Balancing AI and Human Expertise in HR: Insights from SABIC India and Top Employers Institute



Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly growing in various industries, including HR. While AI technology offers numerous benefits, such as increased efficiency and reduced bias, it raises concerns about the lack of personal touch. In a recent LinkedIn Live event, Preet Boparai, Head of HR for India, at SABIC and Billy Elliott, Regional Director for APAC at Top Employers Institute, discussed the emerging use of AI in HR and the importance of maintaining a balance between AI and human expertise.  The webinar explored examples of how AI has proven beneficial and the potential downsides of relying solely on technology. The session also provided insights into how SABIC India leverages AI while retaining the human element in HR operations. Here are some key learnings from the session: 

Read ahead to get a snapshot of some of the session’s highlights; fill in the form to get the recording of the webinar to watch whenever you have a moment.  

Balancing the Benefits and Concerns of AI in Human Resources: The Need for Human Oversight and Intervention 

Using AI tools in HR has proven successful in saving time and effort. For example, AI tools have proven successful in recruitment by saving time and effort for recruiters and offering personalised feedback to candidates. These tools employ natural language processing and facial analysis technology to evaluate the fit of candidates for job positions. However, a critical issue with AI tools in recruitment is the potential for bias and discrimination. In a notable case, a recruitment tool demonstrated a preference for male candidates over female candidates. Therefore, it is necessary to have human oversight and intervention to ensure that algorithms are not giving biased results. 

SABIC Shows How AI Tools Can Help HR in Employee Engagement and Retention 

SABIC, a global leader in diversified chemicals, has harnessed the power of AI to enhance employee engagement and retention. Here are some ways they’ve implemented it: 

• Development of a chatbot for employee experience: SABIC developed an advanced chatbot called Amber, which has proved invaluable during the pandemic. It acted as a seamless two-way communication tool, promoting connection and dialogue by regularly seeking feedback from SABIC employees about their experiences working in an evolving, flexible environment. The chatbot is used to identify disengaged employees and those who are at risk of leaving. By proactively identifying these employees, SABIC has been able to retain them, thereby reducing its attrition rate. However, SABIC also emphasised the importance of informing employees about the tool and ensuring that conversations between employees and HR are confidential. 
• Gathering feedback from employees: SABIC has also used AI tools to gather employee feedback during the COVID-19 pandemic. This feedback was used to launch SABIC Care, a flexible employee health benefits plan.  

• Personalised learning journeys: SABIC also uses Percipio, a platform that offers a range of courses and content for employees to upskill and reskill themselves. This platform uses AI to personalise the learning experience and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the learning process. 

Balancing AI and Human Intelligence 

While AI tools can provide valuable insights and baseline information, SABIC emphasised the importance of involving human intelligence in decision-making. The solutions SABIC created were well thought through and catered to the entire organisation. SABIC also recognised that AI tools are not infallible and that there may be instances where the predictions made by these tools need to be corrected. Therefore, the company has created a feedback loop where human intelligence can correct and improve the accuracy of AI tools. 

Fostering Collaboration Between AI and Humans in the Workplace: HR’s Vital Role 

In today’s fast-paced, technologically driven world, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that machines and algorithms can do everything better than humans. However, as we rely increasingly on artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace, it’s essential to remember the value of the human touch. Recent studies have shown that many employees negatively perceive their HR departments. Some don’t even know who their HR representative is, while others don’t trust that any action will be taken if they report a concern, such as harassment or discrimination. With the increasing use of digital tools, this gap between HR and employees could widen further. 

However, the solution isn’t to eliminate AI and go back to the days of paper forms and in-person meetings. Instead, HR departments need to remember that technology should be used to enhance and support human interaction, not replace it entirely. The key is to maintain honest and meaningful conversations with employees. This means closing the loop and letting employees know what actions are being taken in response to their concerns, even if the news isn’t always positive. No amount of technological advancement or process improvement can replace regular communication and connection between HR and employees. 

