Forty1, the employee engagement division of The Creative Engagement Group (TCEG), is bringing together its UK and North American businesses under one name, with a new logo; a bold, new identity; and a new combined Forty1 website.

The Creative Engagement Group (TCEG) announced today the expansion of Richard Burton’s role to Head of Strategy, alongside his current role as Global Managing Partner of the employee engagement division Forty1.

Forty1 has appointed Chris Cox as a Senior Communications and Engagement Consultant for North America.

Recently I watched a video of the US leader of a Pharma client of ours, where he shared the best advice he was ever given. He mentioned “treating employees like customers,” and how it changed his approach to leading and managing his teams.

Most organisations would probably agree that business has largely accepted the need to bring ‘wellbeing’ into the core of what they do. Once seen as peripheral, soft, or ‘fluffy’, the pandemic has made us begin to reconsider its centrality to core business activity. But to bring about lasting, meaningful change and to ensure it’s seen as fundamental – we’ll need to relook at existing perceptions, challenge them, and envisage the impact of this reimagining of a wellbeing 2.0.

Whilst it’s true that we hear about diversity, equity and inclusion often, do organisations really understand what these terms mean? These words are often interchangeable with many different variations. That’s fine, but only if organisations can clearly express what each term means to them with clear communicated definitions. It’s great to start off with the fundamental meaning of each term but they need to be explored further with leadership teams and employees to make them unique to their organisation.

Have you ever attended a party but wondered whether you may have been invited by accident? Have you had that uncomfortable feeling in your stomach – the one where there’s an urge inside you to proudly show up as the diverse and confusing individual that you are, but you don’t know how that fits within a culture where the norm is to ‘be the same’? 

DEI isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution; it’s personal to you and your organization.

I recently watched writer Jodi-Ann Burey deliver a TED Talk that addressed what she calls the “myth of bringing your full, authentic self to work”. One of her points was that it’s much easier to be who you are when who you are is all around you. If you’re the first, the only, or the different, it’s simply too risky. So, you wear a costume and are not yourself – authentic or not.