Incorporating OH into corporates’ strategy: a Swiss project Olivier Girard, 2019

GOAL: TO PUSH the case for ohs Project initiation GOAL: TO PUSH the case for ohs

How OHS specialists are perceived In Switzerland, OHS experts are seen as: pro-employees, even pro-unions bureaucrats (who love checklists) risks-oriented only → executives rarely see us as allies for the business. Our ambition was to help bring OHS to a strategic level.

$ $ + = = How OHS risks appear EARN LESS DECISION CULTURE OHS RISK SPEND MORE TOOL #2 TOOL #1

characterizing the culture tool #1: the radar characterizing the culture

10 cultural determinants for OHS 1 048 576‬ cultures 10 cultural determinants for OHS socio-economic management higher / middle management’s level of commitment to OHS (2) employees’ participation management of safety / physical / psychosocial risks (3) management of competences and jobs meaningfulness of work and motivation communication (internal and external) 4 maturity levels do not comply with the law comply with the minimum legal requirements only costs-oriented strategies “model employer” strategies

Maturity features Level Strategy Features The employee is seen as OHS is in the hands of 1 none a means of production nobody 2 just the law reactive a source of problems (labor inspectorate) OHS specialist 3 costs reduction in the mirror internal impacts a source of expenses (absenteeism) OHS & HR within a committee 4 performance attractiveness forward-looking internal and external impacts a pillar for the business everybody

The radar OHS

The radar half-day with the board of directors OHS employees’ health half-day with the board of directors for each determinant, 4 scenarios are debated final question: what are the upcoming company’s challenges? → a lot of information comes up in the discussion → transverse strengths and weaknesses can be identified → if well managed, a cost-effective auditing method

tool #2: ANALYSING business decisions re-using an existing strategic framework

Employee’s performance OHS / HR Employers’ performance vs. employees Finances Clients Processes Products / Services Employee’s performance OHS / HR Employers’ performance vs. employees

Kaplan & Norton: the Balanced Scorecard (1992) Finances Clients Processes Products / Services Employee’s performance Employers’ performance vs. employees

Completing and aligning business strategies Finances Clients Processes Finances Products / services Vision Clients Processes Products / Services Employee’s performance OHS / HR budget Employers’ performance vs. employees Employees OHS / HR processes OHS / HR services OHS / HR impacts OHS / HR specialists

Return on experience We observed that executives quickly get it the perception of the role of HR and OHS improves the tools create a new kind of dialogue within the board of directors the approach helps structure the OHS / HR approach some resistance may arise, in part. from OHS experts

Providing Tools for a common sense approach conclusion Providing Tools for a common sense approach

What is the business strategy? What is the soil like? What is the seed like? What is the culture? What is the business strategy? Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the culture Understand the human challenges posed by the strategy How should we match them both? Analyse the present and future interactions, define an OHS / HR vision Define an OHS / HR strategy and the corresponding indicators

Conclusion: to go further In Switzerland at least, few OHS experts can link OHS and corporate strategy. Their training needs to be improved Create a shared database of level 1, 2, 3, 4 practice examples for the 10 determinants

3 slides that I have not shown on NES 2019 extras 3 slides that I have not shown on NES 2019

This shows the superposition of the radars that we created during the pilot phase (10 companies from different sectors). We observed that very few companies cross-analyse their KPIs. Furthermore, they manage psychosocial risks much less than safety risks. Finally, we observed that they only use lagging indicators. SOCIO ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES’ PARTICIPATION AUTONOMY & DECISION MARGINS MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT INT & EXT COMMUNICATION PREVENTION OF OCCUPATIONAL RISKS

Cultural Determinants The iceberg model Observable risks Business: decrease in productivity, quality, customer satisfaction; increase in errors HR: absenteeism (illness and accidents), overtime, turnover, recruitment budget OHS: demotivation / disengagement, conflicts, mental and physical health status Cultural Determinants Socio-economic management Executives' commitment Line managers' commitment Employees' participation Safety management Physical risks management Psychosocial risks management Competences and jobs Meaning of work and motivation Communication

Why you should invest in BI (Business Intelligence) Strategic decisions taken without considering OHS ↑ HR costs absenteeism ↑ workload ↑ overtime – temporary work ↑ turn-over ↓ attractiveness ↓ work satisfaction ↑ conflicts ↑ illnesses - accidents ↑ mistakes ↓ competitiveness ↓ clients satisfaction