Did you know that Saturday 23rd October is ‘Make a difference’ day? It is also my daughter Eadie’s 16thbirthday, but that’s a whole other story. Make a difference day is all about finding opportunities to make a positive difference in our world. It isn’t necessarily about the big gestures, but more often than not, about taking small actions which make a difference.
Making a positive difference has always been part of our DNA at People Lab. The business was born out of a frustration about the way people are (often) treated at work and People Lab came about to try and change this, and make a difference to the way people experience work. The simple fact is, that if you get it right with your people, great things can happen and everybody wins.
Rewind to March 23rd 2020, when the UK entered lockdown and our world changed over night. All bar one of our projects were put on hold, and in our state of shock at what was happening, and where we would go next, there was really only one thing we could do – to try and make a positive difference to the people we work with, to our network, to the People Lab family and friends, who were struggling as well. So we got to work sharing our expertise, knowledge, skills and more, for free, wherever we could. We started up our wellbeing webinars, shared a free wellbeing toolkit, and went on to start The Reset Show, where we gathered some brilliant minds to share their expertise and stories, and we kept asking how can we help?
Fast forward to 19th October 2021, St Pauls Cathedral, where I was recognised by HR Magazine as an influential thinker for 2021. It was an honour to be on the list among some quite frankly brilliant and inspiring thinkers and doers. And I know everyone will say this, but we don’t do what we do for the recognition and the awards. We do it because we genuinely want to make positive difference to people’s experience and engagement at work.
Work doesn’t have to be, and definitely shouldn’t be a miserable experience. But… to have others notice what you’re doing, and care enough to say thank you, absolutely means the world. So I just want to say thank you to HR Magazine and to everyone one of the People Lab community who have appreciated the work we do over the years. It definitely made a difference to me.
@Emma
