HSE Management Standards Approach Please feel free to use the information provided in this presentation in your own presentations. Where appropriate, we have included speaker notes for you

Contents of this presentation An organisational approach to work-related stress covering: Getting started. A comprehensive risk assessment Embedding the approach In some of the early research commissioned by HSE Cox et al (2000) suggested that there are three main steps to dealing with work-related stress: Prepare the organisation: Gaining senior management commitment Understanding the organisational drivers The setting up of a steering groups Comprehensive risk assessment The Management Standards Approach, five steps to risk assessment Embedding the approach: (learning) Review of existing policies & procedures based on interventions Continuous improvement Our experience of working with organisations has supported this research and has demonstrated that without senior management commitment, in deeds not just words, that it is difficult to deliver real change to the workplace. It is for this reason that the diagram above has ‘preparing the organisation’ as a central theme. In previous versions this was a preparatory step outside of the main process.

An Organisational Approach Getting started Gaining senior management commitment Understanding the organisational drivers The setting up of steering groups Comprehensive risk assessment The Management Standards Approach Embedding the approach Review of existing policies & procedures based on interventions Continuous improvement These stages map to general theories on problem solving. The key starting point to resolving any problem is accepting that there is a problem to be solved in the first place. For many organisations this has presented a significant challenge, that is why ‘preparing the organisation’ is such a key step. The gaining, and maintaining, of senior management commitment is an essential pre-requisite of taking action to tackle the causes of work-related stress. It is also essential as without this commitment it will be very difficult to make a real difference to employees work and well-being.

The Management Standards Approach HSG218 (2007) In earlier versions of this diagram ‘preparing the organisation’ was outside of the main process, it was seen as a preparatory step. Experience of working with organisations using the Management Standards approach has clearly demonstrated the importance of this step to the whole process not just the beginning.

Getting started. The business case: Employee commitment to work Staff performance and productivity Attendance levels Staff recruitment and retention Customer satisfaction Organisational image and reputation Potential litigation May be not surprisingly it is often the business case that persuades organisations to do something about work-related stress. However, we know from our work that it can take quite some time and effort to persuade those at the top of an organisation to address the issue.

Getting started The legal case: The Management Standards are guidance, however, employers already have duties: Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999: To assess the risk of stress-related ill health arising from work activities. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974: To take measures to control that risk. Unfortunately, the legal case does not seem to motivate some organisations! However, enforcement action will be taken by the HSE on work-related stress in the appropriate circumstances.

Getting started Moral case: There is evidence that prolonged periods of excessive pressure have an adverse effect on health Research provides strong links between stress and physical effects such as heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances or various minor illnesses; and psychological effects such as anxiety and depression Poor coping strategies can also lead to other behaviours that are harmful to health, such as skipping meals, drinking too much caffeine or alcohol, or smoking. Should work make you ill? Taking a more positive approach to work and adapting the Health Work & Wellbeing (HWWB) message, that is; work provides an opportunity to improve the health of employees and their families by the appropriate targeting health information.

Getting started Gaining senior management commitment Setting up a steering group (or other forum) Agreeing terms of reference for the Steering group Assigning roles and responsibilities

Setting up a steering group Who should be part of the steering group: Senior management Employee group representative Trade unions representative Health & safety manager Human resources Occupational Health Line management AN Other? These are the groups who are typically members of the steering group. The actual membership will be determined by the organisational structures. However, please remember that the Management Standards approach is designed to be a ‘partnership’ approach. That is all employee groups should be involved in the process. By doing this you increase the probability that the project will deliver real improvements; and lead to a culture change within the organisation.

Steering group – key roles Project Champion: Represents the project at Board level Updates the Board on progress Ensures the project is adequately resourced Day-to-day Champion: Takes the role of project manager Organises and facilitates meetings Documents decisions to provide an audit trail Keeps the project on schedule and on budget From our research it would appear that the ‘Project Champion’ is typically a HR Director or facilities director dependent on the organisational structure; these positions have responsibility for sickness absence and/or health and safety. The ‘Day-to-Day Champion’ is typically a Health and Safety Manager or in some cases an occupational health or HR professional. They effectively take the role of the ‘Project Manager’ coordinating activities and controlling costs and resources

Steering group – key activities Project naming Project management Planning Resources Marketing / communications Monitoring progress Approval of action plans Generation and approval of management reports Any others? See www.hse.gov.uk/stress for a guide to setting up Steering Groups.

Steering group – Communications Methods of communication: Briefing groups Intranet Newsletters Notice boards Email!!! Individual memos and letters Newspapers Any others? That old management chant of ‘communicate, communicate, communicate’ can not be over emphasised it is key to the success of the Management Standards approach and management in general. This approach fits with the advice drawn form management communication texts that “communication should be multi-channel and rich in content”. The main point is that do not use a single means of communication, especially not email!! Why? You may by surprised to learn that in this ‘age of communication’ that research suggests we perceive communication within the workplace as poor! This may be because more is not always better, the issue is quality not quantity. Remember that old BT advert “it’s good to talk”. Face to face discussion it is still one of the most effective means of communication.

