I attended a seminar on Workplace Health & Wellbeing last week and I would like to share with you some of the standouts for me. Standouts are from my perspective of providing counselling to workers who are stressed; and working with conflict in the workplace.
1. Workplace wellbeing easily fits into existing risk management and WH&S programmes. Why? Well, the goals are the same:
- Controlling the risks to workers’ health and safety.
- Reducing illness and injury.
- Retaining valuable skills.
- Enhancing productivity.
- Strengthening business outcomes.
2. The legislation Work Health and Safety Act 2011 talks about physical and psychological health. (Page 25 Section 19 of Part 2 is a good place to start).
3. Get this right and productivity will increase.
- The healthiest employees are almost three times more productive than their unhealthy colleagues.
- Workers with medium to high health risks are three times more likely to file Workers’ Comp claims.
- Obese workers are more likely to take sick leave.
- On average 6.5 working days of productivity are lost annually per employee as a result of presenteeism (coming to work while sick or injured).
Retrieved 28th November 2014 from https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/injury-prevention-safety/health-and-wellbeing-at-work/impacts
Having an Employee Assistance Programme is one way to ensure employees Mental Wellbeing is being taken care of when things go wrong.
The vast majority of workers I see (from industries in mining, construction, manufacturing, small business and community sector) are struggling with stress related issues – work and/or home.
To help lower employee stress; I can offer you a 60 minute presentation entitled Coping with Stress. In this presentation attendees will learn practical tips to limit the stress in their life and identify some positives of that stress. Managers/supervisors/team leaders will come away with a less confrontational way to approach stressed workers.
Call me on 0407 585 497 for further information.
