In follow-up to our recent event in Parliament during National Grief Awareness Week, this month’s Faith@Work zoom call is, “Managing grief in the workplace: Why employers should embrace faith inclusion to support their staff.” Several of the speakers from the Parliament – specifically leaders from the NHS’s Muslim and Christian networks — will be sharing how faith adds resiliency to workplaces.

Yusra Choudry

• Pharmacist, NHS National Muslim Network Co-Chair

Tanya Malik

• NHS England, NHS Christian Staff Network Co-Chair

David Law, Moderator

• Thames Water
  

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(Pictured from top left: Wales; Scotland; UK Parliament; England)

By Brian Grim

We explored and celebrated the role that faith plays in making workplaces and communities more resilient and caring in a series of meetings across three of the four countries of the UK.

In Wales, I met with Simon Gibson and the FoRB Foundation’s Julie and Matthew Jones. We explored the possibility of hosting a Faith@Work conference in Wales in the near future.

Gibson is the chairman of Alacrity Graduate Entrepreneurship Foundation and chief executive of Wesley Clover Corporation, a global technology investment fund. He’s a non-executive director of the Celtic Manor Resort, the United Kingdoms’ largest leisure resort. He’s also a regent of the Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford and a professor at the Swansea University School of Management. He was most recently High Sheriff of Gwent, a royal appointment. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1999 and Commander of the same order (CBE) in 2018 for his services to Wales’ industry, community and economy.

In Scotland, Louise Bailey, Belonging Lead at OVO, invited companies headquartered in Glasgow to engage in a morning long discussion on the business case for faith-and-belief-friendly workplaces. Companies participating were invited to consider benchmarking their journeys on creating religious inclusive workplaces, using the REDI index. One outcome of the meeting was to pencil in a date for a city-wide follow up on 23 April 2025.

In England, we had a series of meetings, including a discussion with board chairs from FTSE 100 organizations hosted by Oliver Pawle at Korn Ferry on religiously inclusive workplaces. Following that we met with partners at Equinix, whose president of EMEA, Bruce Owen, has offered their headquarters to host our 29 April 2025 annual Faith@Work summit. Finally, we had a roundtable discussion in the Palace of Westminster on the role of faith in providing health and resilience as people face the challenges of life. Participants included HSBC’s diversity lead, the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy, and leaders of the Muslim and Christian networks the NHS.

If your company has an Interfaith member/representative in Ireland, please put them in touch with ServiceNow’s Mariana Ciocca Alves Passos, and she can add them to the calendar invite. Or they can just join on Zoom using this link.

On Monday, had a great conversation on Faith and Work with Forbes’ Seth Cohen at Nasdaq studios as part of ForbesTalk from Nasdaq Marketsite (coming soon!).

Seth also interviewed football legend and business leader Steve Young on how his faith animates all his work. Stay tuned for the interviews to air in the coming weeks!

Are you based in Scotland?

Would you benefit from a discussion on faith, religion and beliefs in the workplace?

Faith is a core part of many people’s being and to ensure people can bring their whole selves to work, we need to create faith friendly workplaces.

If you’d like to join our discussion on 2nd December to talk about how to do this and share ideas, please reach out on LinkedIn to Louise Bailey, Belonging Lead at OVO.

On the occasion of National Grief Awareness Week, join us for an important discussion of the role spirituality can play in making working environments more resilient and able to respond to the difficulties of life inside and outside the workplace.

Speakers from the Canary Wharf Multifaith Chaplaincy and their corporate partners as well as leaders of the faith-based employee resource groups (ERGs) at the UK National Health Service (NHS) will describe the benefits and spiritual health outcomes of opening the workplace to faith and belief.

Attending to spiritual health is a part of a trend in best global corporate practices, as measured by the REDI Index, which a growing number of UK and international organisations are using to benchmark progress in workplace religious diversity, equity and inclusion.

The discussion will be moderated by the APPG FoRB and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation.

Registration Required.

Dare to Overcome 2024 returns to New Delhi this December to celebrate global best practices that foster inclusivity in workplaces. Join us in critical and relevant conversations that reinforce the need for intercultural empathy amongst the workforce.

Mark your calendars, get the latest here, and stay tuned for more details.

“When you have a society where people respect each other’s right to believe and behave according to their beliefs, then you have the recipe for a peaceful and prosperous society, and in that condition, normal business can thrive.”

In the latest episode of the Religion at Work podcast, host Professor Binna Kandola OBE is joined by Brian Grim, President and Founder of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation to discuss:

• — Brian’s personal journey of faith in the workplace
• — How years of data and research prove a link between economic sustainability and freedom of religion or belief for all
• — Examples of workplace faith in action and the benefits to society as a whole

We hope you enjoy listening!

Interfaith Week 2024

• WHAT: Online panel discussion, co-hosted by FAITH@WORK and the FAITH&BELIEF FORUM
• WHEN: Thursday 14 November
• THEME: Lived experiences of faith and belief inclusion in the workplace: Employees’ and Employers’ perspectives

Watch this engaging panel discussion with input from two speakers from the Jewish and Muslim communities who will talk about what their faith means to their identity and the way it’s expressed in their workplace, along with input from two employers – Grosvenor and Direct Line Group, touching on the following:

• — Does faith in the workplace matter and if so, why?
• — What has been your experience as an employer of faith in the workplace? Has this changed over time?
• — What steps do you think employers can and should be taking to improve:
  •      · the experience of people of faith in the workplace, and
  •      · the benefits of faith to the organisation?

Also, check out our special Faith@Work resource for Interfaith Week:

We look forward to seeing you.

• Julian Shellard, Faith@Work
• Phil Champain, The Faith & Belief Forum
• Introduced by Dr. Brian Grim