Steering group What users have said: Vital to achieve 100% commitment from senior management and local management teams The ‘steering group’ are key; individuals who are keen to make a contribution and make the project work Steering group rules include egos left at the door! You need a team who can be mutually supportive Need a communication strategy, communication is vital Planning is absolutely critical Be pragmatic, all actions are agreed and are done. Throughout the day you will see a number of slides of this type, they contain statements made by people in organisations that are currently using the Management Standards approach. The aim is to pass on to you the lessons from users as these often carry more weight than just the views of HSE alone! A copy of all the slides used today will be available at the end of today's workshop. The statements are drawn from a number of short case studies that we have written up for publicity purposes and will be posted on the Management Standards website in the near future. www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards

Steering Groups Summary: Need senior management commitment Need employee involvement; partnership approach Project plan; include communications activities Further guidance is available on the Management Standards web pages "How to organise Steering Groups" (see: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards)

The Management Standards Approach HSG218 (2007)

Understand the Management Standards The six areas are: Demands: workload, work patterns, and the work environment Control:  How much say the person has in the way they do their work Support: encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues Relationships: promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour Role: Whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles Change: How organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation. The way in which these six stressor areas are managed help describe the culture of an organisation. These definitions are contained on a leaflet “Short Guide to the Management Standards” available as a download from www.hse.gov.uk/stress.

Understand the Management Standards Health Local Governm’t Central Governm’t Education Finance Demand 2 1 Control 4 3 6 Support =3 5 Role =5 Relation’p Change Results from the ‘Healthy Workplace Solutions’ ranking exercise, n=900. These results were gathered from delegates who attended a series of HSE workshops in 2006/2007. The table represents how delegates ranked the impact of each of the six stressors were having on their particular organisation at that time. As you can see there are a lot of similarities; interestingly finance and health sectors are the same!!! The clear winner is ‘change’ suggesting that this area is in the opinion of employees poorly managed.

The Management Standards Approach HSG218 (2007)

Gathering Data Data that can be used, includes: Sickness absence data Employee turnover Exit interview Productivity data Performance appraisals Informal talks with employees Focus groups Surveys Return to work interview The primary message here is NOT to rely on a single source of data; why? Speaker: You may want to highlight reliability/validity issues with the various data sources listed above.

Gathering Data What are we looking for in the data? Areas of good performance Existing knowledge of problems Correlations between data sources ‘Hot spots’ Map the issues in the data to the Management Standards Any others? Overall message is that data exists that could help inform what the problems areas are. Without a full understanding of the issues it is unlikely that appropriate interventions can be designed. These sources of data can provide a picture of where pressure exists in your organisation the next step is to engage with staff to fully understand the issues from their perspective.

HSE Analysis Tool Functions (2013) Up to 12 user defined categories (demographics) Filters display number of respondents and % Totals sheet gives responses for each question Option to include two data sets from previous surveys to allow comparison over that period Data can be imported using standard Excel functions

Gathering data Key learning points from users: Sickness absence data was available but not used! Some data were available through other initiatives Try not to second-guess what responses will be given and don’t decide on solutions before analysing the facts presented We have been monitoring sickness absence data and line managers have been evaluating staff reviews to try and identify triggers. These statements highlight some common situations we have come across. It is often the case that data exists and is used in general terms in management reports. However, this data is not analysed and therefore much information contained within it is not used. Speakers: You can expand on any of these points if time allows!

Gathering Data Summary: Use all available sources of data Look for correlations between data Look for ‘hot spots’ to focus resources Look for areas of good practice Don’t forget the Management Standards!

The Management Standards Approach HSG218 (2007)

Evaluate the risk and take action Team briefings Cascade briefings Existing working groups Other staff forums? HSE recommends the use of ‘Focus Groups’ as a means of engaging with staff. An important point here is not to loose sight of or forget the Management Standards, remember these state what we are trying to achieve I.e. the STBA. Speakers: It is important to reinforce why HSE recommends focus groups; the issue of discussing issues in a supportive and confidential environment etc. The opportunity to discuss and challenge the results of the previous step, data gathering, and work together to generate SMART interventions. Hold the next slide focus group issues

Focus Group Issues Who is going to facilitate the focus groups? How many focus groups are needed? Who should attend a focus group? Who will manage staff attendance? Who will organise locations? Who will be responsible for collating action plans? Who will communicate the agreed actions to all staff? Guidance on ‘How to organise and run focus groups’ is on the Management Standards web pages (see: www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards )

Focus Groups What users have said: Useful for developing staff skills that subsequently can be used internally for other purposes (facilitation) Lack of participation by General Managers; they think it’s an important issue but can’t give time to it Peer support showed as a problem on staff survey but not in focus groups! Feeling is that despite difficulties the focus group approach has worked well and feedback from staff has been very good. Many users find the organisation and getting people to attend focus groups one of the more challenging aspects of the Management Standards Approach. However, those that have successfully managed to overcome the challenges highlight it was also one of the must rewarding parts of the approach. How might attendance at focus groups be improved? (communications, marketing etc.)

