0. Navigating the Minefield
Preventing and conquering the barriers to complex injury management cases
The Causal Links Between Organisational Health and Individual Injury
Presented on behalf of Self Insurers of Victoria
Insight SRC Pty Ltd
Level 9, 34 Queen Street
Melbourne VIC Phone:
Website:

1. About Insight SRC…
Insight SRC is a highly-skilled consulting organisation capable of building the productivity and effectiveness of enterprises through innovative and empowering leadership and organisational development strategies.
We deal with the problem, not the symptom, by creating the tools, knowledge and capacity that our clients can then apply to a self-managed process for cultural and organisational change.
Insight SRC works as a strategic partner with our clients to develop long-lasting relationships. You have the expert understanding of your operating environment. We have the deep conceptual knowledge of HR development and the powerful statistical tools and change processes to back it up.
The solutions we develop are not off-the-shelf formats. Our flexibility in thinking and deployment is a result of a holistic approach to organisational issues.
Together we work to give you insight into the way your people work, and the pathways for improvement.
As partners, we create knowledge – the most powerful tool of the contemporary organisation. 1

2. Our theoretical frameworks …
Insight SRC has been instrumental in creating the knowledge and setting the standards in the HR, consulting and scientific management communities:
research awards (e.g., we have received many prestigious research awards, at the national and international levels, for the quality of our organisational research, and have been rated in the top 10% of researchers worldwide)
creating the knowledge that drives international thinking (e.g., we our recognised as thought leaders on the key drivers of wellbeing, motivation and performance, and have published extensively in the top-tier scientific journals in management and organisational psychology)
establishing the theoretical frameworks that underpin policy and practice (e.g., we developed the organisational health framework that now underpins the policies and practices in a wide range of private and public sector organisations to build accountability and improvement in people issues)
Our research highlights four fundamental truisms that build effective performance
Empathy – building trust, respect, and understanding
Clarity – building dialogue, discussion, focus and accountability
Engagement – building teamwork, empowerment, and shared ownership
Learning – building in feedback, personal growth and challenge
… these underpin the key team and individual behaviours that drive wellbeing 2

3. Engagement is the critical path to wellbeing and performance …
Our focus, on establishing and understanding the link between people and performance has clearly demonstrated that engaged employees are the foundation of effective organisations.
The Russell Investment Group A study of the companies on Fortune’s annual list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” showed that these companies returned five times as much to investors as the market in general
Towers Perrin/ISR Using data from 664,000 employees across 50 countries worldwide, Towers Perrin/ISR found that companies with highly engaged employees had lower turnover, lower absence, higher customer satisfaction
McKinsey Lowell L. Bryan, a McKinsey Director, argues that companies focus too much on measuring returns on invested capital and not enough on measuring the contributions of their people, and believes that we should use financial-performance metrics to focus on returns on talent rather than returns on capital
Insight SRC Working with a range of Australian private and public sector organisations, we have established a strong link between engaged employees and business performance:
Boeing Australia – engaged employees drive business excellence (2003 Gold Award)
Medium-sized Bank – engaged employees drive financial performance (2006)
RACV – engaged employees drive retail and call centre customer satisfaction (2002 SIOP)
Victorian Education – engaged employees drive student retention and academic achievement (2007)
State and Commonwealth Public Sector – engaged employees lead to lower costs ( ) 3

4. Typical challenges when building engagement …
Building engagement can be a time consuming, costly and threatening pursuit:
Getting it right
(e.g., organisations often embark on engagement programs without first establishing the root cause of wellbeing and performance outcomes)
Survey fatigue
(e.g., organisations often implement a range of diagnostic activities, including culture and climate surveys, stress audits, 360 degree feedback surveys, pulse surveys, engagement surveys, etc)
Lack of common language
(e.g., embedding a common cultural language around ‘people’ is not helped by the use of different frameworks, tools and providers that all come with their own ways of talking about leadership and culture)
Lack of integration
(e.g., different diagnostic tools usually draw on different conceptual frameworks, resulting in fragmentation and competing messages, a lack of ownership for core issues, and time consuming development processes)
The blame game
(e.g., organisations sometimes struggle to build ownership of development needs at the right level, with managers blaming employees, and employees blaming managers – finger pointing is much easier than change) 4

5. Using organisational health as an integrative framework …
Through a range of scientific and commercial projects, we have examined the key drivers of organisational health with data from over 1,000,000 employees world-wide.
Public Sector
Private Sector
Accountants and Economists
Community Services Workers
Emergency Services Workers
Hospital Staff
Local Government Employees
Police Officers
Primary & Secondary Teachers
TAFE Employees
Transport Workers
Airline Employees
Engineering Employees
Finance Sector Employees
Information Technology Employees
Insurance Employees
Resource Industry Employees
Retail Employees
Telecommunications Employees
Utilities Employees 5

6. Discretionary Performance
The Organisational Health Framework …
Emotionality
Stress Leave + + +
Non certified
Sick leave
Emotion
Focused
Coping +
Negative
Experiences +
Stress _ _ _ _ _
Turnover
Intentions
Org.
Climate + +
Job
Satisfaction + +
Discretionary Performance + _ +
Problem
Focused
Coping +
Positive
Experiences +
Morale
Customer Experience + + +
Profitability
Sociability
Based on Hart & Cooper (2001) 6

