6. Background
‘Stress caused by bad and unresponsive management,
long hours, commuting and a diffuse sense of
organisational pointlessness is now recognised to be a
major factor in mental health and happiness levels’
Dame Carol Black, 2014
7. Background
“Aside from life changing events i.e. divorce, grief, and
illness our experiences at work and the security of
employment are amongst the most significant determinants
of our happiness”
William Davies, 2015
9. Background
‘The way we are treated at work and the nature of the
work we do affects our wellbeing, and our levels of
performance’
Black (2008) and MacLeod & Clarke (2009)
‘Commentators link wellbeing at work with innovation,
productivity, creativity, quality, reliability and growth’
Donaldson Feilder & Podro (2012)
10. Current State
Health and Safety Approach
Wellness focused
Corporate fitness – gym memberships; yoga
Nutrition – cafeteria; fruit bowl
Immunisation program
Employee assistance program (EAP)
Education – Health Promotion
Subsidised Health Insurance
12. The Happiness Industry
William Davies (2015)
‘The Happiness Industry - How the Government and big
businesses sold us wellbeing’
‘Awash with training programs focusing on resilience
and happiness, implying that each individual can change
and improve a workplace culture’
13. The Happiness Industry
‘…growing unease with the way in which notions of
happiness and wellbeing have been adopted by policy
makers and managers. This science ends up blaming and
medicating individuals for their own misery and ignores the
context that has contributed to it’
William Davies (2015)
16. How Organisations Contribute
No link with organisations mission and vision
Policies and behaviours are incongruous
Lack of equipment to do the job properly
22. Wellness + Wellbeing
Wellness approach Wellbeing approach
General health checks - onsite Organisational design
Immunisations - onsite Job design
Dietary/Nutrition- cafeteria Culture
Exercise – onsite plus
memberships/discounts
Leadership
Ability to stand while working Practices & policies
Office equipment checks Anti-bullying
Lighting Flexible work hours
Soap, clean wash facilities Flexible work location
Retirement planning Wellbeing linked to Org vision
Literacy programs Training and development
Resilience/mindfulness programs Rewards & recognition
Smoking cessation programs Work environment
ETC. ETC.
25. Dashboard measures
Direct measures Proxy measures
Participation rates Changes in employee biophysical stats
Accident Compensation Costs Job satisfaction
Employer branding Safety attitude
Turnover Retention
Business performance/profitability Engagement
Days absent Employee morale
Presenteeism scores – assessment No available sick leave
Pollen levels
26. Conclusion
Fundamental to Wellness and Wellbeing is culture and
leadership – the context
Wellness is the responsibility of the individual
Wellbeing is the responsibility of the organisation
Policies to drive Wellness and Wellbeing
Correlate dashboard indicators
As you know, due to changes in legislation, we have a major focus on Health and Safety in the workplace. But there is a growing focus on psychological and social elements in the workplace which are commonly addressed through a Wellness programme.
Why does industry offer wellness programmes?
It is reasoned that employers want employees to be productive and effective.
For this to happen employers want employees to be well, but employers seems to demonstrate no understanding of the balance needed between both physical and psychological wellbeing.
For example, we put the fruit bowl out in the staff room, yet we support excessive work hours. We have major changes in job design, yet we don’t tend to adjust our work policies, practices, procedures to accommodate these changes.
How many of you have a wellness or wellbeing programme?
How many of you measure the ROI on the programme?
To get a better understanding lets consider some of the elements that need consideration if you are setting up or reviewing your wellness programme.
Do you know….
Dame Carol Black and William Davies, both from the UK, show that there is a strong correlation between engagement, wellness and wellbeing.
Now read off slide.
A lack of engagement has been directly linked to an increase in absenteeism, presenteeism, and lower levels of performance and productivity. China and Japan at 6%-7%.
1. Engaged Employees -”Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.”
2. Disengaged Employees -”Not engaged employees are essentially ‘checked out.’ They’re sleepwalking through their workday, putting time — but not energy or passion — into their work.”
3. Actively Disengaged Employees - “Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.
Gallup puts the actively disengaged down to bad managers.
A key consideration for wellness and wellbeing programs is our aging workforce.
Aging employees have more health risks, however, they have less time off work than younger generations.
There are generally higher levels of chronic health conditions such as musculoskeletal disorders, cardio-vascular disease and diabetes in older people, and cancer is also more prevalent in this age group.
