Healthy Workplace Framework:

The World Health Organisation (WHO) published the ‘Healthy Workplace Framework in 2010’. The WHO defines a healthy workplace as one:

“in which workers and mangers’ collaborate to use a continual improvement process to protect and promote the health, safety and well-being of all workers and the sustainability of the workplace by considering the following, based on identified needs:

• Health and safety concerns’ in the physical work environment
• Health, safety and wellbeing concerns in the psychosocial work environment including organisation of work and workplace culture
• Personal health resources in the workplace
• Ways of participating in the community to improve the health of workers, their families and other members of the community”

The HSE has endorsed the Healthy Workplace Framework and is adopting it as a mechanism of improvement for HSE staff. HWF has four distinct pillars as described above and the implementation of WPCI if a component of pillar 2, the psychosocial health of our workforce, organisation of work and workplace culture.

The Healthy Workplace Framework will enable workplaces to adopt a proactive approach to supporting healthcare workers in their role. In addition, the HSEs’ Work PositiveCI has been adapted to provide a dual approach to this risk.

1. At department/service level it will provide signposting to internal and external supports, and the automatic generation of action reports. It provides advice and guidance on potential control measures (e.g. management of workload, up-skilling, role clarity, re-organisation of systems of work) which are programmed into the action plans to enhance the support to managers.
2. At a National level the enhanced reporting capabilities will provide data across the organisation. This can then be used together with other KPI’s to influence, instruct or enhance existing strategies, supports and other initiatives to reduce this risk.

WPCI will allow the HSE, to benefit from:

• A methodology for managing work-related stress and psychological wellbeing within the organisation
• A methodology for managing critical incidents/traumatic events within the organisation
• A completed psychosocial risk assessment which is in compliance with legislation
• A completed action plan to identify appropriate solutions to manage critical incident stress
• It will allow a continuous improvement process to commence

Guide to running a survey:

Careful preparation is required for maximising employee engagement with your survey and ensuring it runs smoothly.  The establishment of a steering group to oversee the implementation and rollout of HSE Work Positive^CI  is critical to its success.  Where there is an established Committee such as a Safety Committee or other which reviews employee safety, health and wellbeing then this committees’ involvement is critical to the successful launch of HSE Work Positive^CI in your workplace. 

Should you need to establish a specific committee for the rollout of HSE Work Positive^CI  and require further guidance then please go to https://www.workpositive.ie/prepare/workinggroup.