WATCH: Why Veolia UK is focussed on respect at work

With HR professionals under an unprecedented level of pressure, now is the time to share lessons and impart strategies which have driven organisational and team success. In our new video series, Leadership Learnings, HRD Connect meets with senior leaders to discuss an experience in their career which helped to develop their professional practice.

It could be an effectively executed reform, a high-level discussion with the C-suite, interactions with employees – or something entirely different. It’s safe to say that HR has been forced to deal with an unimaginable array of opportunities and challenges, so leaders’ perspectives – why they made their decisions, what other leaders can learn, and why it matters today – could help encourage much-needed creativity, flexibility and determination.

In the first episode, HRD Connect is joined by the CHRO of Veolia UK, Beth Whittaker. In the video, Whittaker recollects the launch and progress of Veolia UK’s ‘respect at work’ campaign. After joining the environmental services company in 2015, Whittaker was keen to learn more about its functions and the sector at large, but was shocked to discover the level of verbal and physical abuse that employees faced in their day-to-day work.

Despite being told by Veolia UK employees that mistreatment was simply part of the job, Whittaker decided that enough was enough and action had to be taken. Whittaker and her team devised a strategy which focused on training, communications and reporting, to tackle specific challenges, including employees declining to report when and where incidents of abuse would take place.

Watch the video to find out why the experience had a personal significance to Whittaker, and discover how organisations can ensure their values are in place during every shift.

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