Work Positive CI
Welcome & Introduction
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and the State Claims Agency (SCA) in conjunction with some emergency services organisations and the Critical Incident Stress Management Network (CISM) have jointly piloted and launched the updated (2017) Work Positive CI website. This is a stress audit tool which can be used to assist organisations in meeting the requirements of the Health and Safety Authority's Risk Assessment for psychosocial hazards requirement - including work-related stress.
This webpage aims to assist organisations wishing to address work-related stress. The HSA and SCA have identified work-related stress as a priority topic and would ask you to consider implementing the Management Standards, which are embedded in the Work Positive tool, in your organisation.
By fully implementing the Management Standards you will be able to demonstrate that you have acknowledged, identified and addressed this difficult issue in your work place.
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Background
Work Positive is a comprehensive risk management process that incorporates a risk assessment covering the major causal factors associated with workplace stress. It was originally developed by Health Scotland and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA, Ireland) to help organisations identify the potential causes of stress at work in line with requirements under the requirement to prevent accidents and illness at work under the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (then the 1989 Act).
Work Positive was launched in 2002 and a revised edition again in May 2005 and is the only state sponsored stress audit tool of its kind available across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. It is based on the work of a number of bodies and reflects the HSA‘s prevention approach and emphasis on the risk assessment process and HSE (UK) development of Management Standards, against which organisations can measure their performance in managing the main causal factors for workplace stress and put in place procedures and system changes as required, to improve organisational culture to promote well-being.
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Statistics
The Central Statistics Office, Ireland reports that 13,000 people in the Republic of Ireland suffer from stress, depression and anxiety. Also, the Department of Social and Family Affairs states that 1.7% of all occupational injury benefit claims allowed in the Republic of Ireland in 2006 related to stress. Absences for mental health related issues are significantly longer than absences for other injury-related issues.
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What does the HSA expect employers to do?
HSA inspectors expect every employer to conduct risk assessments for health and safety hazards, including work-related stress. A five step approach to risk assessment is recommended.
- Identify the hazards
- Decide who might be harmed and how.
- Evaluate the risk and decide what needs to be done.
- Record your findings.
- Monitor and review.
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What are the HSE (UK) Management Standards?
The HSE developed Management Standards for work-related stress. These reflect the six key aspects of work which have been identified internationally, through valid and reliable research, as causal factors where people have become affected by work related stress.. These aspects of work, if not properly managed, have been found in certain circumstances and under certain conditions, not always predictable, to have repercussions for employee mental and physical well being.
As we cannot predict individual responses to stimuli and situations, and as we cannot fully control the workplace and the cultures we create, we must try to ensure that the 6 areas the Management Standards are concerned with are reasonably managed and monitored.
These 6 areas are demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. This is based on models well established in the psychological literature and on on-going research and surveys carried out internationally.
The HSE, having identified these six factors as the primary precursors to stress, joined with the HSA, who had already developed and piloted Work Positive, an audit tool and advisory material for industry, to enable employers to more easily assess the risks associated with workplace stress and put in place systems to reduce it over time, within a systematized, risk reduction framework.
HSE also identified, through consultation within the UK, states to be achieved associated with each key factor in order to develop a standard to encourage good management practice. Full detail on implementing the management standards can be viewed at HSEs website www.hse.gov.uk
The aim is to assess where your organization is performing in relation to current good practice. You should then set realistic goals to prioritise areas for growth and improve current performance.
Work Positive also considers issues relating to reward and contribution and indicators of pressure within a workforce.
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How to implement this Work Positive Programme in your workplace
The process of implementing and embedding these good management standard practices into your organisation involves several stages. For more information and templates, please click here
Before you start
Commitment is required from senior management, from staff and from their representatives. The success of the initiative is based on having active engagement and briefing staff beforehand often helps.
Starting: Identify who might be harmed
Benchmark data such as sickness absence data or occupational health support uptake give an indication of potential pressures. The questionnaire is a risk assessment tool which investigates the presence or absence of known organisational stressors. It should be issued anonymously to all staff.
Assessing: Evaluate the risks
The questionnaire results should then be input and analysed. Analysis of the data rates employees‘ perceptions of the six key management standards factors from demands through to change. This provides an overall organisational result. It does not provide results on individual well-being. As well as summarising the overall results for all staff, the results for several smaller groups can be obtained in such a way that staff still remain anonymous, through prior category selection using the Excel based programme. (Free programmes are available at either www.hse.gov.uk or www.hsa.ie)
Obvious categories are to group staff into departments. Overall employee perceptions of the six stress factors are automatically rated and displayed using a colour coding system, from red, which is an urgent outcome, through to green, which is stress-free. This identifies potential ‘hot spots‘ and allows the main improvement to be focused on the relevant group or relevant issue.
Indications from the questionnaire results and benchmark data suggest potential pressures. This should be developed through focus groups. Focus groups involve a one to two hour meeting of staff of similar backgrounds. There is normally approximately 10 staff at each group. The number of focus groups required depends on the number of staff and number of job types. Staff is encouraged to participate and have a very open and honest discussion to get to the root of any problems, using the results of the survey as an initial tool. The facilitators for the group should be impartial, trained and be able to reassure the group that all information will be kept anonymous. Normally the only information to come out of the focus group will be a summary of what that group sees as the main priority problems and suggestions for potential solutions in bullet point form.
Implement: Take action and record the findings
A summary report can be compiled from the questionnaire and focus group findings and feedback to staff and management.
Often there is a long list of suggestions. Steering groups have proven useful for selecting issues and planning the on-the-ground implementation. Actions need to be agreed with senior management and if there is union representation, through a partnership approach.
Realistic choices have to be made about actions to be taken. Issues such as bullying and violence need to be addressed quickly. Other issues should be chosen based on the number of people they will bring improvement to and the degree of benefit they will bring.
There are a number of published solutions on the Work Positive, HSA and HSE websites which have been successfully tried and tested in individual case studies.
Monitor and Review: Re-assess, keep on the agenda, Manage
At the end of the process organisations will have negotiated changes which address excess pressures. This should create a healthier work environment for staff, it should improve the culture at an organisational level and this should have the knock on effect of promoting well-being at an individual level. Monitoring the environment should be done to assess if the above is occurring and identify where it is not occurring, what areas are affected. Reviewing is done on an annual or bi-annual basis and involves some record keeping and benchmarking of findings and issues arising.
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Conclusion
Work-related stress is often seen as too complicated to address, but it can be treated in a similar way to any other workplace hazard. This project shows that this important health issue can and has been tackled by local organizations to create a more positive work environment. The project is designed to encourage organisations to tackle work-related stress, drawing on case studies from real workplaces.
Organisations are encouraged to measure themselves to identify problem areas. Employers are encouraged to take the key learning points from case studies here, on the Work Positive website and the HSE website and build on this good practice by developing their own specific solutions, in collaboration with employees and their representatives.
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