On 7 June 2023, IOTA had the pleasure of organising another fruitful Webinar on ''Promoting Employee Well-Being''. Over 100 participants from 29 IOTA member tax administrations joined the online video event as we also welcomed guests from our international partner organisation, the OECD Forum on Tax Administration which was represented by its members of the Community of Interest on HR.
Human capital plays a central role in the success and sustainability of a tax administration. In most IOTA member tax administrations, hybrid working is a new reality, therefore promoting people-centric organisational culture is becoming more important. Employee well-being is one of the key pillars of this approach. Poor physical health, and mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, burnout, and toxic workplace culture can cause serious harm to the overall health of an organisation. With this in mind, managers and team leaders need to keep a finger on the pulse of their team’s well-being, mental health, and internal relationships and take respective actions if any issues arise.
As a further development of a former topic “Promoting Employee Well-being during Remote Working”, this year’s video event aimed at helping HR departments of IOTA member tax administrations to learn about best practices in exploring and supporting all aspects of employee well-being: physical, mental, social, professional, and financial. The main objectives of this digital activity were to share country examples of initiatives taken to promote employee well-being and explore strategies that IOTA member tax administrations apply to address the needs of their employees’ well-being. The Webinar also revealed some practical examples of how IOTA administrations measure different aspects of employee well-being as well as shared lessons learned, and plans for the future.
At the video event, the country presentations were delivered in the format of pre-recorded videos, while the designated speakers from IOTA member tax administrations were available to elaborate and address the questions regarding their video presentations.
The following IOTA member countries shared their latest experiences on the topic:
- Belgium: “Employee Wellbeing Initiatives in the Federal Public Service Finances of Belgium” presented by Caro D'Hoe;
- Finland: “Building better together: Unleashing the Power of work communities in the hybrid work era with work community development at the Finnish Tax Administration” presented by Heidi Swanljung and Johanna Waal
- Greece: “Promoting employee well-being in IAPR: evidence from activities organized by the Tax and Customs Academy” presented by Panagiotis Ballas
- Ireland: “Revenues Commissioner’s Well-being Initiatives” presented by David Hanlon
- Romania: "The retrospective of our pandemic experience and the lessons we learned" presented by Corina Marcu and Sabina Bendas
- Spain: “Experiences in improving well-being at the AEAT” presented by Juan Murillo Murillo
- the United Kingdom: “Promoting colleague wellbeing in HM Revenue and Customs” presented by Joanne Garland
Webinar participants were actively involved and raised numerous questions in the Q&A session, as they also shared their views and reflected on the poll questions during the digital event. All the materials and presentations are now available online and the event recording will be made uploaded soon to the event’s webpage. This webinar was moderated by the IOTA International Taxation Expert Oksana Stepanenko, supported by the IOTA Communication Specialist Erika Szabó, and was broadcast live from the IOTA Studio in Budapest, Hungary.