With age, there may be changes to what they most value about work, from wanting to achieve promotion or pay the mortgage, to valuing the social support and structure provided by the workplace.
The sandwich generation, working and caring for both children and elderly parents while dealing with their own chronic conditions associated with aging.
Menopause – multiple issues re physical, emotional and psychological.
A study by Dame Carol Black, found that Mental health issues in the workplace has now surpassed physical issues.
Read slide
According to Donaldson Feilder and others there is now a significant amount of research evidence that shows that poor management and lack of leadership skills is associated with lowered employee wellbeing and higher risk of stress-related health problems (Donaldson-Feilder et al 2009).
William Davies a political scientist at the London University said - Read off slide.
We know that there is a strong correlation between happiness and health.
Over the last 20 years work has changed. Work doesn’t only offer us an income to support ourselves and family but it also provides: purpose, status, friendship.
We are shifting to remote working which brings with it significant risks. For example, there is a danger of isolation from the employer and colleagues: they may lose out on social support and feel distanced from organisational aims and culture.
According to Green (2009), the volume of emails and other communications received has increased exponentially. The introduction of smart phones has brought the ability to access emails wherever you are. While this has advantages it has also led to higher expectations in terms of speed of response. Work is extending into every waking hour of the day: not only does this mean that people work more hours, but also that they do not have a clear ‘recovery’ period when they are entirely switched off. As the pace and work itself alters there is a blurring of what constitutes work and home-life which impacts our emotional and mental wellbeing.
Work might be more safer but is more stressful and competitive leading to mental health issues.
Two studies, one in 2008 and the other in 2009 found that the way we are treated at work and the nature of our work affects wellbeing which ultimately impacts on performance.
And
2. According to a 2012 UK discussion paper by Donaldson Feilder & Podro Wellbeing is actually a driver of innovation, productivity, creativity, quality, reliability and growth.
3. So there is a great evidence that employee wellbeing has a positive effect on the business.
Health and safety – accidents, slips, trips, and hazardous chemicals. Interventions aimed at preventing harm.
Wellness is a mindset, this model varies but typically it includes 8 elements of which all need to be reinforced by strong and supportive leadership.
Physical – exercise program; dietary programs – nutritionist; rest; fatigue management.
Emotional – self awareness; acceptance; optimism, resilience.
Social – relationships; welfare
Intellectual – creative; acquiring knowledge
Environmental – personal; occupational
Spiritual – integrating values and beliefs.
Financial - wellbeing
Occupational – satisfaction and capable.
4. The problem with this model is that the achievement of wellness is the responsibility of the individual.
This brings me to William Davies, a political scientist, who wrote a book called “The Happiness Industry”.
espouses that organisations are awash with training programs focusing on resilience and happiness, implying that each individual can change and improve a workplace culture.
He questions the ideology of wellness programmes.
Which brings us to the context.
Dame Carol Black believes that it is the context which contributes to unwellness. It is the context which is the problem, yet organisations don’t take responsibility for their contribution to creating ‘unwell’ individuals.
e.g. BP check January 2016 120/70 then 2017 190/100. Pills etc, what about the context?
So just how do organisations contribute? Here are some examples:
Command and control leadership – micromanagement; putting the person down; not rewarding; not allowing for self leadership; blocking innovation and creativity.
.
Poor job design - Long hours, a belief that employees must get job done no matter what. Running rough-shot over employees, threatening them if they don’t complete the work in an unrealistic time.
Belittling job – a job that is beneath their skills.
Poor fatigue management – long hours, little time off, pushing project through; poor work schedules.
Bits of a job as opposed to a whole job.
Policies and behaviours are incongruous – e.g. no alcohol while working yet managers can drink with clients.
Lack of equipment or support to do the job properly – making do, adding in unnecessary work and responsibility. E.g. administrative support for proposals.
Skill Variety – degree to which the job has a variety of tasks and users many of the employees skills. Task identity – following a product from start to finish. Task Significance – the degree to which the task has meaning. Autonomy- the degree to which the job allows freedom and discretion in determining the work procedures and scheduling. Feedback from the job – the degree to which the job has built in mechanisms by which the individual gets information about work effectiveness.
Ineffective training to do the job – how many times have we seen people promoted to leadership level without the training?
Lack of social support – this can occur from working at a distance; or from a work culture that denies and tolerates exclusion and bullying.
Blame culture – always looking to blame individuals as opposed to a learning culture which is a just culture.
