Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Later this month, the Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA) will be releasing a document entitled “Integrated approaches to worker health, safety and well-being” (pictured right, but not yet available online). It is intended to generate discussion on how to improve workplace safety performance by breaking down the walls of various disciplines, production processes, consultative silos and institutional or organisational biases. This document builds on the overseas experience of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH – Total Worker Health program), the World Health Organisation (WHO – Healthy Workplace Framework) and others to provide an Australian context.
Those who are experienced in risk management principles may see little new in this approach and the publication’s success is likely to depend on how VWA explains the initiative and how its stakeholders, Victorian businesses of all sizes, accept the concept and believe it can work in their own workplaces.
Integration
The release of a publication advocating Integration implies that an unintegrated approach to safety management has been an impediment to change. This may be a surprise to risk managers and those who have been consulting broadly on OHS in their workplaces and those companies who have integrated systems managers with responsibility for Quality, OHS and Environment.
Language
Curiously, much of the language is about “improving productivity”, “creating a healthy workplace climate” or “driving significant gains in safety performance”, phrases that the business readership, and even the OHS profession, would struggle to explain. For years OHS regulators have relied on industry associations, safety professionals and the trickle of media to translate their publications and to implement concepts in the real world but those communication pathways are reducing. There is an increasing need for more Plain English advice directly from OHS regulators to those expected to implement the information at the workplace. Regulators need to engage directly with business owners, safety managers and health and safety representatives and phrases like those above are unhelpful.
The main conclusions of the integrated approach proposed are:
- “Integrated approaches are effective for both physical and mental health outcomes; evidence also demonstrates positive return on investment, and access to workers in “high-risk” occupations, who are the least likely to participate in health promotion programs.
- The evaluated case studies demonstrate an ability to build upon their existing OHS structures in order to introduce some low-cost, rapidly-adopted health promotion strategies.
- Implementation of integrated approaches is now well underway in Victorian workplaces. Strong management and leadership and an established ‘integrated health committee’ appear to underpin successful implementation.
- Key challenges for workplaces include staff engagement and participation; inadequate internal expertise to source appropriate programs; resource (time, staff, financial) constraints; and appropriate evaluation tools.”
SafetyAtWorkBlog is a strong advocate for evidence-based decision making in OHS areas. This guidebook references some authoritative overseas bodies but seems thin on Australian evidence, even though it states “implementation of integrated approaches is now well underway in Victorian workplaces”, as in the quote above. The reference page seems to include only two Australian sources – a 2010 Comcare publication on “Effective Health and Wellbeing Programs” and a 1997 journal article on “the health-promoting workplace: an integrative perspective“.
Evidence
In the “Summary of research findings”, subheading “Evidence supporting integrated approaches”, it is stated that
“….of the eight studies reporting on the cost-effectiveness of integrated interventions, all but one reported a favourable outcome.” (page 4)
and
“…the evidence from the thirty-two intervention studies included in the systematic review demonstrated the positive impact of integrated approaches on worker health and safety outcomes.” (page 4)
The referencing in the publication is inconsistent and it would have been a great help for the “eight studies” or the “thirty-two intervention studies” to have been identified through to the endnotes.
Admittedly the summary is a summary but even when referenced in the body of the document (page 25, for instance) it is difficult to identify the thirty-two studies. This is further complicated with another unreferenced mention of thirty documents on page 9:
“In developing these guidelines, the review canvassed expert consensus and evidence informed strategies and recommendations from thirty documents (e.g. conceptual frameworks; guidelines; ‘toolkits’) for the implementation of integrated workplace health and safety programs.”
The evidence may exist but the reader needs to be able to find it.
The guidebook gains authority through then inclusion of real-life case studies of six Australian companies rather than the usual generic fabrications, but the well-being activities in all of the case studies are no older than 2008 with two of them beginning in 2013. This weakness could be compensated for through a strong campaign where the companies in the case studies speak about their experiences first-hand. Even weak or recent evidence can be strengthened by hearing from those who have struggled with, and achieved, an integrated approach. This is where WorkCover’s communication strategy around this document should be focused even though it may be more expensive in the short term. The returns will come from the potential savings generated by implementing the integrated approach advocated.
The guidebook provides an outline of the major resources used in developing the publication and strategy, such as NIOSH, WHO and the Safewell Practice Guidelines from the Harvard School of Public Health, but much more Australian evidence is required. A good supplement to this guidebook would be a bibliography for further reading in this area, in other words additional (hopefully local) evidence. VWA has an excellent library that could be used for this purpose.
It is very important for the integrated approach to be discussed in the Australian context to see if the potential benefits discussed elsewhere in the world can be replicated. This guidebook is a good start and it is believed to be only the first part of a strategy that will continue for at least 12 months. The information session on 21 October 2014*, as part of Health and Safety Week 2014, indicates that VWA knows that more than a standalone guidebook is required. The session brief states:
“The session will include a summary of the empirical evidence into the effectiveness of this approach, and some suggested high-level steps for employers to follow when taking an integrated approach to health and safety issues in the workplace. The session will also feature a case study from an employer demonstrating integrated approaches in the workplace to showcase their learnings, barriers and outcomes.”
More such sessions are required over the next year or two and the guidebook could be built upon and expanded (and simplified) to provide a solid and local evidence base from which companies can structure, and/or restructure, their OHS communication processes to achieve the potential cost savings and efficiencies suggested.
* SafetyAtWorkBlog will be attending this session and providing an article on the presentation.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
