Investors in People

A lot of organisations that could enter the Investors in People Awards don't.
Not because they don't qualify. But because they're not sure their story is good enough, or they don't know where to start.

So we put together seven reasons why entering the 2026 Awards could be one of the best decisions your organisation makes this year.

From celebrating the people behind your success to strengthening your employer brand, benchmarking against other leading organisations and being part of a community raising the standard for work, there's more value in entering than most people realise.

And the process itself? Many organisations tell us that simply taking the time to reflect on what they've built is valuable in its own right.

If your organisation is investing in its people, your story is worth telling.

Read the full article here → https://bit.ly/4zaGwgR

And when you're ready → https://bit.ly/45qs2vL

Here is a question that does not get asked often enough: who is actually responsible for employee wellbeing?

The honest answer is both employer and employee. But employees cannot take ownership of their own wellbeing until the conditions for it have been created by their organisation.

That means supportive line management. Fair workloads. An environment where people feel comfortable saying when things are hard. Not yoga Tuesdays or free fruit in the kitchen.

The proportion of UK organisations with a standalone wellbeing strategy has been rising steadily since the pandemic. But having a strategy on paper is different from having a culture that genuinely supports people to thrive.

The distinction matters. And it is worth thinking about carefully.

Read more on our website: https://hubs.la/Q04r6TbW0

HR professionals rarely take the credit.

You develop leaders, improve engagement, support wellbeing, hold the culture together and advocate for the workforce in rooms where they are not represented. And most of it happens quietly.

The Investors in People Awards have categories specifically for the individuals doing this work. The Award for HR Person of the Year. The Award for Leader of the Year. The new Wellbeing Champion of the Year. The Award for Young Person of the Year.
These are free to enter.

If you know someone who deserves recognition, now is the time to put their name forward.

Entries close 4 September.
Nominate at https://hubs.la/Q04r6Ndt0

Most organisations say they are a great place to work. Most of them mean it.
But intention and evidence are not the same thing. And in a boardroom, in a competitive recruitment market, in a procurement process where clients increasingly want to know how you treat your people, intention is not enough.

43% of organisations have no formal people management strategy. Only 21% use any form of external accreditation to measure how they are actually performing on people. The majority are relying entirely on internal, self-reported data to make the case.
(Source: Investors in People Market Assessment, January 2026)

Your EVP is only as strong as your ability to prove it. Investors in People gives you the independent evidence to turn it from an internal claim into something your board cannot argue with, your candidates can find before they ever speak to you, and your people can take genuine pride in.

Find out how at https://hubs.la/Q04r6tLV0

A full day of practical insight. Here is what is on the agenda at Make Work Better on 8 September:

- Jason Fox opens with a session on fairness, equity and employee voice: how organisations create cultures where people feel heard, valued and treated equitably, drawing on lessons from elite environments where trust is mission-critical.

- Professor Veronica Hope Hailey follows with a practical framework for diagnosing trust within your organisation and rebuilding credibility when it has been damaged.

- Charlie Cannon explores psychological safety and the evolving social contract between employer and employee.

- Petra Velzeboer looks at the future of trust: adaptive leadership, culture repair and HR's evolving role in a world of hybrid working and generational change.

- Jake Humphrey, Anna Richardson and Katherine Chapman close the day with a conversation on the ultimate high-performance advantage.

CPD certified. 6 hours of accredited learning tailored for HR leaders and people professionals. Kings Place, London. 8 September.

Book your place at https://hubs.la/Q04rk7Bl0

1 in 4 people have considered leaving their role because of the amount of change their organisation is going through.

1 in 5 feel worn down by it.

39% feel more stressed. Only 14% of middle managers and 10% of entry-level staff say they feel energised and ready.

These are not the numbers of an organisation that has got change right. They are the numbers of one that has pushed people to the limit without giving them the tools, the time or the involvement to feel part of what is happening.

Finding the Frequency is our whitepaper on the real impact of constant transformation on individuals and performance, and what leaders need to do to build cultures that are genuinely change-ready rather than merely change-exhausted.

It is free to download.

https://hubs.la/Q04r6DSy0

52% of the UK workforce do not see management as an aspirational career path.
That is not a rounding error. It is more than half the people you are trying to develop into your next generation of leaders, quietly deciding it is not worth it.

The Broken Ladder is our whitepaper on why people are stepping back from management roles and what organisations can do about it. It is a short read and the findings are worth sitting with.

Download your free copy at https://hubs.la/Q04r6zSB0

Poor mental health alone costs UK employers around £56 billion a year. Over 35 million workdays are lost to work-related ill health annually. Sickness absence costs employers an average of £692 per employee per year.
(Sources: What Works Wellbeing; HSE; ONS)

These are not fringe statistics. They are the reality most HR leaders are navigating right now, alongside restructuring, hybrid fatigue, rising employee expectations and the kind of sustained pressure that does not disappear after a wellbeing week.

The organisations that respond most effectively are not the ones with the longest list of initiatives. They are the ones that have built wellbeing into the culture itself: into how leaders behave, how workloads are managed, how people are supported day to day.

We Invest in Wellbeing gives organisations the framework to do that deliberately, measurably and independently.

Find out how it works at https://hubs.la/Q04r6hNf0