According to Green, “workplace autonomy is strongly and robustly associated with health and wellbeing” (Green, in Gregg and Wadsworth 2011).
The other two recognition and little career development speak for themselves.
In this slide I broke the negative contributions from the organisations into the impact on the individual and the organisation.
I’m sure that you can think of many more.
Over last 20 years the importance of the psychological and social aspects of work and the work environment have been realised along with the associated risks to mental health.
Why has the workplace health agenda changed so dramatically? One of the reasons is due to the shift from an industrial to a more knowledge-based and service economy.
Interventions have moved to focusing on enhancing positive wellbeing rather than just preventing negative impact via safety measures.
So if wellness is the responsibility of the individual what then is the responsibility of the organisation?
Wellbeing is the responsibility of the organisation, wellness is the responsibility of the individual. All the research points towards the basic problem lying in the context of the organisation.
2014 Research by TowerWatson in a global workforce study found that sincere interest in the wellbeing of employees is considered a top driver of sustainable engagement.
The Wellbeing model includes:
Work practices e.g. Health and safety policies; sick leave, management of annual leave; reward and recognition; performance management; social responsibility practices; group and network practices. All work practices are aligned with the vision of the organisation. For example - do your rules and regulations drive or stifle innovation and competitive advantage. Is bullying truly non-negotiable and unacceptable or do you look good on paper and poor in practice. Hours of work are flexible; location of work is flexible.
Leadership moves from command and control to experimentation, coaching and empowering. High communication; high trust to get the job done; decision making is distributed.
Organisational design is flattened, organic and networked, less departmentalisation. Increased diversity. Reflect society not just your customer base.
Job design includes all of Hackman and Oldham’s elements including skill variety, a whole job, the job linked to the greater purpose of the organisation, autonomy, and feedback.
Culture is driven to a learning culture where mistakes are viewed as opportunities, a no blame or just culture; people are empowered and valued.
Vision is clear and the purpose of all roles are aligned with the vision of the organisation.
Training is clearly linked to doing the job and career development is for all employees.
This slide shows areas of comparison between wellness and wellbeing and how they should work together. The wellness approach is very much about programs, the wellbeing approach is very much about the organisation’s context. This is the context that Dame Carol Black talks about.
Research is finding that when you introduce a wellness programme and wellbeing program you may send the wrong message and run the risk of increasing presenteeism. Eg. Policy vs. managers attitude.
Central consequence of presenteeism is loss of productivity. Presenteeism definition is debated, it can be everything from coming to work when sick to coming to work no matter what in the case of a workaholic.
A study showed that workers with access to paid sick leave are 28% less likely to suffer nonfatal injuries than those without paid sick leave. If you introduce a policy or value “that you don’t come to work sick” you need to also train managers to prevent imposing guilt.
Wellness programs have always been considered an extra rather than a strategic imperative. Michael Patterson O’Donnells research suggests that few wellbeing programs will survive if not linked to mission and long term goal, or to the special interests of those who approve the program budget, and top management sees data on a regular basis that shows the connection between the program and those organisational outcomes.
Read out Step 1, Step 2,
Step 3 – ensure that you take regular measures and present in a dashboard. Take baseline measures if you don’t have existing metrics.
Step 4 - When implementing a program – inform employees that it is for their health and for productivity. Be inclusive, include employees in the program.
Step 5 – a meaningful dashboard.
Calculate the reduction in sickness days X average pay rate = savings.
Dashboard measures of wellness and wellbeing.
Most important thing about dashboard measures is tracking and drawing correlation. E.g. Improved biophysical stats = decreased absenteeism. Thus the healthier people are the less likely they are to be absent. Job satisfaction = job engagement. Safety attitude = decrease accidents = decreased risk. Retention = increased retention associated with culture. Tracking of no available sick leave, increases presenteeism and increases accidents – may need to review sick leave policy.
How do you measure productivity – its okay if you are producing widgets but more difficult in knowledge workers so takes skill from leader to measure output so that can be linked to programme.
Allergies and sinus complaints are the major cause of absenteeism.
Presenteeism – calculate – the % of days worked while ill
Total No. of sick days
The independent Review of Sickness Absence in America has found that there are no simple answers to reducing sickness absence and its associated costs, it cannot be solved with a single initiative.
Employers have a vital role to play in managing health at work, particularly when it comes to promoting the policies and behaviours which support good work and engagement.