Ultimately, the best approach is to view AI and humans as a united team working together to empower the future of the workplace. It’s up to us to take responsibility for making positive changes and not depend solely on technology to solve all our problems. 

Key Takeaways: Embedding Systemic Inclusion with Tata Consultancy Services

Virtual Fireside Chat with Preeti D’Mello, Tata Consultancy Services, and Adrian Seligman, Top Employers Institute. 

There is no diversity without inclusion. 

Inclusion is now an integral part of any organisation’s diversity offerings. Leading organisations, like certified Top Employer Tata Consultancy Services, are integrating it into their overall business strategy. Creating an inclusive workplace culture differs from simply creating a diverse company culture. An inclusive work culture allows employees to feel included irrespective of who they are or how they identify themselves. 

In this webinar, Preeti D’Mello, Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion & LeaD Academy at TCS, and Adrian Seligman, Executive Board Member at Top Employers Institute, spoke about how to adopt a holistic and systematic view of diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging to create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture. 

Throughout the session, they touched on how organisations, and their HR leaders, can build their capacity for emotional intelligence, embodied self-awareness, compassion and sensitivity. While also touching on how individuals can demonstrate personal impact and accountability through good actions for themselves and others. 

Read ahead to get a snapshot of some of the session’s highlights; fill in the form to get the recording of the webinar to watch whenever you have a moment. 

TCS is a large multinational organisation with around 600 000 employees; Adrian and Preeti began their conversation about inclusion by exploring how TCS sees its employees as individuals. Following that, Preeti expanded on the question by sharing some best practices from TCS:

• While the company is large, TCS manage to keep their everyday operating teams small. It allows them to operate similarly to a country with states, counties and townships. In simpler terms, they manage to organise their large employee numbers into smaller groups to keep it manageable. It also allows each group to interact within and outside of their group. 
• At TCS, they also maintain a company culture of open communication where feedback is not only encouraged but also helps to facilitate collaboration. They provide space for teams to voice their opinions openly without fear. While this is difficult, they ensure their company structure supports this culture. 
• They also know that they must keep evolving to maintain their inclusive culture. 

Inclusion at Scale with HCL – Read Now

How TCS’s DE&I strategy fits into their talent attraction strategy.

• When hiring and advertising open positions, they ensure clear messaging around the diverse identity groups they have in their organisations. TCS also partner with organisations that promote certain identity groups to ensure that they get the best candidates and a diverse range of candidates. 
• They use word of mouth to help find new employees as they value the opinions of their current employees and want to find new employees who will be a neat cultural fit in the organisation. They also look at the internal dynamics of their current employees to help inform recent hiring decisions.
• At TCS, they make sure that their DE&I strategy is communicated internally and externally so that you are aware of the organisation’s strategic objectives, whether you are new or old to the company. 

How TCS help, their leaders succeed in creating a culture of belonging across the organisation. 

• There is a mandate for inclusion and belonging that is now a mandate for business results. They did this when they understood that there was a clear relationship between doing the right thing and improved business results. It first began to gain momentum in the United States and then became a worldwide phenomenon. 
• They ensure that their organisation has a precise value alignment with those who work in and outside the company. It is a part of their big message that while business is about products and solutions, it is also about the quality of people a business works with. 
• To engage with their leaders, TCS started by showing them some of the positives of working within an inclusive organisation. 
• They encourage open and honest conversations with their leaders and employees to share the positives of working in a diverse and inclusive environment. 
• They foster learning about conscious and unconscious bias throughout the organisation.

The fundamental shift in their culture has come from the organisation realising that they will need to step outside of themselves and critically look at what they are doing and how they can improve that. It’s about making small steps every day to improve their culture. 

Learn more about how TCS makes their DE&I strategy work by watching the full Virtual Fireside Chat now. Fill in the form now and get your link to the session.

Best Practice | Count Me In: Diversity & Inclusion at Mitie



Mitie’s Count Me In learning and development programme is aimed at challenging the way colleagues think about diversity and inclusion, while stimulating healthy conversation. The programme was developed based on feedback from Mitie colleagues regarding their experiences with inclusion.

