Clearview National December 2016 - Issue 181 | Page 88

BUSINESSNEWS

Lynda Armstrong, Dame Carol Black and Mike
Robinson at the Annual Conference HR

Taking health to the forefront
»»THE BRITISH SAFETY
Council’s Annual Conference
‘Health and work in a changing
world’, held on 5th October 2016
at The King’s Fund in London,
provided a platform for sharing
evidence, best practice and
experience of managing employee
health and wellbeing and centred
on four main issues:

but if this all what you provide,
you’re putting a plaster over the
cracks.”
Professor Stephen Bevan
commented, “Around 30% of
businesses still think health is a
personal issue for workers, not
employers.”

1. Why should health be
considered as a key business
priority for a company?
Professor Dame Carol Black
said, “Lack of motivation and
sub-optimal health causes
British workers to work below
peak productivity, holding back
potential growth. A healthy
worker is a safer worker and a
more productive worker.”
Hugh Robertson, TUC,
commented, “Employers need
to make the link between
sickness absence and their health
management strategies.”

3. How can you make
workplaces healthier, as well as
helping employees to manage
their own health throughout
their working life?
Hugh Robertson, TUC, said,
“We look at the worker and we
see them as being almost the
problem. What we should be
doing is saying: it’s the workplace
that’s the issue, so how do we
change the workplace?”
Clare Forshaw, HSL Solutions,
commented, “Young workers
need to be educated about the
health problems they could
develop over their working liv
es.”

2. Who should be responsible
for company’s health and
wellbeing? What is the role of
line managers in it?
Professor Dame Carol Black
said, “To embed health and
wellbeing into the workplace you
must start with leaders, boards
and managers. Then you can
provide the fruit and bicycle
schemes. They are good to have

4. What is the best way of
dealing with mental health
issues?
Beth Taylor, PwC, said, “If you
can’t talk openly about how you
are feeling and what’s going in
your life, you can have some of
the best policies and interventions
in the world, but you won’t be
able to access them or they won’t
make a blind bit of difference.”

88 » DEC 2016 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

Peter Kelly, HSE, commented,
“Most of the interventions and
situations you face are not going
to cost you £100,000. Having a
conversation with your staff today
is relatively cheap and they’ll
come out with suggestions and
ideas. So it’s about talking to your
workers…”
SIGNIFICANCE OF
HEALTH ISSUES
Opening the conference, the
British Safety Council’s Chair
Lynda Armstrong remembered
the charity’s founder, James Tye.
“His vision in establishing the
organisation in 1957 was to
campaign towards a very simple
objective – that no-one should be
injured or made ill at work – and
he worked tirelessly towards this
aspiration throughout his life. His
campaigning was instrumental
in the creation of the Health and
Safety at Work Act in 1974.
“Now, there are far fewer deaths
and serious injuries at work. This
is due in part to the increased
awareness of risk management,
but is also a result of the changing
nature of work. Britain is now
a professional and service-based
economy. As the number of
accidents has decreased, we have
become increasingly aware of the
significance of health issues.”
Mike Robinson, Chief
Executive of the British Safety

Council, added, “The true cost of
not managing health conditions,
especially ‘less traditional’ ones
such as musculo-skeletal disorders
(MSDs) and mental health issues,
is becoming increasingly visible.
For every one working day lost
due to injury, over five days are
lost due to health issues. Of the
days lost due to poor health, 46%
are stress related and 21% are
MSD related.
“Even more challenging is
the fact that some of the less
traditional health issues may
not be directly linked to the
workplace, but may impact the
ability of a worker to do their job
competently and safely.
“Mental health issues can be
extremely complex and they are
very common! It is estimated
that each year one in four people
in the UK will experience either
stress, anxiety or depression. In
many cases, the symptoms are
mild, often to the point where the
person doesn’t actually recognise
them. However, in extreme cases,
these issues can result in someone
taking their own life.
“The Samaritans recently
reported that suicide kills six times
as many construction workers as
accidents do. This is shocking.
However, what is even more
shocking is that we believe this is
an under-estimate; the real number
could be ten times higher!”