Employee Wellness
and Engagement
HEALTH POLICIES
01. Proactive Health Policy
02. Internal Health Relationships
03. Health Surveillance and Screening
04. Mental Health and Stress
05. Getting People Back to Productive Work
06. Employee Wellness and Engagement
1 |
Employee Wellbeing and Engagement
Contents
Understanding wellbeing is a key to change . 3
It is easier to engage with a good job
than a poorly designed one . . . . . . . . . . 5
Physical health risks that go
beyond legal requirements . . . . . . . . . . 7
Can wellbeing and engagement make
a difference within your organisation? . . . . . 9
Learning from those that have
made a change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Further information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
www.rssb.co.uk
| 2
About the Proactive
Health Policies booklet
series
Management of employee health and
wellbeing is an important challenge
for all organisations. Becoming
proactive in health management can
assist corporate responsibility, reduce
company costs, increase productivity
and, most importantly, improve
people’s lives.
involved engage with a similar set of
ideas. These ideas will enable a flow
of information and understanding that
can push the health agenda forward.
They highlight:
This nest of six health policy booklets
is designed to support organisations
in becoming proactive in health
management. They are a starting
point to help the different disciplines
• Good practice
• Key focus areas
• Important concepts
• Useful tools and links
Booklet 6 - Employee
Wellbeing and Engagement
Employee wellbeing and engagement
has a broad reach, both within
and outside the workplace. It
encompasses an employee’s sense
that their employer considers and
cares about them, a recognition that
work is good for them, and making
positive lifestyle choices. There is a
growing recognition by Government,
the health service, and within the
business community of the link
between wellbeing, engagement and
business performance.
This document aims to provide
the information to create a case
for promoting employee wellbeing
and engagement, and outlines
the management approaches that
organisations can use to provide
benefit to both employer and
employee.
3 |
Employee Wellbeing and Engagement
Understanding wellbeing
is a key to change
There are three elements that can improve a person’s
wellbeing. Organisations can actively contribute to two of
them.
The three components of employee
wellbeing, taken from Wellbeing,
Productivity and Happiness at Work (Ivan
Robertson and Cary Cooper, 2011), are
said to be:
1. Psychological wellbeing – for
example, the ability to handle the
stresses of everyday life and maintain
a positive attitude and sense of
purpose.
2. Physical wellbeing – for example, the
amount of exercise, sleeping habits,
alcohol.
3. Social wellbeing – for example,
a positive and supportive social
network.
Currently social wellbeing remains
untouched by engagement improvement
programmes as it is regarded as difficult
to influence. Physical wellbeing is often
managed by health fairs and relates to
how an employee looks after themselves.
Psychological wellbeing (PWB) relates
to improving employee engagement and
the removal of organisational stressors
before they become a problem.
When PWB is not well managed, workrelated stressors are considered to cause
harm to psychological health. Work
undertaken by BP and the HSE1 suggests
that there is a degree of overlap between
what are regarded as common workrelated stressors and recognised root
causes of accidents. For example, ‘lack
of training to do my job’ is a recognised
work-related stressor. Having a lack of
training is also a recognised potential root
cause of accidents. BP goes on further to
identify how improving PWB can reduce
safety risks.
www.rssb.co.uk
You can look at the HSE health and BP health standards and
consider their how they can be used within your organisation. Find
them at: HSE: http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/ BP &
HSE: http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr107.pdf The BP and
HSE standards are found in Appedix 1 and cover the topics identified
in figure 1.
To make use of a free online wellbeing and resilience training tool
use the site:
Managing employee wellbeing
Sponsored by Business in the Community, Aramark and Places for
People, this site provides online learning materials for line managers
who want to improve the way they manage employee wellbeing and
enhance resilience in their team. It includes modules on:
• What is good work?
• What about me? (how managers can look after themselves)
• What can I do proactively? (preventative behaviours/actions)
• Should I be concerned? (spotting signs that an employee is
struggling)
• What do I do now? (what to do if an employee seems to be
struggling)
• Where does absence management fit in?
Use the free tool at:
http://www.managingemployeewellbeing.com/bitc/
| 4
5 |
Employee Wellbeing and Engagement
It is easier to engage with
a good job than a poorly
designed one
Many people approach job roles as something that is fixed
and the employee can like it or not. Thinking on this further
and making alterations can increase employee wellbeing and
engagement.
An important component of wellbeing
and engagement is job satisfaction. The
Fair Society, Healthy Lives, (The Marmot
Review) stated that ‘Work is good – and
unemployment bad – for physical and
mental health, but the quality of work
matters2.
The Work Foundation3 define a ‘good job’
as including:
• Work that is not characterised by
monotony and repetition
• Autonomy, control and task discretion
• A balance between the efforts workers
make and the rewards they receive
• Whether the workers have the skills
they need to cope with periods of
intense pressure
• Strong workplace relationships (social
capital)
However, employees’ freedom to take
decisions and organise their work, as an
important component of engagement,
is considered to be diminishing,
according to British Skills Survey. The
UK Commission for Employment and
Skills also points to increasing evidence
that individuals’ skills are being underutilised at work. This is not only a
significant source of disengagement for
the individuals affected, but also suggests
significant wastage4.