This is just a snapshot of Mitie’s innovative best practice; you can find the full practice on our HR Best Practices database that is exclusively available to Top Employers. Get inspiration and insight into the approach, challenges and learnings experienced by certified Top Employers. Access it now or learn more about it here!

Why was the practice needed?    

When certified Top Employer, Mitie Group, created a new Head of Diversity and Inclusion they saw an opportunity to step beyond traditional unconscious bias training for a more mindful approach to issues around D&I. After receiving employee feedback that showed a need for the organisation to focus more on the needs of women in the workplace, race and ethnicity, disability, sexuality, and age-diversity. These were all issues that fall under the umbrella term of diversity and inclusion.

In 2021, against the backdrop of the company’s recent merger with Interserve, the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, Mitie’s Count Me In programme was able to deeply connect their people to each other. The aim of the programme was to not only understand their own company culture but also the culture of their employees and the challenges that are brought with different cultures. The programme also wanted to try and represent all these different cultures and people in their company story.

How was the practice implemented?

Mitie wanted to challenge the way that their people think with their Count Me In programme by encouraging them to have authentic and open conversations. Most importantly, Mitie wanted to create an environment where every employee felt able to bring their authentic and whole self to work. To meet these goals, they designed the programme as a journey of growth that would happen over four phases:

1. Count on Me: starting point in which employees look at their own strengths and biases.
2. Count on Us: this phase focuses on team culture and provides the opportunity for teams to create an environment of trust and empathy in which colleagues feel safe to speak up.
3. Count on Mitie: as part of an inclusive organisation all employees feel a sense of belonging.
4. Count on the Future: the Count Me In initiative continues to support and encourage an inclusive culture as well as to ensure that ED&I strategies remain in focus going forward.

Across the programme, Count Me In covered the following topics:

• Assumptions and bias
• Strengths and superpowers
• What is and isn’t ok to say
• Banter
• Inclusive conversations
• Conscious Inclusion
• Building relationships
• Allyship
• D&I basics
• Speaking up
• Inclusive leadership behaviours

The first two phases of the programme encouraged employees to reflect on their own understanding of diversity and inclusion while developing new awareness around it. While doing this they also worked on creating an environment that was safe for everyone to speak up in. The programme was not designed to be stagnant. Instead Mitie carefully constructed the training to be continuously developed over time with new training developed on further feedback from employees at the organisation.

When the programme progressed the focus shifted from internal reflection to ensuring that the organisation had a culture of psychological safety that allowed them to speak up and speak out.

The programme was not only limited to non-executive employees, but rather it extended into leadership levels with reverse mentoring and training to help manage escalations. Throughout the programme employees were helped to identify people that they could reach out to for various types of help. Management needed to be prepared for conversations that required the highest level of care and consideration.

While this was happening, the Executive Leadership and Group Leadership teams pledged their commitment to the overarching objective of the programme, which was to create an environment of inclusion throughout the organisation where each person feels comfortable in being themselves at work. In all of the leadership meetings at Mitie D&I is a standing topic with quantifiable metrics for follow-up and measurement across the company.

To learn more about how they implemented the programme you can find this practice on our HR Best Practice database. Access it now or learn more about how to become part of a global network of employers of choice!

Results of implementing Count Me In.

The programme’s first activity was an online self-assessment was completed by over 6 000 people at Mitie. It was followed by ‘Let me tell you a story…’ during which over 4 000 participants listened to a story being told before they were asked to answer questions designed to illuminate biased assumptions about the characters.

After the programme was implemented across Mitie they found:

• Over 24 000 employees have engaged with some or all the learning activity.
• Average NPS across all activities is 99%.
• Over 17 000 inclusivity commitments have been made by employees at all levels.

