European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
Background:
The Healthy Workplaces Campaign is organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in cooperation with the Member States and the Presidency of the European
Union. One of the principal activities to support the campaign is the European Good Practice
Awards scheme, organised specifically to identify examples of good practice in relation to the chosen theme – Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress . The awards will focus on companies and organisations that have shown strong commitment and a participative approach to the successful management of stress and psychosocial risks at work. In Ireland the campaign is managed by the Health and Safety Authority.
Aims and Objectives
The aims and objectives of the European Good Practice Awards scheme are:

To support and promote the overall campaign and the European Week for Safety and Health at Work;

To demonstrate the benefits of following the best safety and health practices;

To disseminate the best available practical advice;
 To promote this year’s core message that managing stress and psychosocial risks at work is necessary to enhance workplace safety and health for ethical, practical, legal, and economic reasons;

To lay the foundations for a more sustainable risk prevention culture in Europe.
Organisation:
The competition is run as a two-stage process; following a selection procedure at national level, a European jury then validates and assesses the examples submitted to the Agency.
Step 1 – Submission of Good Practice Awards Entries
All entries must be forwarded to annette_slater@hsa.ie on or by 12 th September 2014 .
In preparing your entry, please refer to Annex B and C for an outline on how to submit your entry and the basis on which all entries will be judged.
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European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
Note: Summary entry form Annex B is required for each example :

The summary should be set up as an MS Word document, submitted in electronic format only.

The summary should be no more than 9000 characters (about 5 pages).

The text of the summary should be clear and simple, so that it can be understood easily by anyone who wishes to transfer the example to their workplace.

The summary form (Annex B) must only contain text - no photographs, graphs, etc.
(see additional information below).
Step 2 - Evaluation of Entries
The judging panel will select the two best national examples to be entered into the European level selection process – one from among entrants with less than 100 workers and one from a larger company.
The evaluation will identify those good practice examples that meet the following criteria:

The subject criteria as contained in the European Campaign flyer.

The good practice criteria contained in Annex A.

The award criteria contained in the evaluation form in Annex C.
Please note that examples will NOT be accepted if:

The intervention is aimed only at the individual, and is not part of a wider risk management based approach eliminating or preventing the identified risk at source.

The good practice example has clearly been developed solely for commercial profit; this particularly relates to products, tools or services that are or could be marketed
Step 3 - Sending to the European Agency
The two best national examples as chosen by the Irish judging panel will be sent to the
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, one for each category – below 100 workers and 100 or more workers. If there are no suitable entrants in one of the categories – two examples from one category may be sent.
Additional Information
The Health and Safety Authority welcomes supporting documentation to assist the evaluation panel assess the quality and scope of the intervention. Supporting documentation may include, for example:


Manuals or other documentation that form part of the example.
Photographs, illustrations, graphs, diagrams etc. that help to explain the example
(e.g. a photograph of a redesigned work environment is useful).


Photographs should be provided separately in .jpeg or .gif formats.
Extracts from policies or training materials can also be helpful.

Additional material is preferred in electronic format but paper versions can be accepted.
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European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
Step 4 - European Level Evaluation
An evaluation panel, including representatives of the four interest groups of the Board of the
European Agency and an expert in the subject, validates and assesses the national examples submitted, and selects a small number of award winners, and ‘commended’ examples. The exact number of awards cannot be specified before the evaluation panel sits.
The Agency will fund the costs of two representatives from each of the award winners to attend the Awards Ceremony. The ceremony will be held in spring 2015.
Other representatives and represent atives of the ‘commended’ examples may also attend the
Awards Ceremony but at their own expense.
All good practice examples will be published in an Agency report following the Awards ceremony, and on the EU-OSHA website.
th
Entries must be submitted in electronic format .
Please email entries to: annette_slater@hsa.ie
or post a USB key to:
Annette Slater
Health and Safety Authority
Metropolitan Building
James Joyce Street
Dublin 1
For any further information contact Annette Slater on (01) 7997800.
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European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
Entries should clearly show how good practice has been applied in the workplace and may include evidence of:
 a thorough assessment of psychosocial risks in the workplace, followed by practical activities aimed at preventing or reducing psychosocial risks, implemented with a participative approach;
 the implementation of a holistic approach to occupational safety and health, including the assessment and management of psychosocial risks and mental health promotion in the workplace;
 organisational actions aimed at reducing work-related stress, including primary
(eliminating risks), secondary (protecting workers from the risks that cannot be eliminated) and tertiary (helping workers who suffer from stress and psychosocial problems) levels of intervention;
 the development and implementation of practical tools for the assessment and management of stress and psychosocial risks in the workplace.
Judges will be looking for examples of:
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
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 genuine and effective management of psychosocial risks and work-related stress; interventions aimed at the workplace; the successful implementation of interventions; real and demonstrable improvements in safety and health; workforce diversity being taken into account; effective participation and involvement of the workforce and their representatives; the sustainability of the intervention over time; transferability to other workplaces (including those in other Member States and to small and medium-sized enterprises); timeliness: the intervention should be either recent (up to 5 years old, as long as it is current/ongoing and it has not been made obsolete by better practices or technical improvements) or not widely publicised.
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European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
EXAMPLE OF GOOD PRACTICE
TOPIC
TITLE OF SOLUTION
NAME OF THE
ENTERPRISE
NUMBER OF WORKERS
Country
Address
Telephone no
Fax no.
Name of a contact person representing the management
Email
Name of a contact person representing the workers
Email
ORGANISATION
PROVIDING THE
INFORMATION (if different from above)
Country
Address
Telephone no
Fax no.
Email
Contact person
SECTOR (NACE-Code)
Private / public / partially private
TASK
PROBLEM (hazard/risk/outcome)
SOLUTION (prevention measure(s) taken)
EFFECTIVENESS OF RESULTS
SUCCESS FACTOR/S
COSTS/BENEFITS
(including human, social, and economic costs and benefits)
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European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
 PLEASE ATTACH PHOTOS and/or OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE GOOD PRACTICE
EXAMPLE, PICTURES ARE VERY HELPFUL FOR THE JURY (e.g
. photo of a redesigned working environment; illustrative material from policies or training materials).
PLEASE INDICATE WHO
SHOULD GET THE
AWARD
The enterprise
Others
The provider of information
Explanation of headings

