Précis of 5th October 2016 Smartworking Summit

Download the précis of the day here.

The full-day programme at the stunning 200 Aldersgate, London venue, offered peerless opportunities throughout the morning to network with seven prominent executive speakers, including;

• Caroline Waters OBE, Deputy Chair Equalities & Human Rights Commission
• Caroline Rainbird, Managing Director Corporate Services RBS
• Lucy Adams, former HR Director BBC
• Chris Kane, former Group Property Director BBC
• Julie Brown, CFO Cafcass
• Andy Williams, CIO Save the Children International
• Onno Willemse, Senior Director of Global Business Philips

The afternoon followed with a deeper dive into business-critical issues through six intimate round table sessions.  Attracting 250 c-suite executives keen to explore workplace challenges and address the rapidly changing nature of work, everyone left with distinct and clear takeaways.
Key themes were;

• Building bridges – dismantling siloes; exploring the serendipity that’s played a big part in redefining todays workplace based on creativity and human engagement
• Creating productive workspaces demands identifying the ‘right’ performance metrics across a wide spectrum of factors including light, noise, well-being, personal respect, happiness, work settings, choice, management, disruption, trust, et al
• Considering the future of FM; For there to be any future for FM, it has to be positioned as a genuine profession – a profession that attracts enthusiastic young talent and retains them.  This was the overwhelming conclusion of this round table.  FM is still firmly associated with the physical asset and this needs to change – but it will only change through education.
• Faced with the unrelenting changing nature of work, culture is key to a successful business, it’s more important than strategy
• Linking quality of life to sustainability presents an opportunity to design company values into the workplace
• Safeguarding business from over-sharing employees by balancing the way people get work done productively while managing risk effectively.