This raises the question ‘are
organisations doing enough to create
the conditions for role engagement and
growth?’
www.rssb.co.uk
Our views of work are always changing…
Check out Industry’s Rail Technical
Strategy (RTS). The RTS people section,
highlights the need for professionalism
and innovation in the rail industry.
Review the people section
of this technical strategy:
http://www.futurerailway.
org/RTS/About/
Documents/RTS%20
2012%20The%20
Future%20Railway.pdf
| 6
7 |
Employee Wellbeing and Engagement
Physical health risks
that go beyond legal
requirements
If organisations just stick to their legal requirements in regards
to health they will be missing the point.
There is increasing evidence that the
management of employee wellness should
go beyond that of work-related ill health,
to factor in the impact of common health
problems and lifestyle choices. If you have
just started using health fairs within your
organisation, or are looking to, then there is
good evidence to support your work.
Research by PwC commissioned by the
Health, Work and Wellbeing Executive5
highlighted chronic disease as a major
and rising source of health problems for
adults, with 37% of deaths in the total
population due to cardiovascular disease
alone. Much of this, the research says, is
due to an increase in poor lifestyle factors
that are known risk factors for chronic
disease, such as poor nutrition, smoking
and lack of exercise. The research goes
on to say that the cost of poor health of the
workforce, through increased absenteeism
and lowered job performance, is something
employers can no longer ignore.
In Dame Carol Black’s review of the
health of the working age population,
it is noted that lifestyle factors, such as
smoking, drinking and obesity have a
significant impact on health conditions
experienced in this group6. Within RSSB’s
Health conditions toolkit, the top five
health conditions7 across industry were
identified as musculoskeletal disorders,
mental health issues, endocrine disorder,
vascular disorders and sleep disorders, and
a toolkit was developed to manage these
conditions. Three of the five disorders:
endocrine, vascular and sleep may not, fully
or partially, be a direct responsibility of the
organisation.
www.rssb.co.uk
| 8
About the NHS Health Check
The NHS is the primary health provider
within the UK, and should be used
when possible for cost effective health
engagement. For those wishing to direct
employees to screening and health risk
management advice, a good source of
assistance is provided by the NHS Health
Check. The check looks at vascular
diseases (including coronary heart disease,
stroke, diabetes and kidney disease), which
currently affect the lives of over 4 million
people in England. Vascular diseases
together cause 36% of deaths (170,000 a
year in England) and are responsible for a
fifth of all hospital admissions. They are the
largest single cause of long-term ill health
and disability, impairing the quality of life for
many people.
The NHS Health Check aims to help
everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 by
assessing their risk of heart disease, stroke,
diabetes, kidney disease and certain types
of dementia, and giving them support and
advice to manage that risk.
Monitor health risks to
better understand the
causes of future ill health
such as vascular disease
(heart disease, strokes,
diabetes)
Find out how you can direct your employees to the service via the
links below:
http://www.screening.nhs.uk/vascularrisk
http://www.healthcheck.nhs.uk/
9 |
Employee Wellbeing and Engagement
Can wellbeing and
engagement make a
difference within your
organisation?
Organisations can start by making use of existing models and
frameworks for wellbeing and engagement.
David Macleod and Nita Clarke’s report
for government: ‘Engaging for Success’,
identifies a clear correlation between
engagement and performance, and
most importantly between improving
engagement and improving performance.
Engagement and wellbeing need to work
together because ‘a sustainable approach
to engagement must also include specific
and substantial recognition of the need to
maintain employee wellbeing’ (Robertson &
Cooper, 2011).
There is wealth of guidance on interventions
that supports health promotion. As part of
work commissioned by the Health Work and
Wellbeing Executive, PwC has developed
a framework for the implementation of
wellbeing programmes, which it has tested
amongst a number of organisations in
different sectors8. They identify three
key enablers which need to be in place
before the implementation of a wellbeing
programme: leadership, culture and
communications.
The MacLeod and Clarke report has
identified four drivers/enablers of
engagement that organisations can use to
assess the effectiveness of their approach9,
in summary these are:
1. Leadership: providing a strong strategic
narrative which has widespread
ownership and commitment from
managers and employees at all level.
2. Engaging managers: managers who
know how to engage others are at the
heart of this organisational culture.
3. Voice: seeking employees’ views and
listening to their answers, to develop
an effective and empowered employee
voice.
4. Integrity: behaviour throughout the
organisation is consistent with stated
values, leading to trust and a sense of
integrity.
An industry-led task force has developed a
website ‘Engage for success’, which builds
on this report10. Please make use of this site
for its many useful resources.
www.rssb.co.uk
Get onto the engage for success website
– type it into your search engine or follow the link below:
http://www.engageforsuccess.org/
| 10
11 |
Employee Wellbeing and Engagement
Learning from those that
have made a change
Many organisations have made a change to more proactive
wellbeing activities, and the evidence is there for all to see.
