The Steering Group, led by the Work PositiveCI coordinator, should be responsible for collating everything into an overall action plan for the organisation.
Wellbeing Priorities
Measure and follow-up consultation activity should help the Steering Group prioritise the key areas to address over the next few years. It is unlikely you will be able to address all of the issues identified at once so the Steering Group need to choose which are the most important (and achievable) to start with. For example, if the work stressor 'Relationships' is reported as a significant issue for your workforce, one of the key priorities could be to improve interpersonal relationships between employees. Similarly, if employees have to work long or unsociable hours, one of your key priorities could be work-life balance.
| Example Wellbeing Priorities |
|---|
| Psychological wellbeing |
| Work-life balance |
Wellbeing Objectives
For each wellbeing priority, try to develop a couple of key objectives that the Steering Group think would make a beneficial impact in your organisation. Objectives are statements of expected short-term accomplishments related to one or more programme goals. Objectives offer specifics of how much, what and when. For example, one objective might be, “By 2018 (by when), to increase by 30% (how much) the worksite menu options that include fruits and/or vegetables (of what).” Objectives should align with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) where possible and clearly articulate the potential benefits of your programme (e.g. a X% reduction in stress related absence, a X% reduction in employee attrition rates). Consider your objectives for relevancy and realism – for example, can you really reduce overall employee absenteeism by 10% in one year? Remember! Don’t over promise and under deliver. Review your workforce indicators established at the measure stage. These can help set targets for delivery.
| Example Wellbeing Priorities | Example Wellbeing Objectives |
|---|---|
| Psychological wellbeing | To reduce stress-related absence by 2% |
| To increase engagement with employee mental health support services by 15% (e.g. EAP, Occ health) | |
| To improve employee access to mental health support |
Wellbeing Initiatives
You need to identify / create wellbeing initiatives that can help you meet your objectives. Many of these initiatives will already be running within your organisation. They might just need to be tweaked and co-ordinated better, others may be entirely new. Examples of wellbeing initiatives include:
- New targeted policies
- Reviewing / updating existing policies
- Raising awareness activities to promote current support measures and policies
- Line manager training
- Job design / task analysis
- Changing some aspect of the work flow
- Mentoring
| Example Wellbeing Priorities | Example Wellbeing Objectives | Example Wellbeing Initiatives |
|---|---|---|
| Psychological wellbeing |
To improve employee access to mental health support |
Review / update existing work-related stress policy |
| To reduce stress-related absence by 2% | Run quarterly stress awareness workshops | |
| To increase engagement with employee mental health support services by 15% (e.g. EAP, Occ health | Run management training sessions on dealing with employee stress | |
| Run awareness lunchtime sessions on current support measures | ||
| Send email communication to all staff / distribute leaflets promoting support services |
Employee psychosocial support initiatives can be categorised under primary, secondary and tertiary interventions.
- Primary: Focuses on stress prevention activity ‘at source’, in order to prevent it occurring. It usually involves addressing work-related hazards and the sources of harm (eg changes to organisational culture, workload, job redesign).
- Secondary: Focuses on prevention activity for employees by minimising the adverse effects of a hazard. It includes training for the job, training in general aspects of health and safety, training in coping strategies and support offered through the provision of adequate management of the social and technical aspects of an employee’s working life (i.e. identifying and assisting employees exhibiting the early warning signs of stress and providing employee assistance programs). This good management practice has a role both in preventing stress and helping stressed employees to recover.
- Tertiary: Focuses on the provision of staff supports such as counselling, employee assistance programmes (EAPs), occupational health or outsourced support services in order to assist employees who feel a need for extra support as a result of injury or illness. It includes the treatment of the identified condition, rehabilitation and return to work strategies.
Your final action plan should consist of two sections.
Section A - General overview
This section provides the context, your key findings and your planned actions going forward. Planned actions serve as Control Measures in terms of the Risk Assessment approach. It should be able to act as a standalone document. Some useful questions to answer within this section are:
What did you do and why?
- Provide a little background to the Work PositiveCI project and the positive reasons for your company engaging in the process.
- Explain what you did (e.g. created a steering group, ran a survey, focus groups and other forms of consultation)
What did you find?
- Provide a brief summary of the key findings from the Measure stage, discussing your concerns, and why issues were prioritised.
What are you planning to do to improve the situation?
- This should lead to some discussion of your wellbeing priorities and objectives, how you plan to achieve these objectives (your initiatives) and what employees can expect over the coming year(s) (e.g. a timeline).
Remember to provide contact information for the Steering Group and highlight opportunities for employees to engage with your initiatives and provide feedback to the Survey Results and action plan.
Section B - The details
This section should provide all the specific details required by your Steering Group and key personnel to coordinate Work PositiveCI activity going forward. The following information should be added to each wellbeing initiative:
- Target group: Who is this initiative targeting (e.g. the whole workforce, a department or a occupational role)?
- Key person(s): Which department / function is responsible and who is the key contact for driving this initiative? Who else needs to be involved?
- Required resources: What resources will be required to run this initiative? e.g. budget, funding, staffing, knowledge or specific expertise. Think about any potential assistance from Government, health bodies, charitable agencies or industry associations you might avail of.
- Key metrics: How can the success of this initiative be measured?
- Completion / review date: What is the timescale for this initiative, when will it be completed / reviewed?
Example layout:
| Priorities | Objectives | Initiatives | Target Group | Key person(s) | Required resources | Key metrics | Completion / review date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What are key areas the organisation wants to improve? | What are you planning to do to improve the situation? | What initiatives can employees expect over the coming year(s)? | Who is this initiative targeting ? | Who is responsible and who is the key contact for driving this initiative? | What resources will be required to run this initiative? | How can the success of this initiative be measured? | What is the timescale for this initiative? |
If you have conducted a Job Content CI Audit and deployed the Work PositiveCI Critical Incident survey review the following content on how to create a CI Action Plan.
- Remember to include a communication plan – how will you communicate progress updates to your stakeholders / workforce? How will you consult stakeholders on future developments?
- Include an itemised budget to detail proposed spending.
- Your plan should focus on the next 18 months. This will allow meaningful activity to continue during the annual review process.
- Lead off with those activities most likely to succeed, achieve a positive outcome within a short time period and require relatively simple changes. Early successes will help generate momentum.