7. Individual Characteristics Organisational Characteristics Distress
Simplifying the Organisational Health Framework …
Individual
Characteristics
Organisational
Characteristics
Distress
Organisational
Performance
Morale
we actually control those things that make the most difference to wellbeing and performance … 7

8. Emotion Focused Coping
Research evidence …
Individual Morale
Individual Distress
Workplace Morale
Organisational
Climate Sociability
Emotionality
Positive
Work Experiences
Negative
Work Experience 51 30
-30 28
-18
Climate Negative
Sociability
Emotion Focused Coping 67
-36 23
-10 05 03
Climate 85
-29 15
Climate Emotionality
-60 45 25 04
Workplace Distress 8

9. Workers’ Compensation Noncertified Sick leave
Even more research evidence …
Job Satisfaction
Workers’ Compensation
Noncertified Sick leave
Organisational
Climate
Emotionality
Positive
Work Experiences
Negative
Sociability 34
Individual Distress
Individual Morale
Emotion Focused Coping
55 28
-28
-26 13 12
-11
Workplace Distress
-19
-16 11 06
-06
Workplace Morale 40
-39
-34 22
-14
-10 09
Turnover Intentions 9

10. Improving service delivery …
Linking wellbeing and service delivery in a call centre environment
Innovation 23
Organisational Climate
Staff Well-Being
Customer Experience
Leadership 52
Retention 10

11. Organisational climate and safety behaviours …
Neal, Griffin & Hart (2000) Safety Science 11

12. Organisational Climate
Days compensated after back injury … 23
Catastrophise
Pain Severity
Impact On Life 23
Days Compensated 42 48 42
-22
-20
Organisational Climate
Claims Management 67
Hart, Norris, Wearing, McMurray, Disler & Malinovskaya (1997) University of Melbourne 12

13. Organisational Climate
Return to work after back injury …
Catastrophise
Pain Severity
Impact On Life 23
Days Compensated 50 48 47 41
-28
-31
Organisational Climate
Claims Management
Return to Work 80
-38
Hart, Norris, Wearing, McMurray, Disler & Malinovskaya (1997) University of Melbourne 13

14. ? Putting the pieces together …
There are no magic silver bullets when it comes to improving organisational health. Nevertheless, we can develop a set of principles and practical tools that enable us to structure our thinking and improvement activities.
Leadership Behaviours
Cultural Behaviours
Employee
Wellbeing
Organisational Performance
Concerns and/or Opportunities ?
Core Business
Change Management
Development
People
Empathy
Clarity
Engagement
Learning
Energy
Enthusiasm
Pride
Passion
Symptoms
a strategic approach focuses on the causes, not the symptoms… 14

15. Dynamic equilibrium theory of stress …
Stress is a systemic concept that may be observed when two conditions are met:
a state of disequilibrium exists within the system of variables relating people to their environment;
and
this state of disequilibrium brings about change in people’s normal levels of psychological well-being. 15

16. (e.g., anxiety, depression, frustration, worry)
Practical definitions …
Distress refers to the negative feelings that people experience as a result of their work
(e.g., anxiety, depression, frustration, worry)
Morale refers to the positive feelings that people experience as a result of their work
(e.g., energy, enthusiasm, pride, team spirit) 16

17. Emotion is the key to staff wellbeing …
Employee Satisfaction
Quality of Work Life
Employee Wellbeing
Job Satisfaction
Low
High
L o w
H i g h
Distress
M o r a l e
Utopia
Go, go, go ...
#$*!#!
Presenteeism 17

18. Police experiences and their wellbeing …
Negative
Experiences
Victims
Danger
Dual Careers
Personality Clashes
Activity
Insecurity
Frustration
Complaints
External
Career Opportunities
Coworkers
Outside Support
Work & Home Life
Workload
Resources
Communication
Supervision
Administration 22 24 35 47 48 49 50 52 56 61 62 66 67 71 83 84
Positive
Decision-Making
The Job Itself
Management
Customer Service
Amenities
Work Schedule
Equip. & Resources
Family
Offenders 73 68 65 58 57 54 29 18 78 18

19. Organisational Health
Consulting through balloons and weights …
By focusing on the actual experiences that an employee has had over the past 1-2 months, it is possible to identify the key factors that contribute to staff wellbeing and overall performance – without ‘loading’ the dice through a checklist or questionnaire.
Organisational Health 19

20. Key drivers of motivation and wellbeing…
Causes
Employee Development
Co-worker Interaction
Feedback
Goal Alignment
Participative Decision-Making
Role Clarity
Supportive Leadership
Work Demands
50% of Individual Morale
85% of Workgroup Morale
80% of Workgroup Distress
45% of Individual Distress
Explains 20

