Understand how the brain works to support employees

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How can advancements in neuroscience help us understand what drives employees and assist them to deal with change? Personnel Today caught up with author and neuroscience expert Hilary Scarlett, who will look at behavioural science and people strategy at the upcoming CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition. With unprecedented levels of change in the workplace – not to mention the economic and political forces shaping our lives – being able to understand what builds resilience in employees is something organisations will increasingly need to do. Alongside these external forces shaping the world of work, we’re also seeing a heightened interest in behavioural science, and how the working environment impacts our brains, says Hilary Scarlett, author of the book Neuroscience for Organisational Change and founder of engagement consultancy, Scarlett and Grey. Scarlett will be discussing how we can use insights from neuroscience to shape business performance in her session at the upcoming CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition. She’ll be appearing alongside Samantha Rockey, head of leadership development at the brewing company SABMiller, which is itself currently undergoing a transformation after its merger with AB InBev. Their session will consider:

• how businesses can help develop employees’ resilience and support them to adapt to change;
• how insights from neuroscience can build emotional intelligence;
• how to drive engagement by focusing on people’s strengths; and
• how to create a culture that develops everyone to their full potential.

Hilary explains: “Only fairly recently have developments in fMRI [(Functional magnetic resonance imaging]) scanning helped us understand how healthy functioning brains respond to different stimuli. Previously, we only really worked with