will bring decades of experience to bear in the debate: David Tourle, formerly Global Benefits Director at BCG and Capita who earlier this year launched his own rewards consultancy Chime Global Benefits, will battle it out against Vanessa Landreneau, who after a career at PwC and CSR, launched Hummingbird Consulting.
They will be joined by two world-class debaters to bring you a much-needed dose of intelligent entertainment.
Your company has a greater purpose. Unite around it using music. Through collaborative songwriting, performance, and entertainment we use the science of music to inspire creativity, strengthen connections, empower teams, and build a deeply unified corporate culture. SongDivision has worked in over 35 countries, and 15 languages. Since March this year, SongDivision had delivered over 250 virtual events to 25,000+ people.
You don’t want to miss this one — The RBW Summit Social, powered by our good friends at SongDivision. Meet like-minded music lovin’ heads of HR, Rewards, Benefits & Wellbeing, share ideas, and experience our Rock & Roll game show. We’ll even write a completely original song together about your industry. Hosted by world-class musicians who have toured and recorded with acts like Florence & The Machine, David Guetta, and The Killers. Witness first-hand how SongDivision enriches organisational culture, strengthens team bonds, and increases positivity using the science-backed power of music.
Debra Corey is a highly experienced and award-winning HR leader, consultant, world-class speaker, and three-time best-selling author. She has been named one of the top 101 global employee engagement influencers and one of the Top Reward Industry Luminaries.
Over the last 20+ years she's worked for a variety of global companies such as Gap Inc, Merlin Entertainments and Reward Gateway, where she’s developed and delivered HR strategies in a rebellious way, pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo to truly drive employee engagement. She continues on this mission as Chief Pay it Forward Officer at DebCo HR.
Debra will be moderating the speaker Q&A's throughout the 2 day programme
Speaker Programme
The Rewards & Benefits Summit programme consists of 6 Strategy Group sessions – case study led presentations followed by Q&A and 2 Action Learning workshops – key topic roundtable discussions.
If you have any recommendations for speakers or topics please email event.team@summit-events.com
Register your interest in the Rewards, Benefits & Wellbeing Summit 2021
06 - 08 December 2021, Warwick Conferences, Coventry
Submit your name and email address and a member of the Summit team will send you further details including:
- the confirmed list of attendees
- instructions on how to apply for a delegate place
- sponsorship options
“As always the Reward & Benefits Summit never disappoints - 2 days of engaging thought provoking conversations with likeminded individuals as well as great seminars. Well worth the time spent!”
“This was my first Summit and I found the whole experience invaluable. Everyone I met, whether other delegates, guest speakers or suppliers provided different insights and experiences that I can use in the shaping of our future strategies. The event was exceptionally well organised and thoroughly enjoyable.”