Leadership buy-in, tailoring the strategy and ensuring worker privacy among recommendations
In order for organizations to successfully support the health and safety of their workers, an integrated approach that blends OHS with wellness is needed, according to recent research from Toronto’s Institute for Work & Health (IWH).
While this ideology has seen quite a bit of traction in other parts of the globe, particularly in the United States with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Total Worker Health program, it hasn’t really taken off in Canada quite yet.
“A lot of it is just emphasizing wellness and how do you bring in physical activity in the workplace? How do you increase healthy diets among the workforce? They’re not really concerned with how do you actually integrate that with occupational health and safety,” said Aviroop Biswas, associate scientist at IWH, at a session to present his research findings on Tuesday.
But employers and safety professionals might want to take a hard look at this concept since Biswas’ research identified many benefits to this system, including a reduction in injuries and illnesses, enhanced safety culture, less stress, reduction in health-care costs and more productive employees.
In an integrated approach, various elements all work together, including OHS, disease management, health promotion, disability, absence management, group health plans, pay, workers’ compensation and employee assistance programs.
But there is a lot of planning and work that needs to be done in order to successfully roll this out. Here are just a few of Biswas’ tips from his research for successfully integrating workplace safety, health and wellness, from start to finish.
- Gain leadership buy-in by outlining what employers and employees can gain from an integrated strategy in terms of its value on investment and return on investment.
“It’s important to get buy-in from leadership,” said Biswas. “Let the leadership know why this is an important approach and leverage evidence of the benefits of this.”
- Tailor the integrated strategy towards employer needs and priorities.
- Conduct a needs assessment of employer and employee priorities via meetings, focus groups, surveys etc.
“If you address the needs and priorities that are important to workers and workplaces, it’s more likely to drive attendance and engagement,” said Biswas.
- Consider putting in place mechanisms to protect employee privacy. Make sure worker information is anonymous or held privately and participation is not being used for any other reasons.
“Workers should feel they are protected — that there isn’t some other ulterior motive of workplaces in promoting this initiative,” Biswas said.
- Train leadership, human resources, safety, wellness managers and employees early on to make sure everyone understands how the strategy will work and its benefits.
- Consider adding an external stakeholder with relevant experience to the planning group.
“[This could be] people who have had some experience in implementing aspects of an integrated approach and sharing their learnings on what worked for them and what might not work,” Biswas said.
- Ensure a balanced integration of physical and psychological health and safety.
- Ensure that the integration of wellness activities do not compromise safety activities.
“Putting wellness before safety can go against participation. It’s important to address safety concerns first and then communicate where wellness really fits in to the structure,” Biswas said.
- Build momentum on early successes from short and simple programs.
“Think about small wins. [For example] satisfaction can then lend towards bigger wins such as getting a return on investment or having impacts on health,” said Biswas.
- Ensure that progress measures reflect goals set up in the original implementation plan.
- Revisit and adjust the design and implementation of the strategy regularly.
“This is all with an eye in terms of improving the program and adjusting it to suit your goals,” Biswas said.
- Prepare, support and help employees in any changes to the refinement of the strategy.
“See what aspects of the program need to be changed and how you can actually meet your loftier ambitions,” said Biswas. “It’s not meant to be a one-size-fits-all strategy but recognizing there are differences in organizations… and with that comes refinement and tailoring.”
