DisruptHR Birmingham at the Human Centred Leadership Conference with David Cartlidge

In HRchat episode 707, we discuss employee benefits, wellness and fostering a more people-focused work culture. We also look ahead to the return of DisruptHR Birmingham at the Human Centred Leadership Conference on May 22nd. 

Bill Banham's returning guest is David Cartlidge, Group CEO at My Staff Shop, a company specializing in creating tailored employee benefits, rewards and recognition. David is also a co-organizer of DisruptHR Birmingham.

My Staff Shop provides employees with exclusive deals and discounts, free financial advice, and saving tips to suit every situation. David and the team pride themselves on their friendly and collaborative way of working, putting the interest of clients at the heart of everything they do. 

Get your tickets to Disrupt Birmingham at the Human Centred Leadership Conference on May 22 here. 

We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom and visit HRGazettecom.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello, this is your host today, Bill Bannam, and in this episode we're going to talk about employee benefits, wellness, fostering a more people-focused work culture and the return of Disrupt HR Birmingham, which is happening at the Human Centred Leadership Conference on May 22nd. My guest today is David Cartlidge, Group CEO over at my Staff Shop, a company specialising in creating tailored employee benefits and rewards and recognition via their platform, and he's the co-organiser of Disrupt Birmingham. Based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, my staff shop provides employees with exclusive deals and discounts, free financial advice and saving tips to suit every situation. David and the team pride themselves on their friendly and collaborative way of working, putting the interests of clients at the heart of everything that they do. I've had the pleasure of working with David Verity, Jamie and the team for a while now and I can certainly testify to that. Hey, David, welcome to the show today.

Speaker 3: 1:35

Good to be here, Bill. It's my second time on your podcast and I really appreciate you inviting me back.

Speaker 2: 1:40

So, david, beyond my introduction there, why don't you start by taking a moment and telling our listeners a bit more about yourself and about my Staff Shop?

Speaker 3: 1:49

Sure, so I've been the CEO of my Staff Shop only for about 18 months. Before that, I was the IT director, and I joined back in 2011 when we first started the business, and I've been with it on that whole journey to where we are today. About 12 months ago, the previous owners exited and we converted to an employee ownership trust, which is a really interesting concept, because not just employees owning their part of the business, but also, as an employee benefits business, to be owned by the employees. It really does feed into it. It and we say that we're for employees by employees. That's our kind of internal mantra, if you like, and and not having those external shareholders or being part of a big corporate entity does give us the freedom to focus on doing what's right for our clients and what's right for the employee benefits space and not being, um you know, sort of forced always down the most profitable route.

Speaker 2: 2:46

The MyStyleShop tailored health and well-being platform, David, attempts to prove prevention is better and more cost effective than cure. What are some ways that employees can take better care of their mental and physical well-being?

Speaker 3: 3:03

I think the general thing that anybody can always eat healthy and exercise. I mean, they're the basic two staples, but within the realms of an employee benefits offering. If your employer is providing a wellness package of any source, first thing is to make yourself aware of it and see what's there. In our case, you've got access to your virtual GPs, which is really important for people that are struggling and feel that they just need somebody professional to reach out to. It's not always easy to get to your actual GP, so if your employer offers one of those, just get a news and they're really, really efficient.

Speaker 3: 3:40

And then the wellness space in general. Your wellness hub may contain things like dietary helps and fitness videos and live gym classes all of these sort of things. You've got to engage in them. And if they have well-being mental health well-being they might often have pre-recorded webinars or even live events and you want to get on to news them. And if you're an employer looking at your employees, try to encourage them to work as teams, because the evidence is out there that if people take part in things with others, they're generally around about 50 percent more likely to to keep at it, whether that be keeping at healthy eating or keeping at exercising. So employees look out for each other. Work with each other. Talk to each other employers, whether that be keeping at healthy eating or keeping at exercising. So employees look out for each other. Work with each other.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Talk to each other employers, Make sure your teams are aware of what's on offer and make sure they're using it. Ok, thank you very much. In terms of sustained growth in the benefits space, in terms of what's being offered at the moment, are there any particular benefits that you're seeing being offered by employers that are particularly popular at the moment? Um are there any particular?

Speaker 3: 4:52

benefits that you're seeing are being offered by employers that are particular, particularly popular at the moment or having a particularly strong impact. Yeah, sure, I think I think covid was um a bit of a leveler across the employee benefit space. I mean, in our case, as well as lots of other providers. It it made us focus more than ever on the health and well-being aspects of things we've just been talking about, and now all of the companies offer those things, and what we're starting to see more of is employers that are looking at what else they can do to support their staff, and we're seeing a bigger demand for cash plans, whether that be a health and wellness cash plan, where people can, you know, get money off dental or optical or physio or hospital stays or, you know, cancer insurance or just general hospital cash plans if they're in hospital. And what we're seeing more is not just companies offering it to their employees on a voluntary basis, but actually paying for the basic levels and cover to include it in their basic benefit package.

