As you know, the Investors in People Standard is about business improvement through people. Now, there's a new companion tool available from Investors in People which builds on the Standard to help you monitor and improve your approach to keeping your people healthy and well.
Introducing the Health & Wellbeing at Work Project
The Health and Wellbeing at Work project has been developed with the guidance of leading employers, health experts and the Department of Health. It gives you a flexible, holistic framework to help you improve your approach to people management and development in terms of health and wellbeing.
Starting from what you are doing already, it challenges you to consider your approach in line with the Plan-Do-Review cycle, with an explicit focus on support for health and wellbeing. So in many ways, it's just the next step for a forward-looking employer looking to get more out of the Standard or Profile.
The project is currently an optional extra you can add to a scheduled assessment against the Investors in People Standard or Profile. As Investors in People supports leading employers in finding new ways to improve their people management and development, a focus on health and wellbeing is likely to be come increasingly integrated within the Standard and Profile over the next few years.
What does it cover?
There's more to creating a healthy workforce than setting up a gym or swapping biscuits for bananas. Health and Wellbeing at Work recognises that some of the healthiest organisations don't have the resources to support expensive schemes. They succeed by concentrating on the fundamentals: good communication, flexible working practices, effective and fair line management, and the support people need to meet the challenges they face at work.
The project looks at five broad areas of health at work within the 10 indicators of the Standard:
Line management & workplace culture
Refining the capabilities of managers, their ability to manage team members effectively, address issues of attendance and rehabilitation, identify potential causes of stress, and signpost individuals to sources of help and support
Prevention & risk management
Going beyond legal requirements to manage and address risks to health, avoid excessive pressure or stress, and prevent harm to health both physical and mental
Individual role & empowerment
Ensuring people's objectives are clear and challenging, and they have the support and communication they need to perform effectively
Work-life balance
Reviewing working patterns to meet the needs of the organisation and the diverse individuals within it
Enabling health improvement
Supporting employees who want to live healthily, without imposing unfair or intrusive schemes where these are not justified
How does it relate to the Investors in People Standard or Profile?
The importance of a holistic approach to keeping people well is already integral to the Investors in People Standard. The majority of the requirements in Profile also promote the kind of workplace culture and effective management conducive to healthy, well people.
So Health and Wellbeing at Work is tightly integrated with the 10 indicators of the Standard, incorporating many of the existing evidence requirements and introducing some additional ones. Think of it as an assessment with a special focus on health and wellbeing.
How does it work in practice?
Your assessor will collect evidence of the organisation's support for health and wellbeing alongside a normal assessment. In some areas, they will look in more detail at how the organisation's approach to people management and development has been planned, delivered and evaluated in relation to health and wellbeing. Your assessment report will then also include specific feedback about health and wellbeing, including ideas for how you might address any areas for improvement.
What to do next?
150 Health and Wellbeing at Work 3rd pilots will be conducted alongside a Investors in People UK Standard or Profile assessment between August 2007 and February 2008. If your organisation is due for your assessment review or first Standard or Profile assessment during this period, please contact your Investors in People Centre to enquire about being involved in the piloting. The pilots are offered free of charge to organisations but are subject to availability.
If your organisation is not due for an Investors in People assessment during the above period, you may still wish to download the Health and Wellbeing framework available on this page or complete the Self-Check available here.