One Wirral Away Day 2024: A Day of Reflection, Learning, and Planning for a Better Workplace

On May 21st, we ventured over to Mere Brook House for our annual Away Day – an event dedicated to looking back over the year we’ve had, reviewing our various projects and services, and collectively discuss how we can improve. As well as getting lucky with glorious sunshine, the day was made up of a whole load of discussions and interactive activities, all aimed at driving positive change within our organisation.

Fun and Reflection

To kick off, our StaffBox Account Manager, Daisy got everyone on their feet with something a bit different – “Diversity Bingo” session and even though we thought we knew each other quite well, it still brought up things we didn’t know about each other including discovering hidden talents such as Daisy being double-jointed in one finger and Gemma and Jenny’s TV appearances.

Setting the Stage

To get us all back into focus mode, we had were given some further context for the day with a presentation on our vision, mission, and values and a financial summary. Our commitment to creating better lives and communities by bringing people together to innovate and collaborate was reiterated, which led nicely on to Natalie’s session.

Living Our Values

Our Director, Natalie Young-Calvert led a session on “Living Our Values,” focusing on reducing health inequalities and promoting the Marmot Principles. She highlighted the importance of the “5 Ways to Wellbeing” – Take Notice, Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, and Give. These principles are not just theoretical but are actively being incorporated into our daily work lives through various initiatives like gym memberships and volunteering opportunities. However, Natalie emphasised that there’s more we can do, which led us to an activity where we split off into two groups where we discussed what was important to us as individuals and how we could better meet those principles. We then had five votes each that we could allocate to ideas that we felt most beneficial – the most popular ones being what we will be actioning.

Learning from Case Studies

Karen Livesey presented an enlightening session on community insights, sharing case studies from across the UK. These examples demonstrated how specific projects and services were implemented, providing us with valuable lessons. Karen underscored the importance of community participation in defining needs and solutions, which often differ from those identified by service planners. This allowed us to think more deeply about how we gather and use community insights to inform our strategies.

Interactive Activities and Team Building

After a really delicious lunch, the focus shifted to skill utilisation with a session on “Capabilities and Capacity” led by our Clinical Education & Workforce Lead, Sue Smith. This activity encouraged us to reflect on the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver on our values. We discussed whether we are fully utilising our existing skills and identified areas for development. We got to uncover some untapped talents within our team and sparking ideas for both personal and professional growth.

Key Takeaways and Action Plan

What actions will we be prioritising?

1. Encouraging skill sharing: Using the list of skills we gathered, we are going to be encouraging everyone to spend time with each other to learn and share something they want to know more about. For example, there’s a fair few of our members who want to learn Spanish and fortunately our Prehab Practitioner, Felipe, is fluent 👏
2. Professional development: We will be looking at ways to enhance people’s professional development by implementing a CPD plan for everyone.
3. Skill utilisation: Reviewing skills and the professional development people wish to take, identifying any gaps we have to make more strategic decisions when it comes to recruitment and development
4. Internal communication: Strengthening our comms by maximising what we share within our monthly internal newsletter – looking at adding sections that don’t just focus on celebrating organisational news, but also highlighting people’s personal wins too.

Over the next 6-12 months, we will actively work on an action plan to review and implement the most popular and impactful suggestions. By doing so, we aim to create a more supportive, innovative, and agile workplace that not only meets but exceeds the needs of our community.

The 2024 Away Day was not just a day of discussion but a catalyst for change, reaffirming our commitment to our mission and values. We look forward to seeing the positive impact of the ideas and plans generated during this event and are excited about the journey ahead.