Developing a trust strategy for workplace health

Transcription

1 Developing a trust strategy for workplace health Introduction The range of government reports covered in the Health, Work and Well-being strategy of this handbook, together with the NHS Constitution and its pledge on staff health and well-being, mark a renewed government interest in improving the health and well-being of the working population, increasing productivity, reducing sickness absence and limiting reliance on long-term state benefits such as incapacity benefit. This is a big task. Every week around 1 million people in the UK report in sick: 3,000 will remain off at six months 2,400 will not work again in the next five years after two years on incapacity benefit an individual is more likely to retire or die than return to work 1. Additionally, both the Government and the private sector are now beginning to address demographic changes. These include an ageing workforce that is expected to work longer, a Disability Discrimination Act that is seeing more disabled people in the workplace and a working population that is more obese and unfit for work than at any time in history. In the NHS, where 70 per cent of costs are staff costs, a long-term strategic approach to developing a healthy workplace is needed both to safeguard the investment in staff and to provide improved service delivery for patients. Occupational health services, health and safety management, risk assessment and management, counselling services, flexible working, sickness absence management, and policies for managing stress, musculoskeletal problems and bullying and harassment already exist in most parts of the NHS. This chapter encourages trusts to pull them together into an overarching strategy that is communicated to all managers and staff and embedded in the management processes of the organisation. Building a healthy workplace The HSE initiative Revitalising Health and Safety 2 sought the reduction of working days lost to work-related injury and ill health by 30 per cent by Gunnyeon, Dr Bill (2005): The Health and Work Handbook 2 DETR, 2000

2 Employers have responded to this target and to the recent emphasis on managing stress in the workplace by concentrating on measures for reducing and managing stressors while neglecting the need for rehabilitation. The foundation for any workplace health strategy should be the efficient management of sickness absence, the prevention of staff sickness, and a reduction in the length of time staff are absent from the workplace. See the section on Rehabilitation and early intervention (page 4) in the chapter on Managing sickness absence. The building blocks for a workplace health strategy are: sickness absence management occupational health and counselling provision good health and safety management risk assessment and management good HR policies on stress, bullying, rehabilitation, flexible working. Key stages in development The key stages in pulling each of these into a comprehensive developed strategy will be familiar to most managers who have undertaken project management. They are: assess needs formulate strategy (where necessary or look for synergy between policies) consult employees implement strategy monitor and evaluate. The approach to implementing the healthy workplace strategy should be systematic, integral to the management of the organisation, relevant to all concerned, flexible enough to change with a changing organisation, good for staff, patients and the organisation and intended for the long term. Clarity of goal If it is to get the best out of a strategy for staff, patients and the organisation as a whole, the organisation needs to be clear about its goal and how it aims to achieve it. This should be clearly communicated, not only to staff and managers but also to external stakeholders who need to understand what the strategy is for and its relevance to them as patients or relatives of patients. Staff involvement Staff organisations and trade unions should be involved in the development of the strategy. These organisations and staff representatives often have a wealth

3 of information and good practice that they can bring to the table during the development stage. Starting out Organisations should form a group of staff, management and trade union representatives to take forward the development of the workplace health strategy. They will need to agree on the answers to a number of initial questions such as: what is the purpose of the group what are they tasked with achieving? what will be the benefits to the organisation? what are their aims and objectives are they realistic and can they meet them? what are the expected outcomes can they be measured? what are their values and principles in taking the work forward? One outcome may be to take stock of where the organisation is in the development, albeit not strategically, of workplace health policies. From here decisions can be made about where the organisation wants to be in three, five or ten years time and this can provide the framework for decisions and recommendations about how to get to that position. Taking stock Assessing where the organisation is at the start of this process and looking at what is already in place and available to build upon is the most important stage of the development of the strategy. It will involve looking at a range of issues, some already mentioned above, and these will include: physical environment safety, equipment, access, ease of use human resources communications, training and development, organisational values, policies already in place and their success, available support business strategy and planning vision and direction, fitting the new strategy into the wider business management process performance management questions about how the strategy is going to be managed and monitored at all levels individual health physical and mental health of the staff, what help is already available, can more be provided and so on. Some organisations may carry out a needs assessment among staff. This could involve using a questionnaire, analysing the results from the NHS staff survey or holding a health fair where participants answer an agreed set of questions.

4 Where in ten years time? This is an important question as it prompts organisations to look ahead and gives them something to work towards. The answer will vary with each organisation and will largely depend on the starting point. There are no right answers for this part of the process, allowing staff and managers to give free rein to their ideas. Getting there In this stage the unobtainable is sifted out and the possible is sifted in. Decisions on how to get from where the organisation is now to where it wants to be are taken by looking at current policies and processes and seeing how they can be maintained, adapted or extended in the short term, while work is carried out to develop the new policies that have may have been identified as needed. The following model for strategic development was first published as part of the Health Promoting Hospitals programme of the Department of Health in 1994 but is as relevant as a route map now as it was then. Where are we now? Mapping exercise takes place to assess what is in place already and how effective it is Unknown factors Political change Changes in need/demand How do we get there? THE STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK Known factors Political climate Staff levels Internal influences Budgets Consumer demands Factors that encourage change Flexible people, building Training Expectation Where do we want to be? The future: Workplace Health in 10 years time Framework and action plan for developing, implementing and reviewing: Physical environment

5 More information NHS Employers website