TOPIC – A few key words to describe the example, e.g. assessing psychosocial risks with workers’ involvement, implementing organisational/individual interventions to reduce stress/psychosocial risks/workplace violence etc., development of guidelines to deal with psychosocial risks, etc.

TITLE OF SOLUTION: One line, e.g. participative psychosocial risk assessment, intervention (organisational changes, workshops, training etc.) to reduce/prevent stress/psychosocial risks/workplace violence, etc.

NAME OF THE ENTERPRISE / ORGANISATION PROVIDING THE INFORMATION: occasionally the organisation submitting the case is different from the enterprise where the good practice was carried out. In this case, please supply details of both organisations and details of the contacts in both organisations. The size of the company that has developed the example submitted should be used for classification of entrant (below or above 100 workers category)

SECTOR: The sector should be indicated by using the Statistical Classification of Economic
Activity in the European Union, NACE Rev.2, 2008, (a four-digit number), http://ec.europa.eu/environment/emas/pdf/general/nacecodes_en.pdf
.

Private or public: Is this a private or public enterprise?

TASK: description of the task and workplace / activity / situation giving rise to the hazard / risk / outcome.


PROBLEM: description of how, when and in what form hazards / risks arise, and of the effects and outcomes (any ill health, diseases, accidents, effects on production and work etc.) The description needs to be clear so that those accessing the information via the
Internet can understand the steps taken and why.


SOLUTION: a clear description of the measures taken, e.g. selection process, involvement of the workforce, implementation etc. It should be easy to understand and the reader should get a clear picture of the solution.


COSTS / BENEFITS: an indication of the costs accrued during the implementation of the new solution and the reduction of costs as a direct or indirect consequence of the innovation (where available).

RESULT / EFFECTIVENESS: an indication of the measurable results, and also of any
“immeasurable” benefits, e.g. reduced incidence of symptoms of sickness, better work climate, improved ergonomic and/or economic way of working etc. This can include human, social, and economic costs, benefits, and positive outcomes.

SUCCESS FACTOR/S: elements essential for achieving desired outcome.

Photos and any other illustrative materials should be provided as additional information where possible including graphs, tables and charts.
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European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
Is the example a product or service being marketed for profit?
No
Yes
If the answer to this question is “Yes” the example is disqualified
CRITERIA FOR EXAMPLE: Rating
Relevance
Focus
Commitment of
Management
Is the information directly relevant to Good Practice to eliminate or reduce risks at work?
Is the example from the workplace or involving interventions aimed at work?
Are the board/senior managers fully committed to OSH and demonstrate this in practice?
Worker
Participation
Implementation
Improvements
Consultation
Sustainability
Legislation
Transferability
Innovative
Does the example demonstrate effective participation, including the involvement of employees / workers and their representatives?
How well have these measures been successfully implemented in practice?
How well does the example demonstrate real improvement?
Where appropriate, how well does the example show evidence of good consultation between management and trade unions / workers?
Will the example be sustainable over time?
How far do the measures comply with the relevant legislative requirements of the Member State, and preferably go beyond minimum requirements?
How well can the information could be used in other situations
(e.g. Member States, industry sectors, other workplaces)?
Is the example current - i.e. recent and relevant to existing work practices in the EU? Preferably, it should “add value” to existing practices in the Member State providing the example.
No
Yes
No
Yes
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
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European Good Practice Awards Selection Procedure - Ireland
Detail of coverage of information
Design and aesthetics - for web)
Consensus
Is the information provided in sufficient detail?
Is the example clearly and simply described
Is the example acceptable to all National Network partners?
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
Not at all
Yes, partially
Yes, satisfactorily
Yes, fully
No
Yes
Any examples with a NO or Not at all answer to any of the questions should not be forwarded to the Agency.
Overall opinion
National ranking * First / second
Category * Below 100 workers / More than 100 workers
Good Points of the example
Weak Points of the example:
Conclusion
No
Yes
National competition carried out *
Number of entries in competition *
Declaration of national jury membership *
Please state the names and organisations of those that have taken part in the national selection and judging procedure (compulsory).
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