There were also several strategic benefits revealed by the programme:

• The number of colleagues registered in Mitie’s diversity networks grew fivefold. 
• Mitie continued to report their Gender Pay Gap and they voluntarily published their Ethnicity Pay Gap report.
• This initiative helped Mitie to become number 10 in the top 50 Inclusive Employers in the UK.
• Mitie has improved gender and racially diverse representation in senior leadership roles, 21% of Women and 8% of Racially Diverse.

To get more details about how Mitie made their Count Me In programme work find this practice on our HR Best Practice database. Access it now or learn more about it here!

Purpose and Employee Experience Take Center Stage at the APAC Top Employers 2023 Certification Celebration in Singapore



Top Employers from 22 Asia Pacific countries gathered at the ST Regis in Singapore on February 9 to celebrate their Top Employer 2023 Certification. This annual event recognises the commitment of these companies’ HR teams to create a world-class HR environment.  

In his keynote talk, Billy Elliott, Regional Director for Asia-Pacific Top Employers Institute, shared that 22 Asia Pacific countries were honoured as Top Employers. These countries, including China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Philippines, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar, have companies that have created and implemented best in class HR strategies and practices. This has resulted in a positive impact on the lives of approximately 2,574,089 employees. 

The companies recognised as Regional APAC Top Employers (for having been certified in a minimum of five countries in region) were UST, Sanofi, SABIC, Novartis, Airbus, Worldline, and Ingredion. The companies recognised as Global and Regional Top Employers were Alstom, BAT, Boehringer Ingelheim, CHEP, DHL Express, HCLTech, DHL Global Forwarding, Infosys, JTI, Pepsico, Phillip Morris International, Puma, Saint-Gobain, Takeda, and TCS. 

With both regional and global companies recognised as Top Employers, it is evident that creating a positive employee experience is a top priority for many organizations, which was the focus of the first panel discussion held:  

*Fill in the form to get access to the panel discussion.  

Employee Experience becomes Super-Personalised 

The importance of personalising employee experience has become a critical focus area for organizations. To better understand this topic, a panel discussion was held with three leading HR executives – Sanjiv Agarwal, Head of Human Resources at Swiss Re, Satish Kannan, Vice President & Head HR of Global Markets, Europe & MEA at Infosys, and Patricia Lam, HR Director and APAC HR Performance & Integration at Alstom and moderated by Ammara Naeem, Head of Client Success at Top Employers Institute. Here are some key takeaways from the discussion.  

• Employee experience covers the entire employee journey – During the panel discussion on employee experience, Sanjiv of Swiss RE emphasised that the concept of employee experience and morale is not new, but rather something that has always existed in the workplace. Employee experience encompasses all aspects of the employee’s journey, from the moment they apply to the company to their experience during the interview process and throughout their time with the organization. Employee experience should not be solely driven by HR but should be considered a part of the organization’s culture.  
• Three drivers for an employee experience framework – Satish of Infosys discussed three key drivers for their employee experience framework, which include adapting to a hybrid work model, leveraging technology for a unified experience, and creating an inclusive culture. To measure digital maturity of talent, they introduced the “Digital Quotient,” which involves building competency, gaining exposure, and delivering value, with scores for each component. This approach allows employees to customize their digital career journey by identifying learning and product opportunities to improve their scores. 
• The importance of consistency in employee experience – In the discussion, Patricia of Alstom emphasized the importance of consistency in employee experience and how to achieve it through digitalization. They have established a global learning organization and a digital platform that provides various learning opportunities for employees to drive their career development. Patricia also highlights a digital career path portal that allows employees to assess their competencies and match them with available jobs in the organization.  

Purpose, Straight from the Heart 

The second panel, “Purpose, Straight from the Heart,” brought together three HR leaders from major multinational corporations to discuss the importance of purpose-driven organizations in today’s business landscape. Kelly Tay, Head of Talent Leadership Organization for Southeast Asia and South Korea at Boehringer Ingelheim, Meng Hwee Teoh, Asia Talent Head at Sanofi, and Fred Barou, Senior Vice President of Customer Success Management at Amadeus. Here are the key takeaways. 

