Successful third ‘Routes to a Stronger Workforce’ HR event

We were delighted to welcome around 30 delegates to the 2024 edition of our ‘Routes to a Stronger Workforce’ HR event, sponsored by Blum UK, in July.

The half-day conference, which took place on Thursday 11 July (10.00am – 3.30pm) at Furniture Makers’ Hall, London, was the third event organised for HR professionals working at furniture and furnishing businesses.

The conference started with Jo Goga, welfare officer at The Furniture Makers’ Company, giving a presentation on the financial grants available to people in the furnishing industry.

On second was Dr Ariele Noble, head of psychology research & commissioned training from Mental Health Innovations, a digital charity that harnesses the power of technology to create innovative solutions for mental health challenges, who gave a presentation on the Shout crisis text service and how to support mental health in the workplace.

Next up, Dr Lynn Jones, founder of Lynn Jones Associates, a well-known furniture industry recruiter operating in the UK since 2016, spoke on what factors are driving young people to apply for jobs at companies and what pushes people to leave roles.

After a brief networking break, Lora Velkova, HR manager at Miller Knoll, informed delegates on the work the global business has been doing to address the lack of diversity in the design sector through its #DesignYourFuture programme, which has included workshops at schools and a mentoring scheme.

Natalie Cole, our skills plus coordinator, and Rebecca Bertram-Smith, our education and training manager, spoke to guests about the value of apprenticeships and how businesses can utilise the My Furniture Career website to fill early career talent vacancies, respectively.

Following lunch, Amanda Chadwick, HR speaker at CIPD HR Inform, gave a presentation on understanding, managing and supporting employees experiencing menopause, the barriers to discussion, legal liabilities and adaptions that can be made in the workplace.

To end the insightful day, Emma Welch, HR director at Ocee International, spoke about the launch of an HR community group on LinkedIn with the intention of exchanging insights, tools, activities and best practices in the human resources field.

Emma said: “This community is for HR responsible professionals who want to engage with activities and collaborate with industry specific peers.  It will be sponsored by The Furniture Makers’ Company and aim to share the amazing work they do specifically developing welfare support and education for talent development.”

Jonny Westbrooke, CEO of The Furniture Makers’ Company, said: “Our third HR conference was very successful and yet again provided what we believe is a much-needed forum of networking and knowledge exchange for this vital business function in the industry. Guests heard from a selection of industry experts who gave excellent insight and advice on how to improve recruitment, training and wellbeing at their workplace.”