Benenden Health has appointed Mike Hay chief people officer following a six-month period as an interim.
Hay (pictured) is a former chief people officer at Saffron Building Society, human resources director at Nationwide Building Society, associate partner at Aon and director at Deloitte where he focused on supporting the healthcare sector, including the NHS.
The company said he will focus on people strategy and aim to ensure Benenden Health has the right workforce to “support its members and foster a positive, inclusive culture with wellbeing at its heart”.
It added he will also be instrumental in supporting Benenden Health’s digital transformation rollout from a people perspective, “helping employees adopt artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies into HR and wider business systems”.
Hay said: “I’m delighted to have been permanently appointed in my role at Benenden Health, and I’m enthusiastic about not only the direction the organisation is moving in, but also being so closely part of the development of talent here.
“The employees at Benenden Health have shown me in such a small amount of time that they are experts in their field, and they use this expertise to benefit our membership during a wavering time in the healthcare sector.
“The team at Benenden Health has also proven to be just as dedicated to the wellbeing of each other.
“We recently celebrated a 31% uplift in DEI awareness internally, and in 2024, fundraised the most amount for local charities than we have in previous years of running our CSR [corporate social responsibility].
“All of these things and more show an engaged and empathic workforce.”
Tom Woolgrove, CEO at Benenden Health, added: “Mike has been a great asset to Benenden Health’s executive team since he joined in October last year and I’m very pleased he is now a permanent member of the team.
“Mike has wasted no time in leading in employee engagement activities, learning and development initiatives and being a positive advocate for maintaining a DEI culture in our workplace, and in our thought leadership activity.”