Deputy CEO at The Sleep Charity, Lisa Artis, has been named as the winner of the SHP Award for Trailblazer in Workplace Wellbeing for 2021. Kat Parsons, HSEQ Operations Manager at ISS Ltd, was highly commended by the judges.
SHP Trailblazer Awards celebrate those who are going above and beyond to make a positive difference, the real pioneers of health and safety.
Lisa Artis, Deputy CEO, The Sleep Charity, was selected as the winner of SHP’s Trailblazer in Workplace Wellbeing from a list of five finalists, by the SHP Awards judging panel.
Trailblazer in Workplace Wellbeing recognises individuals who did the most to contribute to people thriving at work, prioritising employees’ wellbeing and mental health.
It is brought to you as part of the wider SHP Awards, which, for 2021, is in collaboration with Shirley Parsons, global HSEQ talent experts.
Judges were impressed that Lisa’s work was raising awareness of the importance of sleep, a topic that is often overlooked. One commended that: “It brings attention to an area that’s not regularly spoken about but has a major impact on people in their working environment.”
On learning the news of her achievement, Lisa told SHP: “Workplace wellbeing is a passion of mine and I am absolutely delighted to have been chosen as the winner of the SHP’s Trailblazer in Workplace Wellbeing award. Sleep is fundamental to our physical and mental health and wellbeing, yet often overlooked in the workplace. This is great recognition for the hard work that has been done in building an innovative programme of training that addresses a very tangible and evidenced-based issue as well as supporting employers in tackling sleep-related issues in the workforce.
“A huge well done to the other finalists too. This was a fantastic category and it’s great to see so many people out there being acknowledged for the incredible work they are doing in the field of workplace wellbeing.”
Lisa Artis has worked in the realm of sleep for more than 10 years, working alongside various large companies on sleep projects. She is responsible for the strategic and operational aspects of the charity and with a background in PR and marketing, is pivotal to the charity’s campaigning around the importance of sleep to health and wellbeing, sleep healthy workplaces as well as advocating sleep on the Public Health agenda.
Judges highlighted how Lisa has shown determination around establishing national awareness about the importance of sleep for workplace wellbeing. She is a member of the British Sleep Society and sits on several steering groups around sleep. She has a keen interest around adult sleep, workplace wellbeing and the link between sleep and mental health.
It was also noted how Lisa has developed an advisory board for The Sleep Charity, recruiting the likes of Dr Karen McDonnell from ROSPA and Simon Blake CEO of Mental Health First Aid England, amongst others. The work has had an impact the wider health and safety profession by drawing attention to the impact of sleep deprivation at a national level. The relationships she has developed with ROSPA allow the message to be shared widely. She was also instrumental in developing relationships with outside organisations such to develop seminars that could be shared with their staff teams. Judges liked this ‘multi-channel approach’ and the impact it has had.
Another highlight for the panel, was Lisa’s contribution to the development of the charity’s manifesto, ‘The Wake-Up Call’, which launched in the House of Commons in March 2020. Following that, she has gone on to develop a ‘Charter for Sleep Inequality’ that has had over 100 workplaces pledge support to.
Lisa has developed a range of free downloadable resources, benefitting those with sleep issues by providing accessible evidence-based information. She has also been instrumental in establishing the UK’s first national sleep helpline, where callers can speak to a trained sleep practitioner for information providing employees with somewhere to refer on to.
Highly commended – Kat Parsons, HSEQ Operations Manager, ISS Ltd.
Kat works as HSEQ Operations and Environment Manager for ISS Facility Services within the Business Services Sector leading the risk management. Judges were impressed by her passion for driving change, empowering others and improving the systems in place to support colleagues.
Kat strives to raise awareness regarding the menopause amongst employees. She believes that the key to health and safety knowledge sharing comes from drawing on your own experience, in a tone that suits each audience.
The judges were keen to recognise this work, around a vitally important topic that is again often overlooked in business. The panel wanted to highlight the work Kat is doing within her organisation, and beyond, to continue to raise awareness and share some best practise around the subject.
Speaking to SHP after the news broke, Kat said: “I’m really thrilled to have been highly commended by the judges for the work I have done so far on the Menopause in the workplace and there is so much more to come in 2022. This award has allowed me to link with the well deserved winner, Lisa Artis, and join forces in the new year to look at sleep and the affects on Menopause together. Everyone’s a winner.”
Kat has taken the subject of menopause to the ISS UK HSEQ SLT and was asked to present at a wellbeing safety event. Due to the content of her presentation, she was then asked to lead a dedicated session to discuss the topic further. This led Kat to create a Microsoft Sway presentation which she delivered as an awareness piece to ISS Business Services and Banking Sector as a starting point.
The feedback led to the next steps of the creation of a Micro-learning module on the internal ISS My Learning System, a working group Kat is leading to assist HR in the creation of a Menopause Policy for ISS. She has also started work on a Podcast which can be used as a TBT or 10@10 topic which all employees in ISS can listen too.
One judge commented: “I really liked this entry, because it was a real deep dive into the issue of menopause and perimenopause and thought it was a really good story in terms of how it was supported in the organisation and how that support had had empowered Kat.”
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Well done to both Lisa and Kat – both topics at the core of wellbeing!