Putting people at the heart of your business

It was truly inspiring to speak at the 2023 Employee Engagement Summit, to a room full of hundreds of people who are passionate about harnessing the power of their employees. I focussed on how businesses can genuinely put people at the heart of what they do and foster a true sense of inclusivity and belonging. I firmly believe people can only reach their full potential when they feel like they belong.

I also spoke about our purpose at Virgin of ‘changing business for good’ – and how it has led to some ground-breaking achievements and really united our people. To empower our people to embrace our purpose, we embedded three traits in our purpose and vision strategy: Be Brave, Be Human, and Be Visionary. At the Employee Engagement Summit, I focused on the ‘Be Human’ trait, which expands to say:

We’re inclusive, we value diversity and are free to be our real selves at work.?We trust and feel trusted.?We’re kind to each other. We have fun.?We’re unstoppable when we work together.

This trait is so important to nurture because it creates a strong sense of inclusion and belonging, and it helps people be their best. From Virgin Money ’s ‘A Life More Virgin’ fully-flexible working policy, to @Virgin Media O2’s paid carer’s leave, and Virgin Atlantic ’s gender-neutral uniform policy – there are so many initiatives around the Virgin Group that demonstrate our ‘Be Human’ trait and put people first.

Thank you for having me at the summit Engage Employee , and thanks to everyone across the Virgin Group for bringing our traits and our purpose to life.