During the opening statement of the Purpose, Straight from the Heart panel, the audience was presented with a provocative statement – “Purpose is fluff not much action” – and asked to agree or disagree. The results were unexpected, with 37% of the audience agreeing and the rest disagreeing. The panellists went on to discuss the implications of this divide and how organizations can move beyond seeing purpose as a mere buzzword and translate it into concrete actions. Here are key takeaways of that panel discussion:  

• Connecting Individual and Organizational Purpose for Employee Engagement – Meng Hwee Teoh from Sanofi discussed how the company’s purpose statement, “to chase the miracles of science, to improve the lives of our people, the communities and our own employees,” is not just a plaque on the wall, but a rally call for employees to live out in their everyday lives. Before launching the purpose statement, the company identified behaviours that are important to gear towards the purpose and set up a set of “play to win” behaviours. Additionally, the company redefined performance to help employees focus on areas where they could create an impact and linked it closely to the employee’s everyday life.  
• Communicating Purpose to Customers and Employees – Fred, a commercial leader from Amadeus, a B2B travel and tourism company, spoke about the challenge of effectively communicating the company’s purpose to customers and ensuring that employees can connect with it daily. The company’s original purpose was to “shape the future of travel,” which has since been updated to “create better journeys for everyone,” reflecting the company’s commitment to opening travel to everyone and improving the travel experience. The purpose serves as a guiding principle for employees and creates a sense of connection to the company’s mission, particularly during the pandemic when the travel industry was severely impacted.  
• Purpose is not just a one-time event or training – Kelly from Boehringer Ingelheim believes that purpose is about actions from the past, present, and future, and that it’s important to create events and opportunities for reflection in order to connect employees with the company’s purpose. As an example, during their “Valued Through Innovation Day,” they invited an artist to speak about how she uses her purpose to create art, and employees were given the opportunity to reflect on their own purpose and create artwork representing it as a team. This exercise helped employees connect emotionally with the company’s purpose and led to meaningful stories being shared. 

The Top Employer Certification is an important recognition for companies that care about their employees and are dedicated to and are dedicated to creating a better world of work for their people. The celebration of this achievement is a time to reflect on the hard work and dedication that went into achieving the certification, as well as a time to recognise the accomplishments of the HR teams. If you are interested in becoming a Top Employer and and participating in this year’s Certification Programme, get in touch with the APAC Top Employers Institute team at apac@top-employers.com. 

Case Study: Deutsche Post DHL



Certified Top Employer, Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL), is the world’s leading logistics company employing nearly 600,000 colleagues and operating in over 220 countries and territories worldwide.To increase collaboration and interaction between their large number of employees within the company, DPDHL has implemented Smart Workplace, a mobile application designed to improve the daily employee experience. Developing the Smart Workplace was a challenge not only because it was a huge undertaking in scale, but it was also a challenge given the diversity of employees, roles, languages and places of work.

Download the case study to learn how: 

• The organisation customised this intranet as a mobile application using tools such as the Office 365 suite.
• The Covid-19 pandemic impacted the launch and need of the Smart Workplace platform for DPDHL.
• Smart Workplace has become one of the leading internal information sources within DPDHL, engaging more than 300,000 employees worldwide just 6 months after its launch.

Boosting Morale by Giving Back with CPFL Energy

CPFL Energy Fosters Goodwill by Creating a Sustainability Plan 

Giving back is an important part of a company’s presence in a local community and, for larger companies, the world at-large. Charity work improves a company’s image, creates a better place to live and work for employees and local residents alike, and fosters a sense of goodwill. With so many worthy causes, companies often focus their philanthropic efforts on an issue that resonates with their services, mission, and values. For CPFL Energy, a Certified Top Employer, that cause is climate change.

CPFL Energy is the largest energy company in South America. Headquartered in Campinas, Brazil the company was founded in 1912 and operations are supported by 13 000 employees. Their focus is on the distribution, generation, and commercialization of energy services to over 10 million addresses, which represents more than 22 million people.

