Health and Well-being : A Strategic Approach

Chris Deacy MSc Dip2OSH CMIOSH Assistant Director of HR (Occupational Health, Safety and Well-being) Cardiff Metropolitan University

What is meant by ‘Health and Well- being’ at Work?

A Strategic Approach? “Well-being is the untapped source of competitive advantage in corporate Britain” (Cary Cooper 2007)

Health and Safety Practitioner’s Role? Influence behaviour Ensure legal compliance Create and support positive health and safety culture in our organisations

Making the Business Case

Health and Well-being

Cardiff Met

Health & Well-being Strategic Aims “to improve organisational performance through encouraging a healthier and more engaged workforce and developing Cardiff Met’s reputation for being a healthy and sustainable university”

Health and Safety – pre-Strategy Well Employee Status ‘Productive’ ‘Present ’‘Absent’ ‘Target Range’ ‘FOCUS’ DiscomfortSick Performance Indicator

Health and Well-being – post Strategy Well Employee Status ‘Productive’ ‘Present ’‘Absent’ DiscomfortSick Performance Indicator

H&W at Cardiff Met More Supportive and Welcoming work and study environment Reduced sickness absence Improved engagement levels

Corporate Health Standards Achieved ‘Gold’ award highlighted particular strengths in satisfying ‘Core Components’ of the Corporate Health Standard and in “totally embedding health, safety & well-being into organisational practice”

Potential Barriers Staff - perceived as tokenism, “another badge for the wall” Trades Union - “is this really about improving staff health & well-being or is it more about squeezing further staff effort and bullying people back to work?” Management - “something soft and fluffy and a waste of time and money in these challenging times”

Future Developments Continue to Utilise the expertise of the University’s Well-being Research Group - EmWell Encourage the sustainability and continued growth of health & well-being in the workplace through further collaborative research Extend focus towards a ‘Healthy University’ approach to capture the whole University community.

Questions In the context of the Health and Safety Practitioner; Should health and well-being be seen as an element within the health and safety function? or Would it be more effective if health and safety was an element of an organisation’s well-being provision?

Conclusions from Cardiff Met Experience Good health and safety management is the foundation stone for health and well-being development. A Health and Well-being approach can influence senior management in ways that health and safety alone cannot