Richelle Schuster

Green Skills Workshop Event Discover innovative approaches to sustainability that can improve your business team's environmental impact, while enhancing efficiency and reducing costs. This event will highlight the areas & skills to consider in order to embed sustainability as well as actionable strategies to integrate into your business operations. Wednesday 25 September 9:30am – 1:30pm. (inc Lunch) At Plus X Innovation, Lewes Road, Brighton. To register for this free event - https://lnkd.in/ew7zswUJ    This project is part of the recent research and reports undertaken by Future Skills Sussex part of Sussex Chamber of Commerce, delivering our Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), Clean Growth UK & Green Business Team. The aim is to provide actionable insights and practical strategies to enhance Sussex business's green skills and sustainability practices. Click here to read the full report on the Future of Green Skills in Sussex Report. https://lnkd.in/e3X9tVrq Why Attend?  Learn from Experts: Gain insights from industry leaders and experts who have successfully implemented sustainability strategies. Names to be announced soon...       Network with Peers: Connect with like-minded businesses and professionals committed to driving positive change. Access Free Resources: Benefit from exclusive resources, tips, and tools to help you implement new strategies within your team. Support Local Initiatives: Be part of a movement to improve the local business landscape, making it more sustainable. Don't miss out on these opportunities to enhance your business capabilities and contribute to a more sustainable future.  Register now to secure your place at these events. Spaces are limited, so we encourage you to book early. We look forward to welcoming you to these events and working together to create a more sustainable business environment. Thanks to Claire Witz, Louie Holmes, Robb Cunningham & Jo Carpenter for organising the event.

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For the right person, an important role

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How can we foster greater collaboration within the social value and impact management community? I hope that you'll join me, alongside our Senior Leadership Team and Chair of the Board, as we present our vision for The Institute for Social Value (formerly Social Value UK) over the next few weeks and answer this question and many more. We'll also be asking the audience a few questions of our own, so come prepared! I can share with you now that one of the key areas we’ll be focusing on as an Institute is building connections and co-creating solutions within our membership base. As you can see from the photo, we’re already making great strides with this – here we are with the fantastic whatimpact team! Join us to find out more: The National Social Value Taskforce Conference: Tuesday 15th October 2024, 1pm (online) https://lnkd.in/evHMX7ME The Institute for Social Value Conference: Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th November, time TBC: https://lnkd.in/gCwme7xT What’s YOUR vision for fostering greater collaboration within the social value and impact management community? #SocialValue #Collaboration #Leadership #CoCreation #Impact #Innovation #Sustainability #CommunityBuilding #ESG Fran Boorman Eimear Davis

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Thinking about a shift to consultancy or non-executive roles in the education or public sector? I often chat with business leaders, CEOs and People Directors curious about this transition and what I'm asked to look for when sourcing NEDs. Here are a few top considerations: Skill Set: Whilst having broad, generalist experience can be beneficial, being able to specialise in a particular field can help with building a network and securing contracts. Additionally, know your industry sector and understand their associated challenges. Network: Building and maintaining a strong network is crucial. Connect with industry leaders and executive search consultants and join HR communities. Value Proposition: Understand what unique value you offer. For consultants, it's about providing solutions that businesses can't create internally. If you're thinking about your next move, please feel free to DM me or email me on [email protected] for a confidential chat. #ned #non-exec #education #consultancy #recruitment #search

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The Programme Group Supporting South Wales Businesses. Building a Future-Ready Workforce 📊 In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, workforce skills are critical to staying competitive. MSMEs often face skill gaps in digital tech, data analytics, and leadership—skills essential for growth and resilience. How can small businesses in South Wales address this? Developing a skilled workforce: ➡ Identify key skills: Focus on digital and management skills that are high-impact for growth. ➡ Upskill your team: Many digital and management training resources are accessible and cost-effective, even for small businesses. ➡ Encourage a culture of learning: Make skill development part of your company’s DNA. 💼 TPG Tip: Partner with local colleges or online training platforms for affordable skill-building options. 🌟 The Programme Group supports workforce development by helping businesses identify critical skills and create tailored training plans. Together, we can ensure your team is equipped to meet the challenges of the future. #WorkforceDevelopment #SkillsForTheFuture #MSMEGrowth #TheProgrammeGroup #DigitalSkills

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There’s this UK Government article about “User research in government” titled: “Why we care more about effectiveness than efficiency or satisfaction”. https://lnkd.in/eJXAgW2E I googled the difference between effectiveness and efficiency and Britannica gave this: "The words effective and efficient both mean "capable of producing a result," but there is an important difference. Effective means "producing a result that is wanted". Efficient means "capable of producing desired results without wasting materials, time, or energy". What approach would you employ when working on your own projects?