Speaker 2: 5:49

Okay, and how do you see the way that employees access benefits?

Speaker 3: 5:53

changing. I think the days of having a standalone benefits website that you signpost your employees to, I think those days are disappearing. We can't, as an employer, you can't sit back and treat employee benefits as a tick box exercise that you've got to rely on the employees finding it and accessing it. I think 2024, and certainly 2025, is going to see the benefits on offer become more embedded into the day-to-day working activities. They're going to be easily accessible, they're going to be far more tailored, much more beneficial to that individual and their families and and delivered and offered in ways that that just make it so much more accessible and add that value. And ai, I think, is going to play a big part of that.

Speaker 3: 6:43

There's a a lot of people that are a bit scared of what ai is going to play a big part of that. There's a lot of people that are a bit scared of what AI is going to do, but I think it's going to add so much value and then AI is going to stop. I A, a. I is going to slot right in there and make it so much easier and then create much more value.

Speaker 2: 7:00

How is AI impacting your business? How is it impacting what you guys are doing at my staff shop in terms of internal processes, but also, perhaps, some of the offerings for your customers?

Speaker 3: 7:11

At the moment we're just sort of scoping out how we use AI and we're trying not to rush into it in the sense of AI is an answer. We need to look at what the questions are we are trying to answer and how AI can support that. So, for example, from a customer service point of view, we have some incredible customer service people that have real human responses. But equally, we also know that there's an awful lot of queries that can be answered quickly and efficiently by AI and it's navigating that challenge to get the right balance, because there's nothing more frustrating than using a chat box and just typing human, human, human and getting nowhere. So we're sort of navigating through how we can use AI to support customer service and then within our platform and the way that our benefits are personalized and delivered. We're exploring those ways now and there's going to be big changes coming throughout this year.

Speaker 4: 8:15

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Speaker 2: 8:43

learn more at disrupthrco one thing that I've noticed, um working with you guys. I've had the pleasure of working with you guys. Now, for gosh, what about a year and a half is? You are all about the people, uh, you've got you've got an amazing uh bunch of folks to who you work with. Um, they've all got amazing um abilities to relate to other humans. I think I think I really know the answer to this, but would you say that, uh, wherever ai takes us the, the core of that must be relationships. It must be that that that people piece that being able to relate to each other on a human level.

Speaker 3: 9:23

Absolutely. And when you're talking about employee benefits, if you took AI too far, you'll just come back to the pitfalls that I mentioned a few minutes ago, where it just becomes not real, not something that has you know. If you come too disconnected from emotion, you're not going to be of value to real people. So I think it's got to underpin your business, it's got to underpin the people that work in your business. Ai is there as an aid. In my view, in an employee-based business, it's there as an aid, not as a replacement.

Speaker 2: 9:59

So you do have amazing people that you work with when you're hiring new talent. David, uh, what's? What's that culture fit? What do you look for in your your new hires?

Speaker 3: 10:12

we. We want people that want to be open minded, have growth mindsets, that are open to challenges and want to embrace our culture, which is which has changed a lot over the past year. I mean, I'm very much a human-centered leader. I very much believe in empathy and autonomy and respect and trust and allowing people to develop in their own space, become the best people that they can, and we find that if you're in that environment, it becomes a place you want to work and we want like-minded people within the business that that have that same mindset wonderful.

Speaker 2: 10:50

Thank you very much. So I have the privilege of being a co-organizer of disrupt birmingham, along with yourself and jamie and verity and other members of the my staff shop team. We had, uh, the first disrupt birmingham back in october at a brewery and the crowd went wild for it and I think we all had a very good time and listeners. We've got another one happening in birmingham. This is a special truncated disrupt birmingham which happens within a conference called the human-centered leadership conference. We'll get into the details in just a moment, but in about 60 seconds or so. David, what's your blueprint? What are your tips for a more human-centered work culture?

Speaker 3: 11:31

It's got to start with the leadership team. All of the leadership team have got to be human-centered leaders. They've got to ensure that, when they're talking and communicating with their employees, that they're showing that empathy, they're allowing their employees to feel safe, to feel valued, to have meaning in their work. And you can only do that by being open and honest and showing vulnerability. That's quite often in leaderships it's considered weak to be vulnerable or open or honest. But as as things change, I think it's essential. You've got to lead in a way that can relate to people. You've got to show emotional intelligence and if you do that, I think that's how you end up with a human-centered business as well as human-centered leaders.

Speaker 2: 12:23

How do you do that at my staff shop, david? How do you show your vulnerability, how do you show your human side?

