News Archive 2010
Wellbeing tops the agenda at CiC Summer Seminar
Posted 29th July 2010The CiC Summer Seminar this year looked at the increasingly high-profile issue of wellbeing in the workplace and its links with employee engagement. Led by trainer and coach, Guy Longshaw, the day provided a fun, interactive introduction to a range of tools and techniques, including breathing and visualisation exercises, body tapping and the Wheel of Engagement.
Please click on the video for a short clip of Guy in action.
Delivered to a capacity audience on June 29 at the University Women's Club in Mayfair, the day was aimed at helping employees and managers take responsibility for their wellbeing at work and included lively discussion of the challenges that organisations face in maintaining employee engagement.
CiC run two seminars a year that focus on the most pressing challenges that our HR and management clients face in their everyday working lives. Previous seminars have focused on issues such as Workplace Conflict, Business Continuity and Inspirational Leadership. The next seminar is due to take place in October. Details will be posted on this website.
Kate Nowlan, CEO of CiC, elected President Elect of EAEF (Employee Assistance European Forum)
Posted 28th July 2010 
The 9th Annual EAEF Conference was held in Brussels at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, 16th-18th June.
The title of the Conference was 'EAP: Ready for radical change?' and speakers from the European Commission, the European Foundation for Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), Accenture, DuPont addressed a full conference with attendees from Europe, Australasia, South Africa, US & Asia – exploring issues of employee engagement, workplace wellness, and staff retention. Popular workshops included such topics as online counselling, positive psychology, creativity in the workplace and new ways of communication.
Manuel Sommer from Portugal was elected President of the EAEF for the next two years, and Kate Nowlan, CEO of CiC, as President Elect.
APEAR Conference (Asia Pacific Employee Assistance Roundtable)
Posted 20th July 2010
'Driving Business Competitiveness: Investing In Mental Fitness & Employee Engagement'
Singapore June 11–12 2010
Mr Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Manpower & Ministry of Health, Singapore opened the Conference and keynote speeches were given by Paul Heck (Global Manager Employee Assistance and WorkLife), DuPont and Dr James Allen, (Medical Director, Chevron). Yam Keng Mun, President of APEAR, emphasised the important contribution that EAP's have as a cost effective solution for employees – encouraging wellbeing and productivity at work.
Kate Nowlan, CEO of CiC, led a very well attended breakout group on 'Coaching for Personal Mental Fitness for Work' which explored the effectiveness of coaching in the workplace – particularly for middle management – addressing issues of stress management and resilience and worklife and wellbeing issues.
View the APEAR conference programme.
CiC staff run so you can talk!
Posted 19th March 2010Two CiC colleagues are in the final stages of training for this year’s London Marathon, which takes place on April 25. Karen Roach, who joined the company as a consultant in February, and Philip Pescud, who is a counsellor on the CiC Confidential Care Adviceline, are both running to raise money for WPF Therapy, the country’s largest charitable provider of low-cost counselling and psychotherapy.
Amazingly, this is Karen’s second marathon. She’s hoping to raise £2,000 and beat her time of five hours and 17 minutes. “No, I am not crazy to run the marathon again!” she told her local paper. “I want to do it because I want to help people receive affordable counselling and therapy - especially with the credit crisis where families need help but might not get it because they don’t have the money.”
CiC was actually founded by WPF back in 1988, when the charity decided it wanted to extend its counselling services into the corporate sector. WPF, which is also now a leading provider of training for counsellors and psychotherapists, finally moved out of our Kensington campus in 2009 and is now based in London Bridge.
Philip, who is also aiming to raise £2,000, trained as a psychodynamic counsellor at WPF.
Unlike Karen, though, this is his first attempt.
“I have always watched the marathon from the safety of my sofa!” says Philip. “Once or twice, I stood on the street cheering the brave ones on, but I never thought I had the willpower or the knees to get me round. I decided in September to give it a go and began training after Christmas.”