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Leadership is the key to success. But did you know that leadership development initiatives often fail to deliver the business value needed? 🤔 Cranfield University and Mercuri Urval are combining their unique expertise in leadership assessment and executive education, to design customized leader development programs tailored for a company’s specific needs and objectives 📊 🌟 Contact us for real performance acceleration and measurable results 🌟 #leadership #peopledevelopment #executiveeducation #businessvalue #leadershipassessment #customizedapproach #performanceacceleration #measurableresults

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🌟 Finally, we hosted our first in-person event of the #SPP Human Rights Chapter! Thank you to the SPP UK Chapter team for collaborating, presenting and hosting us! Jo Parkin (MCIPS) Hannah Richardson Seb Butt 😅 When 62 free tickets are reserved on Eventbrite, it is difficult to predict how many people will actually attend but we managed to gather a group of about 20 procurement and sustainability participants, who all shared a passion for the topic and were highly engaged by asking questions and sharing their experiences and advice. 💪 🤔 Here are Louise Herring and I, and our 6 takeaways from the event: From Louise - 1) Hannah's presentation told me that procurement teams are taking ownership of risk assessment, prioritisation and due diligence stages of HRDD in a successful manner that focuses in on reducing risk at the outset; 2) networking discussions were hugely positive in uncovering progressive data points that could be used by procurement teams to understand if suppliers have the right management systems in place and if those systems are translating to positive impacts on people. For example, living wage; 3) the challenges with the legislation are how we bring together trends in procurement and knowledge of responsible sourcing teams to move forward in more challenging areas including engaging with suppliers, farmers, workers and communities and remedying human rights issues identified. From me - 4) we need to continue the dialogue and collaboration between Sustainability and Procurement Professionals, as this is essential to drive successful strategies for companies and their suppliers. The exact R&Rs will differ across organisations but x-functional governance and engagement is critical 5) procurement teams with well-structured and mature systems, processes and up-skilling programs are in a stronger position to adapt to new regulations by integrating those into their ways of working with less disruption 6) lack of supplier data is indeed a huge issue but too much (unstructured) data can also hamper the progress of a function. Starting small with POCs and data points that are measured for effectiveness and iterated upon are critical 🔉 Please comment if you have joined the event and have other views, or indeed if you could not attend but want to add to the discussion! It was great to finally see some of our great collaborators, old friends and new friends Adrienne Cole Wiebke Flach Henrietta Lake PhD Desré Hancocks

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Pleased to be quoted in People Management magazine today on Over half of business leaders report staff absence due to problems accessing public services, TUC reveals. More than half (59 per cent) of business leaders say staff have had to take time off in the last year because they struggled to access public services, a poll by the trade union congress (TUC) revealed. The survey of more than 500 business leaders further explored the specific challenges faced by employees, finding that more than a third (35 per cent) had staff absent from work due to delays in receiving hospital treatment. To read article in full click 🔽 https://lnkd.in/ejJjwUcg 10Eighty #socialcare #business #economy #privatehealthinsurance #staffabsences #affordablechildcare #workingparents #privatehealthcare #flexibleworking CIPD

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Interesting to see a few discussion recently (like this one from TPXimpact | B Corp™'s Thomas Kohut) around how we need to evolve the Government Digital Service Service Standards and Standards Assessments to better reflect modern ways-of-working. “Sometimes meeting user needs is not the most important thing, despite being the primary focus of an assessment.” https://lnkd.in/eQymkV-9

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Whilst this is the right thing to do, this situation should never have arisen. A transparent investigation is needed. How was the original decision to under invest made? Who made it? What criteria were used How diverse was that decision making group and the evaluators? How representative of female entrepreneurs were they? How well do they understand the female entrepreneurship landscape and in particular their funding challenges? Unless these questions are answered the underlying issues will perpetuate and the reversal of 25 decisions is simply a PR exercise to avoid further scrutiny. This debacle also calls into question the application process. Is it fit for purpose? Does it make it easy for entrepreneurs to explain their innovative products and services? Does it require them to jump through unnecessary hoops? Does it encourage or discourage diversity? Is it accessible? if this is how female entrepreneurs are treated then how are neurodiverse and disabled entrepreneurs treated? These questions (and more) need to be independently answered and learnt from. Otherwise this remains simply a PR recovery exercise. Jennie Johnson MBE Bolaji Sofoluwe Dr Ann Mulhaney Mark Hart Atif Choudhury Dr Carly Danesh - Jones MBE (honDSc) Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL Dr Yvonne Thompson CBE DL FCL, RSA, RA, SGCW,KCL NED Sharon Peake, CPsychol

