Workplace wellness initiatives in the public sector - Lynsey Perdisatt

Lynsey Perdisatt is the Director of HR and Change at the HPRA (Health Products Regulatory Authority) since 2014. Lynsey is a senior HR professional with over 18 years' experience in HR and organisational development both in the private and public sector. 

As Director of Human Resources and Change, Lynsey is responsible for the design and delivery of the Human Resources and Change strategy for the HPRA, which has a significant focus on employee wellbeing and engagement. The HPRA were the first public sector organisation to attain the KeepWell Mark and demonstrate their ongoing commitment to wellbeing. A board member of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), Lynsey also is Chair of HIQA's Resource Oversight Committee and Non-Executive Director for the charity One in Four. 

With the latest challenges in mind, Lynsey is working on ways to support the HPRA staff working from home and also reflecting and planning for what the longer term' future of work' will look like. She is also looking to find a balance personally with two kids, three dogs and working remotely!

What does the HPRA do and what does the HR department focus on?

The HPRA is the regulator of health products which covers everything from medicine to medical devices or cosmetics. They are based in Dublin and have around 360 staff members. Lynsey told us a bit of what their working plan would have been before the pandemic. A typical day for the HR department would focus on driving comprehensive engagement, recognition and also retaining key talent. As this is a very attractive but competitive industry, one of their main objectives is to find and keep high-quality staff.

While the HR department has a focus on recruitment, they are also highly dedicated to developing the working environment to guarantee a positive experience from start to finish. 

During this year, workplace wellness has become more and more critical to the HR department and the entire staff. Looking ahead to the next people strategy at the HPRA, Lynsey is sure that wellbeing on its own, will be a fundamental pillar of the plan. 

The HPRA were the first public sector organisation to receive the KeepWell Mark

Lynsey thinks the KeepWell Mark helped them push forward and strive for more in their wellbeing initiatives. Going into this programme helped set them on a trajectory, it helped them see what areas they were already doing well in and what areas still needed improving. It was a shock for them to see how they compared to other organisations outside the public sector. Looking at these organisations and at the significantly higher budgets they had, Lynsey feels proud of the fact that HPRA managed to win an award for leadership in the first year they joined the programme. To her, this reflects the significant involvement and support they had from the entire organisation in wellbeing initiatives.

"One of the most critical learnings for us over the years has been not to assume we know what everybody wants, and go out and ask," Lynsey says. Getting feedback from the employees and sharing the yearly wellbeing plan with them has been key to their overall success. 

Don't overlook the needs and wants of your employees when developing a wellbeing plan

Starting with surveys and continuing with evaluations from people who attended events, the HPRA is continuing to evolve in the area of workplace wellbeing. They are now in a phase where people have formed a committee of health and wellbeing champions.

The committee helps implement the yearly plan, they go out and get their colleagues interested, they get them excited about initiatives, and they also gather feedback. Lynsey feels the committee plays a massive part in the success of their programmes, as people respond much better when the message doesn't only come from HR or leadership.

"The whole point is trying to decentralise it, take it out of the HR function and make it part of everybody's responsibility, everybody's accountable for it, and everybody can have ownership over it."

Adapting employee engagement initiatives to the remote work environment

The transition to working from home has been challenging for the HPRA, as they had little experience in the area. They had just started their remote work programme in January, so only two months before the pandemic. It was a struggle to get everyone settled into their home office with all the technology they needed.

But once things started to fall into place, Lynsey began to focus on finding out how people were feeling, how they were dealing with the situation. A problem that arose was the social isolation; people were feeling very disconnected, and communicating with their colleagues was quite challenging.

Therefore they started to work on this issue and tested several options. As employees were getting fatigued with zoom calls, they started trying different communication options. People then came together on a Skype call, shared their experience with a particular tool, and others got to learn from that and decide whether to try the tool for their team.

Another initiative they tried with the objective of replicating the office environment was "an hour on camera". What this means is that everybody logs on with their camera on and works on their tasks. And it just captures things like a doorbell ring, a dog barking, and it allows people to ask questions directly without writing a message to their colleague. It is a great way to get people connected to the team once again.

Lynsey has also received many questions from employees wanting to know what everyone else in the company was working on. Therefore they implemented live calls where people from different departments talk about what they are doing at the moment, and other colleagues can jump in and ask questions through a live chat. 

When looking at the difference in resources between companies from the private and the public sector, Lynsey's advice is to try and be creative. "First of all, see who you have in your organisation, and who's willing to get involved and lead out and support. The only reason we knew we had a yoga instructor and a fitness instructor in the organisation was that we asked."

You can watch a video of the conversation through this link. 

Want to find out more information about Lynsey Perdisatt's wellbeing programs at HPRA? Reach out to her on LinkedIn.

Are you interested in learning more about workplace wellbeing and educating yourself in this area? Head on over to www.workwellinstitute.org, where I'm launching my online education programmes. You can learn all about my 8-step framework for developing a workplace wellness programme that lasts.

If you have any suggestions for future topics you'd like to hear on the show, email me directly, brian@workwellpodcast.com