WRIHW Knowledge exchange workshop: Evaluation and Next Steps!

Participants of this event were

Elise Waller - Senior Workforce Development Officer at Durham County Council

Elise currently leads Corporate Health and Wellbeing and Employee Benefits Projects, amongst other workforce development initiatives.

Faye Guy -  Employee Services Resources & Public Health Practitioner - workplace health & wellbeing

Faye recently joined DCC as a Public Health Practitioner, specifically focusing on workplace health and wellbeing for DCC’s Better Health at Work Award.

Durham University was represented by

Claire Hunter -  Head of Organisation Development Business Partnering

Claire is responsible for implementing the health strategy at Durham University. 

Aside from these practitioners, academics from the Department of Education and Psychology also participated.

The aim of the workshop was to exchange knowledge and expertise on wellbeing measures and practices used by different organisations to manage the wellbeing of different populations and to engage academics by sharing their insight to explore research and knowledge exchange opportunities. As a result of the workshop, the participants expressed their interest in continuing the exchange and building a Community of Practice.

In their presentations, the DCC and DU HR experts provided insight into how they translated wellbeing and mental health policies into practice.  They highlighted the importance of good workplace conditions in developing a culture and environment supporting staff wellbeing.  Initiatives need to make sure staff feel able to discuss their own mental health and wellbeing and have access to practical, accessible support and proactive interventions to help them improve their own mental health and wellbeing.

Fuschia Sirois Professor in the Department of Psychology, her research focuses on understanding the factors that create risk or resilience for health and wellbeing across diverse environments, including the workplace. She provided insights from the science of well-being that can enhance workplace well-being initiatives.

Sanne Selbrik from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia/Durham University Business School, introduced the concept of Communities of Practice (CoP) and how they can play a role in knowledge exchange and translation processes. She introduced key elements of successful CoPs and what can be done from a facilitator's perspective to make CoPs as useful as possible for all stakeholders involved.

Feedback from the session included the following statements

“It has been really interesting to hear the presentations, and I am keen to think more about how I might be able to be involved/contribute […] I have expertise in systematic reviewing and evidence synthesis.”

“One of the things that especially struck a chord with me was the discussion around how best to engage particular subgroups in wellbeing initiatives, including those who may be harder to reach or who have particular needs.”

“My own experience is that there’s often an expectation to come up with initiatives, but with little lead-in time/resource allocated […] any help from experts in research evidence, as Louise mentions, plus data analysis and evaluation planning (perhaps PH intelligence can assist with some of this), would be most welcome”. 

The workshop was informative and engaging, enabling a two-way exchange between practitioners and researchers. Thank you all for making this knowledge exchange a fruitful experience and for your interest in continuing dialogue and exchange.