Health standard: IiP accreditation
Investors in People UK, the body that accredits employers for their people management performance, plans to incorporate health and wellbeing at work into its standard - but how does workplace health fit into a scheme traditionally more focused on learning and development?
On this page:
Health
is business improvement
IiP pilot
Specialist assessors
Integrating health and
wellbeing
Wider health agenda
The
health and wellbeing at work framework
Box 1: Claridge's
Hotel, Mayfair, London
Box 2: IiP health and wellbeing
at work framework.
Investors in People (IiP) UK has a well-established reputation for its standard-based scheme to accredit employers for their training and development policies and practices, but has historically steered clear of workplace health and safety issues. However, the organisation has recently piloted a framework focusing on health and wellbeing at work, and 350 employers with at total of 220,000 staff have so far had their health and wellbeing practices examined as part of the IiP accreditation process. IiP UK is now using the results of a recent evaluation of this pilot to explore how workplace health can be formally incorporated into the IiP standard when it is next reviewed in 2009-10.
Health is business improvement
Since its inception 15 years ago, IiP has developed a business improvement tool known as the ‘standard’, which focuses on improving people. The ever-changing business and organisational environment means the standard is always being reviewed and revised and new elements developed, and formal revisions are made every three to five years.
The IiP standard already provides a foundation for emotional and psychological wellbeing at work within its current criteria – for example, it requires employees to be involved in decision-making, and to receive constructive feedback. IiP sees the development of a health and wellbeing at work framework as a natural extension of the core standard.
Work on integrating health and wellbeing into the IiP standard started in 2004, following the publication of the Government’s public health White Paper, Choosing Health. The Department of Health provided £300,000 to fund a three-phase pilot. Rob Hargreaves, head of product development and quality at IiP UK, says: “From the department’s point of view, the project fits with the government’s health at work agenda, and from ours, it meets our overall remit to help employers become more productive.”
During an IiP assessment, employers have to fulfil a series of ‘evidence requirements’ demonstrating practice in the areas reviewed. A total of 28 such requirements have been developed for the new health and wellbeing framework, and are slotted in under the existing 10 headings used in the core standard. For example, top managers are asked to give examples of the cost, resources and overall investment in developing workplace health and wellbeing under the heading ‘Investment in people improves the performance of the organisation’. The IiP assessor will also ask for examples of how support for health and wellbeing has improved the organisation’s performance (see box 2).
The framework also assesses how employers measure business benefits accruing from investing in workplace health – the subject of research undertaken by the Work Foundation for IiP UK published in June. This research raises concerns about the available evidence demonstrating a return on investing in workplace health and also has some interesting things to say about the cost of presenteeism. It concludes that it is more expensive for employers to keep an employee in work, but working below capacity due to their ill health, than to put proper treatment and return-to-work plans in place.
Assessors meet a range of individuals in an organisation during their visits, including top managers and staff, and ask questions on the key areas of focus in the health and wellbeing framework. This questioning is designed to produce evidence that policies are implemented on the ground. A report is subsequently compiled, setting out whether the overall standard has been met, and containing commentary on areas for improvement (for example, an inconsistency in policy and practice might have been identified during the assessment).
The framework encourages employers to exceed legal requirements to manage and address risks to health, on the basis that this approach will produce big differences in employees’ health. It aims to provide a flexible, holistic framework to help organisations improve the health and wellbeing aspects of people management. Assessors ask employers to consider current practice and to challenge this with a ‘plan-do-review’ cycle (see box 2). Currently, the health and wellbeing at work framework is an optional extra for organisations going through the process of obtaining the IiP standard, but elements of it are likely to be integrated with the standard at its next review in 2009-10.
Organisations do not have to provide access to OH to meet the health and wellbeing framework. “We work with many micro companies which simply cannot afford to buy occupational health support,” Hargreaves explains.
However, during the pilot many organisations provided examples of the role of OH in securing health at work, and assessors do follow up mentions of OH in their questioning – for example, to explore the type of OH services on offer and which groups in the workforce are eligible.
“Although there is nothing explicit in the framework on occupational health, its availability does demonstrate that the organisation is caring for its people,” he says. A good practice database forming part of the health and wellbeing at work project also recognises the value of OH, stating that while it can be expensive, investing in OH can help manage absence costs more effectively.
The proposed standard states that organisations should enable health improvement, but “without imposing unfair or intrusive schemes”. IiP needs to avoid its scheme being used by employers to stigmatise individuals, for example, because of their weight or lifestyle behaviours, according to Hargreaves.
“We also have to guard against IiP becoming too intrusive by asking for too much potentially confidential information on employees’ health,” he adds.
Integrating health and wellbeing
“We had a number of examples of organisations arranging subsidised gym membership for staff, but the staff did not take it up – for example, because the membership only allowed them to use the gym at unsocial times, or it was inconveniently located,” Hargreaves explains.
The results of the evaluation are being used to inform the next stage of the project – narrowing down the list of 28 evidence requirements into a more manageable list. The biggest group of organisations were able to demonstrate between 11 and 20 evidence requirements, and the project team at IiP is now exploring which of these have the most impact on productivity. A list of between five and 10 is then likely to be put forward to the formal review of the core standard next year.