The company recently implemented a Strategic Sustainability Plan with 15 commitments and an investment of R$1.8 billion from 2020 – 2024. CPFL’s plan is fully aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainability Goals. Some of their goals include maintaining at least 95% renewable energy sources in their generation portfolio, reducing greenhouse gas emissions – which they did by 24% in 2020, and generating carbon credits by assisting consumers’ energy transition with decarbonization and energy efficient solutions.

Three value pillars are the basis for CPFL’s sustainability plan: sustainable energies, smart solutions, and shared value. These values succinctly summarise how the company will focus its efforts on creating a smaller environmental footprint. It’s a clear way to share with both the global business community and the local community they serve how they are taking action.

In addition to the obvious benefits of combating climate change, this initiative contributes to greater employee cohesion and job satisfaction. Working for a company that gives back improves employee regard for company leadership and fosters a positive sense of connection.  Good morale is an important ingredient for successful operations and a giving back initiative is a great way to bolster it.

Rodolfo Nardez Sirol, CPFL’s Environmental and Sustainability Director, offers more detail about the company’s sustainability plan and what motivated them to devote so many company resources to it in this video. He describes how employees collaboratively developed the plan and what they are doing to keep up momentum. Check out the video to hear more about how CPFL finds fulfilment in giving back. 

How the Workspace Can Improve Employees’ Experience

Learning from NN Group’s Design Innovations 

The work environment has a huge impact on employees’ daily experience. It is everything that contributes to people’s experience of a physical space – the art on the walls, the floor plan, furniture, communal areas. A pleasant and comfortable office space improves productivity, helps with talent acquisition, and fosters the team’s overall sense of well being. The physical space creates an atmosphere that influences company culture and how employees interact. 

With this in mind, NN Group’s Hungarian office began planning a new workspace to reflect the needs and preferences of its employees and to cultivate an agile way of working. NN Group is a financial services company with offices in 11 countries and an impressive history that spans 175 years. They provide retirement, insurance, and investment services to 18 million customers with a team of 15 000 employees. The Hungarian team spent 16 years in their previous office and welcomed the opportunity for a fresh start. 

Employee feedback was one of the primary inputs guiding the design process. This feedback was gathered through workshops and questionnaires. More areas for collaboration and a more colourful, bright space were among the top requested changes. In response, the new building features large windows and numerous colourful communal areas.

The company also engaged employees with the project in creative ways throughout construction. Through a webcam, team members saw construction happening in real-time. Periodically, a member of the HR team filmed a tour of the construction site. Employees tested furniture options in the previous space, voting for their favourite ones. 

Reflecting the company’s values of sustainability and community was also an important part of the project. The design team reduced water use by including a rainwater collection system to flush the toilets. Positioning the new office near public transportation decreased employees’ reliance on cars. Furniture from the old office space was donated to a local children’s hospital.

The benefits of a thoughtfully designed office space cannot be overstated. When employees like their workspace, they are more productive, energised, happy, and healthy. Many positive ripple effects result. Employees are more likely to refer new potential employees, company performance metrics improve, and employees feel valued. 

In addition to these benefits, NN Group Hungary was also nationally recognized for their innovations. The office was a finalist for Hungary’s ‘Office Space of the Year’ competition. See the space and hear more of the company’s design innovations in this video hosted by Krisztina Hársfalvi-Tóth, HR Business Partner for NN Group Hungary.

Helvetia Case Study: The Impact of Internal Best Practices Sharing



Certified Top Employer Helvetia Insurance, established in 1858, is headquartered in St. Gallen Switzerland. As an organisation they currently have over 11.500 employees and more than 7 million customers across their different operating countries.

Helvetia have prioritised improving their people practices over the past few years as they joined the Top Employers programme. In recent years they have wanted to improve their practices not only through benchmarking but also through learning from the various Helvetia branches. This desire for improvement and learning lead them to create an internal best practice sharing session.

