20 May Resilient strategies, product innovations and ‘missing fingers’: Highlights from May’s BICSc Lab on Business Resilience

On Wednesday 15 May our members joined us at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster, London for our first BICSc Lab of the year. No corner of business resilience remained unexplored, with keynotes covering the importance of training, preventing accidents and the resilient routines of successful companies. 

Our Chief Operating Officer, Neil Spencer-Cook showed us how training can enhance your company’s resilience by keeping employees happy, motivated and productive while Darwin Clayton shared the harsh consequences of workplace accidents with a story of an employee who failed to report losing his finger in a mincer at a pie factory – if our visitors weren’t vegan already they probably are now!

At lunch, members gathered at the Rubbermaid Commercial Products’ customer open day to see demonstrations of the latest innovations in cleaning. It was inspiring to see the health and safety of the cleaning operative being put at the centre of many of these product developments, with solutions to minimise heavy lifting and touching hazardous waste. 

Our guest speaker for the day, Hanna-Maria Ahonen explored the difference of ‘deep’ work and ‘shallow’ work and proved that its ok to let yourself be bored as this is often when your most creative ideas come out. In a culture of being constantly switched ‘on’, Hanna-Maria showed us the importance of switching ‘off’, by taking a breather from social media and utilising your time effectively – these are the traits of the most resilient leaders and companies. 

Our event closed with Rob Shaw sharing his expertise on the role of cleaning in preventing slips, trips and falls in the workplace, drilling home the significance of training your employees in not just ‘how’ to clean, but ‘why’. The day certainly gave us a lot to think about with so many key messages to take home.

Join us at our next BICSc Lab event in July, in association with Citation, where we will be taking a look at the role of HR and health and safety for the cleaning sector. 

BICSc Lab ‘Safety First So You… Last’, Malmaison Hotel, Birmingham 17 July –Book here