BUSINESSES in the north need to rededicate themselves to employee health if they are to achieve high performance in 2021 and be part of economic recovery, the founder of a new consultancy claims.
And he claims the levels of sickness, which in the public sector cost tens of millions a year, are simply not sustainable and it’s time to "look beyond the top line figures and understand the factors that are driving this".
Dubliner John Ryan has launched Healthy Place to Work (www.healthyplacetowork.com), a global standard for workplace health certification in Northern Ireland following a four-year development period.
Based on the premise that if an organisation is healthy it's performance will grow, Healthy Place to Work will provide businesses with a system through which they can create a sustainable business where the needs of the organisation and individual will collide and innovation and collaboration will thrive, people will flourish, and high performance will follow.
The regional leadership of networking organisation Business in the Community (BITC) has endorsed the certification, recommending it to its 200-plus membership, while Ryan - who previously led the recognised Great Place to Work Institute certification in Ireland - has partnered with a number of organisations including Version 1, the IRFU, Salesforce and BT.
“Last year underlined the importance of health more than ever before, and now business needs to focus resources where they are needed most in order to thrive,” said Ryan.
“This means looking at a strategic level on how the health of their employees impacts directly on business. Doing so will enable business leaders and employees to work together to help the local economy recover from Covid.
“Over the past four years we have developed a strategic approach to organisational health and well-being that is evidence-based and data-driven.
“We have piloted the tools and methodology to enable them to gather information on the health of their organisation, understand what they need to do to improve it and benchmark their progress. And we are ready now to make Healthy Place to Work available to all of Northern Ireland’s businesses and organisations.”
The conventional view of health in the workplace has been on sickness, or the avoidance of it, demonstrated recently by the launch of reports into absenteeism in the Northern Ireland Civil Service and Councils.
But Healthy Place to Work contends that it makes greater economic sense to capitalise on the drivers of health, bringing a new focus on health rather than the absence of it, to the workplace for the betterment of the individual, the economy and society.
“Organisations need to create workplaces where people enjoy coming and doing their best work. Leaders need to create healthy cultures that lead to high performance,” he said.
Hughes Insurance, part of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group is the first company in Northern Ireland to embark on the Healthy Place to Work certification process.
Its head of human resources Sarah Balmforth said: “Over the past year we have sought to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our employees as they met the challenges of working from home and living through a pandemic.
“This has made us realise more than ever that health and wellbeing deserve a strategic focus and one that ultimately has an impact on the bottom line. To this end, we wanted to partner with experts who could advise and guide us with the processes required to truly embed a health and wellbeing strategy, and Healthy Place to Work provides us with that.”