The Management Standards The six areas are: Demands: workload, work patterns, and the work environment Control:  How much say the person has in the way they do their work Support: encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues Relationships: promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour Role: Whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles Change: How organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation.

The Management Standards DEMANDS: The standard is that:  Employees indicate that they are able to cope with the demands of their jobs; and Systems are in place locally to respond to any individual concerns. States to be achieved are:  The organisation provides employees with adequate and achievable demands in relation to the agreed hours of work; People’s skills and abilities are matched to the job demands; Jobs are designed to be within the capabilities of employees; and Employees’ concerns about their work environment are addressed. Details of all six Standards are contained in your delegate packs The Management standards for each of the six stressors take the same format. Each contains the Standard and the States to be achieved, if an organisation meets the ‘sates to be achieved’ then they should also meet the standard. The states to be achieved were drawn up in consultation with academics and experts in the field of management. In examining the states it is clear they are not complicated or complex, they are simple statements that define good management practice as it relates to each stressor area. This should become clear as we consider the following couple of slides. Is everyone comfortable that they have a clear understanding of how the STBA relate to the ‘Standard’ statement?

Feedback from Workshop exercises Example of suggested interventions: New targeted policies Review of existing policies Raising awareness of existing policies Line Manager training Job design / task analysis Risk assessment of jobs and people Communication initiatives Mentoring Bearing in mind that the majority of delegates were form the HR, H&S community. It may not be surprisingly there was a heavy emphasis on policies/procedures, training and occupational health. These intervention generally fall into the secondary & tertiary intervention categories. The majority of delegates admitted they already had most of these policies and procedures in place!

Key lessons from users There is no “silver bullet” so don’t waste time looking Try and align with existing initiatives; ‘don’t reinvent the wheel’ It is the small things that make the difference Once we agreed that the Management Standards must be incorporated into every day work, it worked well Reintroduced regular team meetings to address workload, local cover and other immediate issues The Trust now expects managers to thank staff These initiatives require managers to take ownership of their staff. When starting on this process managers tend to assume that if you ask staff/employees what the problems are and how can we address them staff are going to ask for more expensive resources. This fear has not be bourn out in practice. Most interventions are small and can be achieved with little or no extra cost. Many of the problems identified are failings in existing policies and procedure; things that should already be happening but for various reasons are not. These are often small things that slowly wind people up and are perceived by staff as an indication of the organisation failing to support the employee in their demanding role. Speaker: Use personal experience to build on the above points. Also, you need to reinforce the importance of Step 5 Monitor & Review, it helps if the interventions are designed using the SMART principle. This will identify measures to allow monitoring of progress. There is also the issue of “line managers” which is apparent in some of the lessons listed above. The key message is that policies and procedures are the starting point but without the cooperation of line managers at all levels of the organisation they are but words on a piece of paper.

Evaluate the risk and take action Summary: Confirm findings of ‘gap analysis’ with staff via focus groups or other new or existing working groups Use STBA as a means of keeping discussions focused Look for primary interventions

The Management Standards Approach HSG218 (2007)

Action Planning The output from focus groups needs to be captured in a prioritised action plan. Things to consider: Time frame, quick wins can demonstrate you are taking action, other interventions will deliver in the medium to long term Level of the intervention, is it aimed at a team (micro), a department or directorate (macro) or the whole organisation (strategic)? Responsibility, named individuals to take responsibility for each action and to report progress It is important employees are kept informed of progress at regular intervals. This activity needs to be part of your communications plan.

Comments from users This has been a positive experience for all involved The process would have been a waste of time without the Unions The message for staff is “help us make your working life better” Staff have been given a voice and the opportunity to use it This has been a really interesting, exciting, worthwhile process. It has also been hard work and frustrating at times Must not be half-hearted, you only get one chance to ‘get it right’. Some interventions very simple and cost neutral We have already seen an increase in staff motivation We should encourage others to do it ‘an excellent approach’. As you will have hopefully discovered today the Management Standards Approach is not a difficult process; although it can be challenging at times! These statements are once again drawn from the short case studies we have been generating and highlight the thoughts of users. They also illustrate and help reinforce many of the messages you have heard today. Speakers: Feel free to reinforce/expand on any of the above points should time allow!

The Management Standards Approach HSG218 (2007)

Embedding The Approach This is about making the management of stress part of everyday H&S management. How can this be achieved? Reviewing existing policies & procedures based on interventions Evaluating effectiveness of interventions on organisational performance Continuous improvement

Embedding The Approach Key learning points from case studies: Gaining senior management commitment can be challenging and time consuming Need to prepare senior management for possible bad news! Focus groups can be time consuming if not planned in advance Payback period on resource investment is months rather than years

Summary Elements of the Management Standards approach can be integrated with existing initiatives Existing data can be used within the approach, there is no requirement to run a new staff survey Focus groups, or other staff consultation, are a key component of the approach Employer, senior and line management need to buy into the approach and the delivery of the interventions The Management Standards themselves need to be embedded into every day custom and practice