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*** 2024 GRANT FUNDING NOW OPEN *** Cornwall Women's Fund is now accepting applications for our 2024 grant funding! We aim to support community projects in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly supporting women’s mental health. For this round of funding projects with a focus on perinatal mental health will be given preferential consideration. In 2021, a team from Oxford University undertook in-depth research into the needs of women and girls across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. They considered existing research where it was available and interviewed charity and community leaders, and women from across the county to get a true picture of what really mattered to them and which areas it was difficult to find funding for. (Read the report here: https://bit.ly/3QLpgdv) One of the 4 key areas in their report “Understanding what matters to women and girls in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly” was women and girls mental health, identifying a particular lack of support for those accessing perinatal mental health services. Our Members have voted the area of Women and Girls Mental Health for our 2024 grant funding and we are now accepting applications. Grants range from £500 to a maximum of £1,000 Our grants are administered by Cornwall Community Foundation and you can find more information and details of how to apply here: https://lnkd.in/gY3Ryzy

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Lot's of good stuff coming for those in Adur and Worthing shortly, if you are based here, then have a good look at all this useful information

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It was great to host my first Boyden webinar looking at some of the issues affecting #boards of #thirdsectororganisations. In this webinar, our expert panel, including Alice Maynard CBE, Philip Goodwin, and Mike Maddick , explored key strategies for enhancing charitable board performance in 2024 and beyond. The webinar provided key insights from the perspectives of a #Chair, #CEO, #Trustee, and #HRDirector. Watch the recording here: https://lnkd.in/dWSnuBtk Here are the key takeaways: ·      Have a Clear Mission, Vision, and Values: Establishing and communicating the core mission, vision, and values of the organisation is fundamental to its success and alignment. ·      CEO and Chair Must Have a Shared Endeavour: The CEO and Chair need to work collaboratively towards common goals, ensuring alignment and mutual support. ·      Be Curious as a Board Member: Board members should actively seek to understand the organisation, ask questions, and engage with its operations and challenges. ·      Understand What Information is Needed and How to Present It: Present relevant information concisely and effectively to the board, as their time is limited. Prioritise critical data and insights. ·      Do Not Manage the Board: The board is there to provide healthy challenge and support and so foster a culture of constructive dialogue rather than attempting to manage the board. ·      Tight Chairing to Avoid Circular Conversations: The Chair should facilitate focused discussions, avoiding repetitive and unproductive conversations. ·      Recognise Positive and Destructive Behaviours on the board: Be aware of explicit and implicit relationships within the board. Identify and address both positive and destructive behaviours, which create 'false harmony.' ·      Inclusive Behaviours for New Board Members: Ensure that new board members feel welcomed and included. Foster an environment that values diverse perspectives. ·      Board's Reaction to Bad News: Observe and manage how the board responds to negative news. Encourage a proactive and solution-focused approach as this leads to better quality , open conversations which is healthy for the charity. ·      Explicit Contract Between Board and Senior Leadership: Establish clear agreements and expectations between the board and senior leadership. ·      Board's Legal and Fiduciary Responsibility: Recognise the significant legal and fiduciary responsibilities of the board. However, do not let fear drive decisions; focus on informed and balanced governance. These takeaways emphasise the importance of clear communication, collaboration, curiosity, and constructive governance in ensuring effective board operations. Please reach out to Karen Daly - Gherabi to discuss further or if you need advice with a board.

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Great framework for putting place at the heart of policy thinking. https://lnkd.in/emmZRx83

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Can you really improve without exploring risk and embracing change? Over the past week, Jimmy has been leading workshops on navigating risk and change management—equipping teams across diverse sectors with the tools to tackle daily risks and adapt with confidence. From consulting on neurodiversity within the medical field to guiding offshore engineering teams and the interior design industry, he’s bringing fresh insights and practical strategies to each unique setting. Understanding industry-specific risks and finding ways to embrace change is critical for growth and resilience. Whether you're in healthcare, engineering, design, or beyond, Lean 6 Services is here to support your journey. Ready to explore the risk and embrace the change? https://lnkd.in/eN8bJWkg #RiskManagement #ChangeManagement #Lean6Services #BusinessImprovement #IndustrySupport #TeamGrowth

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To expand on Rania Fazah comments understanding the axilogical, epistemological and ontological underpinnings feels like a necessary addition. They support and shape methodological choices and adaptions based on context. Sebastian Lemire curious your thoughts.

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