Babcock RESPECT workshops

​WISE Members Babcock International recently hosted its second series of annual RESPECT workshops at its Devonport Royal Dockyard facility in Plymouth, supported by WISE and facilitated by Development Director, Suzy Firkin.

14 July 2015

The two, one day events are the high profile components of an employee engagement programme that aims to create a work place culture where mutual respect and trust are core values.

The Babcock RESPECT programme was introduced to drive its diversity objectives, with a recognition that both the perception and reality of the workplace environment in a dockyard can impact the recruitment of the best talent and in particular the attraction and retention of women.

In a hard hitting session the workshop tackled head on the impact of any harassment, bullying and exclusion in the workplace by using Theatre Learning Group to act out various scenarios and then showing "what good looked like" in order to give bystanders the confidence to intervene if they were ever to witness unacceptable behaviour or attitudes. The message was DON'T be a bystander, make this a personal issue, it could be your son, daughter or partner who is being treated this way.

Delegates took part in numerous interactive discussions and also heard from key note speaker Debra Searle MVO MBE whose inspiring story of rowing single handed across the Atlantic and experience of unconscious bias throughout her career encouraged all those present to "Choose Your Attitude".

Simon Hosking Respect Lead for M&T division stated “I would like to thank WISE for supporting our RESPECT workshops and helping to make them a great success. Feedback has indicated that attendees genuinely feel inspired to go back into the workplace and promote our RESPECT agenda, helping to make Babcock an employer of choice.”