Feature: Health in The Workplace
Healthy employees mean a healthy business
By Dan Bannister (pictured), Business Development Manager at BCarm – Business Continuity & Risk Management
million employees, Gallup Q12 has established that: • Engaged employees are 21% more productive • Disengaged workers experience more accidents • Highly engaged work forces have 41% less absenteeism
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It also identified the following 12 statements as those that best predict employee and work group engagement:
1. I have the materials and equipment to do my work right 2. I know what is expected of me 3. At work I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday 4. In the last seven days I have received recognition or praise 5. My supervisor or someone at work cares about me as a person 6. There is someone at work who encourages my development 7. At work my opinion counts
8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important
9. My associates/fellow employees are committed to quality work 10. I have a best/good friend at work
11. In the last six months someone at work has talked about my progress
12. In the last year I have had opportunities to learn or grow
So, while many see health and safety as a burden, others are using it to develop and maintain employee engagement and improve workplace safety. No reasonable employee would want to hurt themselves or others in a
workplace accident, and companies have a vested interest in both keeping workers safe and staying on the right side of relevant legislation and regulations.
78 CHAMBERconnect Autumn 2019 There is of course the obvious point that a strong safety culture is
focused on the well-being and safety of its workforce, which says to the employees the company cares about us, but let's look specifically at some of those statements.
I have the materials and equipment to do my work right Well maintained equipment, with adequate training and personal protective equipment would certainly add to an employee's ability to do the job right. It is easy to relate to employee’s frustration when the boss doesn’t provide the right resources, because it raises the question “Do they care about the business - and if they don't why should I?” If you expand that further into the realms of personal protective equipment (PPE) and making sure employees understand the need for it, and are made to wear it; if there is a lax approach, the PPE is ill-fitting and prevents the employee from working, then this could raise the question “does the this company care about me?”
I know what is expected of me When considering the safety and health of employees, a robust induction process, safe systems of work, method statements, safety briefings and toolbox talks all contribute to an employee’s sense of “I know what is expected of me”, particularly if these are regular occurrences based on the requirements of the business tasks, and not just a box ticking exercise. On the flip side, consider how an employee would feel if a safety talk is delivered as “I need to do this and you need to sign this”?
My supervisor or someone at work cares about me as a person A proactive safety culture where management at all levels have ownership of their respective element of the health and safety process, and actively
t’s widely recognised that an engaged workforce is a strong indicator of the health and performance of a business. With more than 30 years of in-depth behavioural economic research involving more than 17
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