What we do
Organisations in every sector are experiencing perpetual change. Managers are faced with continuous challenges to enhance performance, reinvent products and services, attract and retain skills and talent, and motivate employees. New regulations relating to information and consultation, age discrimination and stress create additional challenges. Old ways of organising work and traditional approaches to leadership no longer seem able to deliver the growing requirement for continuous innovation and versatility.
UKWON builds bridges between public and private enterprises, international researchers and experts as a means of helping public and private enterprises and their employees to build responsive and sustainable organisations. Established in 1998 as a coalition of employers' organisations, trade unions, universities, business support agencies and public policymakers, UKWON helps enterprises find evidence-based ways of enhancing business performance and competitiveness.
Since 1998 UKWON has generated a unique body of knowledge, expertise, experience and practical tools to support workplace innovation. To share its resources effectively UKWON has decided to create a network of subscribing enterprises, each sharing a commitment to striving for high performance and becoming a great place to work.
UKWON offers opportunities for networking, dialogue and profile-raising with a wide range of organisations. It also offers a portfolio of tailored activities and resources designed to support organisational learning and innovation.
Shaping and influencing
Through its conferences, publications and public policy advocacy, UKWON offers enterprises opportunities to promote their achievements, share ideas and shape thinking within the wider national and European sphere. Recent events have included:
- dialogue seminars in Brussels with senior representatives of employers' organisations, trade unions and public bodies throughout Europe;
- national conferences, workshops and study visits on "High Performance" and "Healthy Working";
- small group discussions with national and European opinion-formers. Future events will create new arenas in which member organisations' achievements, needs and aspirations can be aired with a wide range of influential actors.
Researching the future
UKWON has published a wide range of research and case study material relating to emerging practice in the workplace. Future research will be guided or sponsored by UKWON subscribers both individually and collectively.
Networked learning and development
UKWON is creating interlocking networks at regional and national levels to provide enterprises and their employees with access to leading-edge thinking, research and practice relating to the future of work and organisations:
- Regional Networks. UKWON has a successful 5 year record of facilitating regional networks, currently centred on Bristol, Kingston and Nottingham. As part of a close-knit network, senior managers have access to a wide range of new thinking and practice as well as the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with each other. The programmes combine roundtables led by researchers and practitioners from across Europe with company-based workshops relating to key themes.
- Futures Masterclasses. A programme of highly interactive 24-hour sessions facilitated by leading experts and designed to expand the horizons of senior managers. Sessions build cumulatively on each other enabling participants to identify core challenges and resources relevant to their own organisations.
- Executive Development Networks. An annual programme of learning and development opportunities for high potential managers which combines formal sessions covering key themes with an Action Learning approach designed to link theoretical knowledge with practical change inside participants' own organisations. Peer exchange is an essential element of the programme and provides participants with enduring personal networks.
Resourcing change
UKWON provides access to a range of tools, learning resources and facilitation at considerably reduced cost, including:
- Organising, Involving, Learning (OIL), an assessment tool designed to evaluate the extent to which organisational structures and practices facilitate workforce engagement and effectiveness.
- Forum theatre, an innovative approach to creating opportunities for reflection, dialogue and business improvement involving employees at all levels of the organisation.
- Learning packs, designed to support in-house learning and organisational innovation. The current portfolio includes employee involvement and partnership, teamworking, communication, creativity and innovation, and healthy working.
- Short courses relating to a wide range of issues relating to change, innovation and employee engagement are held on a regular basis. They can also be delivered in-house.
- Identifying good practice in dealing with new regulatory measures at work.