Download the Case Study to learn how:

• Helvetia have been able to create a unified best practice sharing session that has improved HR practices across their offices.
• They use the Top Employers programme to guide the improvement of their HR practices.
• Employees in Helvetia have experienced the internal best practices sharing sessions.

Mental Health Q&A: Bentley



In advance of #WorldMentalHealthDay, we caught up with Emma Humphries from certified UK Top Employer Bentley. Emma is co-chair of its wellbeing network BeAccessible – in this interview she reveals more about the network, how it contributes to positive change within the organisation, and how mental health has moved up the organisation’s priority list.

Tell us about yourself and your organisation?

I’m Emma and I work as a Technical Analyst here at Bentley Motors. Bentley has a proud 103-year history of building the most sought-after luxury cars, and we’re also on the most ambitious journey with our Beyond100 plans to become exclusively electric and end-to-end carbon neutral by 2030.

At the heart of Bentley are our 4,000 colleagues. Whilst those numbers might sound big, we’re a tight team with generations of families working here, which makes Bentley a very special place to be. I am proud to follow the footsteps of my late Grandfather who joined the business the day it opened its gates, followed shortly after by my Nan. Since then, there has always been members of my family throughout Bentley’s history; my father, working mainly in Security, and my three brothers working in Purchasing, Maintenance and Finance.  When I finished college, I knew I wanted to be a part of the Bentley brand and family. I’m proud to have just completed my 25 years of service, working predominantly in Logistics – a department and family that is full of drive and passion.

It’s our people that bring our vision for Diversity and Inclusion to life with our colleague led networks. I co-chair one of those networks, known as BeAccessible. It was launched following World Mental Health Day in 2021 and our ambition is simple; we support colleagues in all aspects of health and wellbeing to ensure our workplace is inclusive, and aim to create an equal environment for colleagues with disabilities. Other colleague networks include BeProud, who advocate for our LGBTQ+ community, our BeUnited network who represent colleagues of ethnic minority, our BeReady network, who support colleagues with a background in the army or other recognised force and our BeInspired network which brings together those with an interest in increasing the proportion of female colleagues across all of our business areas to accelerate our progress towards Bentley’s Beyond 100 goals of 30% women in management by 2030.

How has Bentley’s mental health strategy evolved over the past year, in what we all hope is a post-pandemic world?

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted us all in different ways, and we quickly realised that we could not deliver a one-size fits all approach to mental health. With the support of our Head of Diversity & Inclusion, the BeAccesible network established a Positive Mental Health Workstream, and evolved our strategy to have a range of touchpoints for colleagues in a way that works for them, whether that be at work or in new home office.

So, our multi-tactic approach means colleagues can get access to face-to-face peer group support through our regular Time to Talk sessions or get more tailored and personalised support through a trained Mental Health First Aider. But we have also evolved our strategy to focus on day-to-day mental health through BeFit walking programmes, BeFit fruit giveaways etc, as well as the opportunity for colleagues to join our allotment community to enjoy the outdoors because we know helping colleagues with positive habits can help mitigate the impact of mental health stressors.

Has mental health moved up your organisational priority list?

Absolutely, in fact it is being actively championed, from board level to factory floor. It makes me feel proud to work here and excited about what the future holds for Bentley.  

Bentley offers an array of resources for colleagues. This month, along with the network’s regular monthly Time to Talk sessions, we are promoting our Mental Health Traffic Light guide, which contains several useful resources – for example, a list of our Mental Health First Aiders and information on our BeFit programs, designed to get colleagues moving and exercising. We are also sharing colleague’s experience of Ben, the Automotive Charity, and the great support that they offer to colleagues from our automotive industry. The network chairs and members have regular opportunities to meet or ask questions with the Board where we receive full support, answers and guidance, ensuring that we are all striving for the same goal of improving colleagues’ experiences.

How have conversations around mental health changed?

