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

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

3. 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.

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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. The radar
OHS

9. 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

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

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

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

13. 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

14. 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

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

16. 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

17. 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

19. 3 slides that I have not shown on NES 2019
extras
3 slides that I have not shown on NES 2019

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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