Speaker 3: 12:32

Talking to people and being honest is the biggest thing.

Speaker 3: 12:35

And one thing I started to do a few months ago around communication which I was not doing very well since I became the CEO was to find a way to communicate with my teams, with all the people in the organization.

Speaker 3: 12:49

That gave them some information about what was going on, but also to recognize individuals, but also to tell them a little bit about myself. So every Friday morning I record a five-minute video whilst I'm walking from my home to the place I'm working, and that's just me walking from place home to the place I'm working, and that's just me walking from place A to place B on my phone. I could have my umbrella, it could be raining, it could be windy, it could be snowing, I could be saying hello to the neighbors, I could be crossing the road, but at the end of that I talk about myself. So if I'm having a particularly difficult week or I feel challenged, I will share that with my team and it's not weakness to show that you've had a difficult week, it's sharing and communicating, and I think if you can show that as a leader and encourage people to talk to each other if they're struggling, it just makes the whole place a safe and trusted environment.

Speaker 2: 13:41

I agree completely. I look back to the beginning of my career and it wasn't like that then from the leadership teams, that's for sure. It was all about having a wall, a facade, between you and the leadership. How has it changed in your career from when you started to the practices that you now instill in terms of being more vulnerable, being more open? How do you see things have developed over the last 10, 15, 20 years?

Speaker 3: 14:09

I think it's all happened very suddenly, certainly for me personally.

Speaker 3: 14:13

Whilst I was the IT director about 18 months ago, I didn't really. Although I was responsible for a lot, I was more responsible for things and processes, not people. So I didn't really realise until Colman Hay actually came into the office and spoke to some of my colleagues about human-centered leader and decided that I was a human-centered leader and it's not a phrase I've ever heard. So it's only when I then started to listen to Col's fantastic podcast that I had so much of that resonated and it shows that actually you can be one by default, and then it's just about bringing that out and making it apparent and putting into practice all the things that you already are, and I guess that is what being human-centered is. We're all humans and it's bringing out those human qualities, taking down the barriers, taking off the harshness and being honest. And for me that just happened. As this process, I moved to be the CEO and to be the leader and I need to find my way, and I just found my way by being myself.

Speaker 2: 15:15

I respect that, um, and you were vulnerable with me. Uh, back in October at Disrupt Birmingham you said, bill, I don't really do public speaking, I'm a bit nervous here, and at the end of it you had, you had this wonderful energy about you and um, I really appreciated that vulnerability that that day actually. So thank you for that. Um, I just get through it by making bad dad jokes. That's my coping mechanism. Okay, let's let's talk a bit more about the, the disrupt session within uh cole's conference. So it's going to be in central birmingham at an amazing conference center. Can you give us a bit of a lowdown of the event as a whole and specifically what folks can expect from the disrupt session?

Speaker 3: 15:53

yeah, so, as you said, it's at the millennium point conference center in birmingham. Professionals, ceos, leaders and they're all going to be coming listening to to what calls got lined up. And you know it's got this. There's talks, there's panel discussions, case studies, networking, fireside chats all about this emotional intelligence, human-centered leadership, what that means, how you get there, how you deliver it, and then in the middle of this or around about the middle is going to be our sort of mini Disrupt HR where we're going to stick you know five people I'm speaking there and then we're going to have a bunch of other HR practitioners who are going to talk about how human-centered leadership impacts on them and how they deliver and make change within their organization. So you're going to have these, these experts just sharing so much knowledge and insight and then the actual practitioners saying what it means to them in a real work environment and it's an absolute bonus event.

Speaker 2: 16:46

By the way, listeners, uh, david and I and Jamie and Verity and the team, we're looking at September for the next Disrupt Birmingham and we're going to do a bunch of meetups in Birmingham between now and then, but this opportunity with Cole came up. Thank you very much, cole, if you're listening to this, for being gracious enough to have a disrupt within your events, and just finally for today. Listeners, if you do want to see David and lots of other cool speakers at the human-centered leadership conference 2024 at millennium point, the url where you can go and register is humancenteredleadershipcouk. And beyond that, david, how can folks connect with you? So, maybe linkedin, maybe you might want to share your email address and so on, and, of course, how can they learn more about my staff shop?

Speaker 3: 17:31

yeah. So to learn more about my staff shop, you can go to mystaffshopcom. That's our website. You can contact us from there. You can contact me directly, davidcartledge at mystaffshopcom, or you can connect with me or message me through linkedin. And I'm just david cartledge. I'm old enough not to have to have underscores or numbers in my name, so just linked LinkedIn and it's just forward. Slash, david Cartlidge, perfect.

Speaker 2: 17:54

Well, David, for now, that just leaves me to say thank you very much for your time.

Speaker 3: 17:59

Thank you, Bill, for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 18:04

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.