Case study
First ScotRail – reducing sickness absence and promoting
wellbeing11
First ScotRail set out to manage
employee health more proactively,
reducing sickness absence due to
stress, musculoskeletal injuries and
lifestyle-related factors such as poor
diet. They developed a people strategy,
with input from key stakeholders
including the four unions, to achieve
a full understanding of issues and the
most appropriate solutions.
On site, the services of massage
and chiropody were provided for all
employees as well as hypnotherapy
to help them stop smoking. They also
set up a personal health challenge,
involving a personal trainer who
developed a fitness assessment and
improvement plan for every employee
who took part in the campaign.
Formal policies were developed to
manage sickness absence proactively
with rehabilitation redeployment. A
team of physiotherapists was brought
on board with particular focus on
occupational physiotherapy. A key
element of the team’s work was to
assess jobs at all locations – and to
ensure treatments were incorporated in
staff’s daily duties as much as possible.
• Absence decreased from 6.2% to
4.1%, in 2010 saving around £3
million per annum
Outcomes included:
• 40% of cases referred to
physiotherapy returned to work after
an average of five sessions
• In a survey, staff reported they felt
‘well looked after’
www.rssb.co.uk
| 12
Case study
Network Rail – health fairs
Following an initial pilot, Network Rail
have rolled out health fairs across
all their sites. The fairs are used to
promote health awareness through
health screening, demonstrations,
workshops on key topics, stalls run by
charities, and raising awareness of the
occupational and wellbeing resources
available to staff. The fairs also aim
to motivate healthy behaviours and
teach self-care practices. The feedback
from staff received has been good.
A comprehensive guide has been
developed to help managers set up
health fairs.
Case study
South West Trains – health fairs
South West Trains run their health
fairs using a double decked bus which
goes around their sites. This has
proved to be popular with staff. To
support this, South West Trains has
produced a booklet which includes a
health check section, where staff can
record their health condition covering
BMI, cholesterol and cardiac risk
assessment. The booklet provides
information on keeping healthy,
managing stress and how to manage
shiftwork.
Many organisations have taken
the step to undertake health fairs
to promote employee wellbeing.
However, joined-up activities to
monitor and enhance the business
benefits of employee physical
wellbeing are not obvious within the
industry. For example, health fairs can
identify indicators for future health
problems that will cause sickness
absence in the future.
13 |
Employee Wellbeing and Engagement
Further Information
CIPD provides a factsheet on employee engagement.
http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/employee-engagement.aspx
CIPD provide the business case for wellbeing at work – how to obtain buy-in (need to be
a member). http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/axa/business-case-how-obtain-buy-in.
aspx
PwC framework for implementing a wellness programme.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/hwwb-dwp-wellness-report-public.pdf
Engage for Success website provides tools, ideas and evidence for employee
engagement. http://www.engageforsuccess.org/
BITC Workwell movement and model, evidence for action, resources and case studies.
http://www.bitc.org.uk/workplace/health_and_wellbeing/index.html
NICE - Workplace interventions to promote smoking cessation PH5, 2007. Provides
guidance on actions to support smoking cessation and a simple business case for
employers. http://www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/PH5
NICE - Promoting physical activity in the workplace PH13, 2008.
Provides guidance for employers and workplace health professional on how to promote
physical activities in workplace. http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PH13
IOSH provides an occupational toolkit for non-work related conditions including heart
disease, stroke, pregnancy, MSD, skin disorders, and stress.
NHS Health for work - Adviceline provides guidance on health promotion initiatives.
http://www.health4work.nhs.uk/
Healthy people = Healthy Profits, BITC - Business Action on Health, 2009 provides 20
case studies, as examples of best practice with documented business benefits, following
introduction of health and wellbeing interventions in workplace.
www.rssb.co.uk
| 14
Notes
HSE, 2003, Development of internal company standards of good management practice
and a task-based risk assessment tool for offshore work-related stressors. HMSO. Norwich
1
Fair Society, Healthy Lives, The Marmot Review, 2010: http://www.instituteofhealthequity.
org/projects/fair-society-healthy-lives-the-marmot-review
2
3
‘Good work’: job quality in a changing economy, The Work Foundation, 2008
Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement.
A report for government by David Macleod and Nita Clarke, 2009
4
5
Building the case for wellness, PWC, 2008
Working for a Healthier Tomorrow: Review of the Health of Britain’s Working Age
Population, Black, Carol 2008.
6
7
Management of health conditions and diseases, RSSB , 2006
8
Building the case for wellness, PWC, 2008
Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement, A report
for Government by David Macleod and Nita Clarke, 2009.
9
10
http://www.engageforsuccess.org/
Adapted from First Group – First ScotRail reducing sickness absence and promoting a
healthy workforce. http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/oh-casestudy-firstscotrail.pdf
11
0
RSSB Block 2 Angel Square 1 Torrens Street London EC1V 1NY
www.rssb.co.uk