“There has been so much more focus on health and wellbeing in the past five years and IiP needs to reflect changes in business and organisational behaviour,” says Hargreaves.
It is likely that aspects of the pilot health and wellbeing framework will be sprinkled across the 10 areas of focus in the core standard when it is reviewed, rather than be added as an 11th standalone indicator. “Introducing a new indicator is too blunt a tool, and would put some organisations off going for the standard,” he argues.
Focusing on organisational wellbeing, and particularly on the role of line managers’ behaviour in fostering this, fits better with other aspects of the IiP standard, he adds. The core standard tends to approach business improvement from the standpoint of fostering a supportive culture and the management behaviours to support health, “rather than getting firms to offer gym membership or free fruit”.
Hargreaves believes it is important that IiP’s employer clients do not see the standard as a tool for implementing government policy, for example, on healthy eating or physical activity, which might be the case if mandatory requirements were bolted on to the standard. “Our clients work with us to improve their productivity and business performance, not to meet the government’s policy agenda,” he adds.
The IiP health and wellbeing at work framework
The new Investors in People (IiP) UK framework for health and wellbeing at work includes 10 key areas of focus, based on the current IiP standard and its model of ‘plan’, ‘do’ and ‘review’. The framework is still being developed, so assessments against it do not currently affect an organisation’s overall accreditation for IiP, although do provide a benchmark of current health and wellbeing at work performance.
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Box 1: Claridge's Hotel, Mayfair, London Working in the hospitality sector is physically and mentally demanding, and can be stressful, particularly for the many shift workers. Claridge’s Hotel in Mayfair employs 496 staff and obtained IiP status in 2000, and has recently been assessed against the health and wellbeing framework as part of the pilot phase. Claridge's Hotel has introduced a range of policies and strategies to support health and wellbeing, including an employee assistance programme providing confidential telephone-based help 24/7. Preventative health measures are strong – for example, an OH nurse regularly visits all departments, providing advice on suitable footwear and posture, particularly important in higher-risk areas such as concierge, where team members stand on hard marble floors for a considerable part of the day. The OH team also offers influenza injections and smoking cessation services, including nicotine patches. The hotel has a diverse workforce, and the employer is very aware of the importance of supporting emotional wellbeing at difficult times. For example, it will open a centre equipped with telephones and PCs if a natural disaster occurs in an area of the world where staff might have relatives so that they can contact them. All line managers are responsible for effectively managing stress at work, supported by a leadership programme across the hotel. Healthy eating at work is important and staff have their own head chef providing healthy food and vegetarian options in the staff canteen. Claridge’s also offers corporate gym membership and a jogging club in nearby Hyde Park. Outcomes include:
Source: IiP UK/Claridge's Hotel. |
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Box 2: IiP health and wellbeing at work framework | |
PLAN | |
Key focus area |
Health and wellbeing requirements for senior managers |
A strategy for improving the organisation’s performance is clearly defined and understood. |
Top managers can explain the health and wellbeing needs of the organisation’s people and what objectives they have set to support them. |
Learning and development is planned to achieve the organisation’s objectives. |
Top managers can explain the organisation’s learning and development needs to support the health and wellbeing goals in the strategy. |
Strategies for managing people are designed to promote equality of opportunity in the development of the organisation's people. |
Top managers can describe how they make sure the health and wellbeing of the organisation’s people is supported in an appropriate and fair way. |
The capabilities managers need to lead, manage and develop people effectively are clearly defined and understood. |
Top managers can describe the knowledge, skill and behaviours managers need to support the health and wellbeing needs of staff and the plans they have in place to make sure managers have these capabilities. |
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DO | |
Key focus area |
Health and wellbeing requirements for senior managers |
Managers are effective in leading, managing and developing people. |
Managers can explain how they are effective in supporting health and wellbeing. Possible question during assessment: “What examples can you give of timely and helpful health and wellbeing feedback to staff?” |
People's contribution to the organisations recognised and valued. |
Managers will be able to give examples of how people are valued and recognised for contributing to a safe environment, reducing accidents and taking advantage of health improvement opportunities. |
People are encouraged to take ownership and responsibility by being involved in decision-making. |
Managers will give examples of how they promote a sense of ownership of health and safety issues and how they enable people to make decisions with a potential health and wellbeing effect. |
People learn and develop effectively. |
Managers can explain how teams’ health and wellbeing related learning needs are met. Possible question during assessment: “What does the organisation do to promote health and wellbeing to new staff?” |
REVIEW | |
Key focus area |
Health and wellbeing requirements for senior managers |
Investment in people improves the performance of the organisation. |
Top managers can explain and quantify how strategies to support people’s health and wellbeing have had an impact on their health and wellbeing and, in turn, the performance of the organisation. |
Improvements are continually made to the way people are managed and developed. |
Top managers can give examples of how the evaluation of investment in health and wellbeing has resulted in improvements to the organisation’s health and wellbeing strategy. |