21. Building a quality organisational culture …
Research in a wide variety of private and public sector organisations demonstrates that the following four cultural pillars underpin wellbeing, motivation and performance in all organisations:
Empathy (Supportive Leadership)
Clarity (Role Clarity)
Engagement (Teamwork, Empowerment, Ownership)
Learning (Feedback, Employee Development)
Importantly, the relative strengths and weaknesses across these four pillars differs across teams. This indicates that improvement strategies have to be tailored to the specific needs of individual teams.
Clarity
Empathy
Engagement
Learning 21

22. Building the culture that underpins high performance …
Supportive Leadership 20
Feedback
Service Delivery
Retention
Stress
Claims
Absenteeism
Discretionary Effort 40
Employee Development 30
Individual Morale 24 72
Role Clarity 47 22 33 40 45
Teamwork 56
Workplace Morale 44 38 33 39
-41
Empower- ment
Ownership
Workplace Distress 40 59 66 29 33
-42
-55
Excessive Work Demands 30
Individual Distress
-21
Engaging
Clarity
Learning
Empathy
Leadership and Management Culture 22

23. Supportive Leadership
Understanding what is most important …
Workgroup Morale
Workgroup Distress
Individual Morale
Individual Distress
Supportive Leadership
Coworker Interaction
Role Clarity
Goal Alignment
Participative Decision-Making 74 45 39 15
Excessive Work Demands 66
-60
-41
-19
-14
-18
Employee Development
Appraisal & Recognition 52 48 30 16 13 12
-42 23

24. Effectively Manages Change Values Training & Development
What is behind supportive leadership – a transformational approach…
Focus on
Core Business
Builds Own Skills
Is Entrepreneurial
Creates a Quality Environment
Provides Direction
Effectively Manages
Projects
Focus on
People
Manages People
Seeks Feedback
Builds Relationships
Supports Staff
Focus on Development
Coaches Staff
Effectively Manages Change
Values Training & Development
Supportive
Leadership
being approachable
knowing the
problems staff face
supporting staff
communicating well
with staff
can be relied upon 24

25. Moving toward an emotional intelligence framework …
Research in a wide variety of private and public sector organisations demonstrates that the following four cultural pillars underpin engagement and performance in all organisations:
Empathy the extent to which workgroup leaders understand the needs of workgroup members
Clarity the extent to which workgroup members have a sense of purpose and know what is expected of them
Engagement the extent to which workgroup members collaborate, share ideas and solve problems together, leading to shared Goal Alignment of workgroup goals
Learning the extent to which workgroup members feel their efforts are being recognised and their capability is being developed through appropriate learning and development opportunities
These four pillars underpin Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee’s (2002) emotional intelligence approach to leadership - their six styles of leadership include visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and commanding. 25

26. Why are the four pillars of culture so important?
Wellbeing & Motivation
Loyalty Behaviours
Absence Cost
Customer Experience
Sales Performance
Retention
85%
60%
25%
15%
50%
55%
the leader and cultural behaviours that form the foundations of engagement and performance
Clarity
Empathy
Engagement
Learning
Four Pillars of Leader and Cultural Behaviour 26

27. Behaviour change – the difficult part when improving wellbeing …
Bringing about a change in the factors that contribute to employee wellbeing is not straightforward. Pre and post-test evidence, from a range of different improvement programs over the past 17 years, has demonstrated that action-learning programs that focus on behaviour change have the greatest chance of success.
Minimum chance of success:
Building knowledge (e.g., sharing ideas, reflection, one-off training days, etc)
Maximum chance of success:
Changing behaviour (i.e., if behaviour does not change, improvement does not occur)
People can see and experience behaviour change in others, but they can’t always see and experience change in other people’s knowledge! 27

28. Key questions of leaders coming into the program …
Improvement in organisational health should be strategic and holistic!
Engagement:
Do staff have a shared view about the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses?
Are staff on board with the proposed improvement process?
Clarity:
What are the organisation’s improvement goals?
How do these goals fit in with the strategic plan for the organisation?
Empathy & Engagement:
Do we need to implement an action learning process?
How should we create project teams and champions?
Learning:
What learning activities do we need to build into the process?
Do we need to review the leadership structure and roles?
Do we need to develop a vision and strategic plan?
Do we need to build empathy among leaders?
Do we need to improve meetings?
… what can I do personally to make a difference? 28

29. Improving the four pillars will reduce workers’ compensation costs …
$1,378,783 saving over three years in one worksite of 80 people!
Change Program 29

30. Key learnings … Distress and morale are central to staff well-being
There is no ‘magic silver bullet’ that will enable us to improve wellbeing and performance. However, there are common factors in the leader and cultural behaviours that underpin success in all organisations:
Distress and morale are central to staff well-being
The quality of the organisational climate you create is critical to staff well-being and organisational performance
Empathy, Clarity, Engagement, and Learning is the key to success
High performing workgroups can only be established by working ‘collaboratively’ to build an engaging environment that motivates employees and delivers core business results
Action-learning is the best way to create new behavioural habits 30

31. Our contact details… Dr Peter Hart Managing Director Insight SRC
Level 9, 34 Queen Street
Melbourne, 3000
Phone:
Roger Dingle
Senior Consultant 31