I’m a firm believer that the more we talk about mental health, the more we can demystify. We’ve got a supportive communications team who help make health and wellbeing a priority across our messaging, and we’ve been empowered to host monthly MS Teams sessions to reach our remote colleagues, or those working at home. We also use national events to bring awareness, for example May’s Time to Talk was about Loneliness.

This constant conversation has seen the network reach 170 members, as well as engaging with many more thousands of our colleagues in some way.

Mental health is definitely becoming something that more and more people want to talk about and support and I am really proud that our BeAccessible network has been an enabler for this.

What will be your priorities in Mental Health in the year ahead?

The network has just advertised a companywide Movember campaign, we will be focusing on mental health during International Men’s Day with our Men’s Forum Workstream to ensure we continue our mission to remove taboo and stigma and encourage colleagues to start conversations and signpost. BeAccessible also promotes Bookboon, which is a digital learning service provider for corporate learning & development. In particular, we will be promoting titles linked to mental health and stress as a priority on awareness days and throughout the year generally.

UniCredit Bulbank’s ESG Learning Journey

Certified Top Employer UniCredit Bulbank is the leading bank in Bulgaria and a member of UniCredit, a successful pan-European commercial bank operating in Italy, Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. It has a unique service offering and its purpose is to empower communities to progress, delivering best-in-class for all stakeholder, unlocking the potential of clients and people.

UniCredit puts integrity, ownership and caring at the heart of its decision-making in everything it does, and digitalisation and a commitment to ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) principles are key enablers for delivering this. Their commitment to their ESG values and the ambitious energy goals that have been set in the EU for 2030 and 2050 is what started their award winning ESG Learning Journey in 2021.

For UniCredit Bulbank, ESG is not the responsibility of one department, team or individual, but everyone’s duty.

Download the Case Study to learn how:

• UniCredit Bulbank Bulgaria used a pyramid approach to restructure their ESG principles.
• They created an integrated group and local learning offer for ESG that had targeted initiatives for different groups of employees across the organisation that addressed specific needs and accountabilities for them.
• UniCredit Bulbank Bulgaria created ESGpresso, an ESG education platform, for colleagues to have easy access to information about their policies.

Download the case study now, click on the button and get the complete Case study for free.

Case Study: The Saint-Gobain HR Mirror



Certified Global Top Employer, Saint-Gobain, is the world leader in light and sustainable construction. Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures, and distributes materials and solutions for the construction, mobility, and industrial markets. They have been certified as a Global Top Employer since 2016.

In 2019 Saint-Gobain began organising a global Employee engagement survey called me@SaintGobain. It covered 40 questions across five different themes to identify how motivated employees are at that moment. In doing this survey and the Top Employers Best Practices Survey they realised that they could use both surveys to create a mirror survey that would allow them to continue to get more useful information to improve their employee’s life at work.

Download the Case Study to learn how:

• Saint-Gobain created a four-stage process to mirror the two surveys and create the HR Mirror survey.
• How they implemented the survey across their global offices with a strategic communication plan.
• How they use the results of the survey to improve the working conditions and policies for their employees across their global offices.

Learn more about how they implemented Saint-Gobain’s HR Mirror by downloading the case study now.

The tips are often small but have a big impact



How do you make use of the Top Employers Community?

Since being certified by Top Employers we have been building relationships, not only with the Top Employers Institute, but also with other certified Top Employers. There is a network of organisations willing to share, help one another to progress and learn from each other. I have been brought into contact, via Top Employers, with organisations with more extensive expertise on employee well-being, which has led to virtual workshops on mental health.

How do you share successful practices and processes (with other Top Employers)?

I had the opportunity to be a guest speaker twice, to share my expertise on Talent Acquisition and D&I. Whether I’m on stage or in the audience, after a Connect & Share session I am always inspired and eager to implement what I learn at PageGroup.

How has the Top Employers community contributed to your development?

Being amongst other Top Employers gives me a sense of pride in my work at PageGroup. Reflecting on the practices of other Top Employers helps me to reflect on PageGroup and act upon what we could improve. The tips are often small but have a big impact.