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Healthy workplaces
The workplace is a setting where many people spend the largest
proportion of their time and therefore employers can play
a key role in contributing to the health of their employees
and in turn the health of their organisation. A workplace
where the health and wellbeing of employees is a priority
can help improve health and reduce health inequalities.
The health of
the workforce – both physical and psychological – is
a major contributor to the success or otherwise of an organisation,
and can enhance organisational performance and help organisations
to gain a competitive advantage.
Organisations implementing workplace health programmes can
realise the following benefits:
- A reduction
in illness-related absenteeism, fewer working days lost
and therefore a long-term decline in the sickness
rate;
- Increased
motivation among staff and improvements in the working
atmosphere in the company, leading to more
flexibility,
better communications and readiness to cooperate;
- A measurable
increase in the quality of products and services, more
innovation and creativity, and a rise
in productivity;
- The prestige
factor which improves the public image of the company and
makes it more attractive
as an employer.
Work Well
Work Well is a pilot initiative that was launched by the HPA
in 2004. It has been funded for three years by the Health and
Safety Executive of Northern Ireland under the Working
for Health strategy and by the Department of Health, Social Services
and Public Safety under the Investing for Health strategy.
The initiative has supported businesses in Northern Ireland to assess their organisational and employee health needs, write a health action plan and implement this over a one year period.
Some of the actions contained in these health plans include:
- developing
management practices and policies, which support health;
- providing
opportunities and activities to promote health and wellbeing;
- implementing
improvements to the workplace, which protect the safety
and health of employees and promote a positive
working environment.
The pilot stage with the businesses has ended and a summary evaluation is available. Case studies from a selection of participating workplaces are presented here.
The learning from the initiative has resulted in the following outcomes:
- A healthy
workplace ‘model’ that
small businesses can use to develop their own healthy workplace
programmes.
This includes three key themes, seven quality criteria and
a self-evaluation framework.
- A user
friendly needs assessment process that results in a tailored
health action plan which
meets the needs of the
individual organisation and its employees.
- Eighteen ‘champion’ businesses
that can demonstrate good practice in developing workplace
health programmes.
Training course for creating healthy workplaces
To support the HPA’s Health Promoting Workplace initiative, a training course has been developed which aims to equip participants with the skills and knowledge to:
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advise and support other organisations in creating healthy workplaces,
or;
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implement a programme within their organisation.
Healthy workplace programmes include different disciplines;
- health promotion;
- health and safety;
- occupational health;
- human resources.
Participants are not expected to become fully competent in all areas but to have an overview of what an organisation’s Healthy Workplace programme should look like.
To achieve this they will be able to work through a process of needs assessment and action planning and have the knowledge of how to implement the actions identified.
The content of the training course is primarily based around working with small businesses (10–50 employees) but can be applied to larger organisations.
Participants on the course will:
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Gain an understanding of the concept of Healthy Workplaces.
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Be able to work through the process of developing a Healthy Workplace programme, in particular, carrying out a needs assessment and developing an action plan.
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Be able to identify and address actions under the three key areas of a healthy workplace:
- leadership and management;
- the physical environment;
- health and wellbeing
All those attending the training will receive a copy of the healthy workplace guide, a CD-ROM with all the documentation an organisation needs to develop a healthy workplace programme and access to an online questionnaire that can be used to support the workplace health needs assessment of employees.
If you are interested in attending a future Healthy Workplace Training course or would like further information on the training please contact Claire Hind at Tel: 028 9031 1611 or Email: c.hind@hpani.org.uk
Healthy workplace guide
A step-by-step guide has been produced to support organisations to develop as a healthy workplace. It is aimed at employers, those responsible for human resources or health and safety, occupational health staff and anybody working in the field of workplace health.
The guide includes:
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Information and documentation which can help support an organisation to assess how healthy their workplace is and then plan their healthy workplace programme using quality criteria.
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An organisational health assessment tool which helps assess where gaps may be within an organisation relating to healthy workplace practices.
You may download the guide here, however only those individuals who have been on the training course can get access to the online employee questionnaire which forms part of the needs assessment process.
Click here for the names of people who may be able to support organisations to use the guide and access the needs assessment tools including the employee questionnaire.
Working for Health Strategy
The Working
for Health strategy, published by the Health and Safety Executive
for Northern Ireland in March 2003, stresses
that ‘a work culture that protects, promotes and supports
health and wellbeing’ will create an environment in which
businesses can thrive.
The HPA
fulfils a key role in supporting the strategy’s
objectives by chairing the Awareness
Programme Action Team.
This is one of five programme action teams; the others are
support, compliance, rehabilitation and intelligence. The roll-out
of the strategy and coordination of the work of the five teams
is overseen by the implementation group. The Work Well initiative
supports some of the key actions identified by the Working
for Health strategy’s awareness programme action team.
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