Evidence based guide to organisational health and employee engagement – relevance for treatment of injured workers

John McPhilbin, our star contributor,  kindly shared a document he put together titled “An evidence-based guide to organisational health and employee engagement”. John writes that he was reminded of its relevance not only for employers but also for their treatment of injured workers.  The economics of employee well-being and health is central to organisational health.  This throw -away mentality is not good for organisational health -  the connection should be clear to employers and government officials but is rarely practiced…

Evidence based guide to organisational health and employee engagement – relevance for treatment of injured workers

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We refer to our article wherein we stated that “Workers compensation bodies need to develop strategies to assist employers with provision of suitable duties”

Another interesting research article, sourced by our lovely @Trinny61, entitled “Initial Report on Factors for and Barriers to Successful Return to Work“, sadly shows that nothing has changes in a period of six years…This report, prepared by the ANF, discusses factors for and barriers to successful RTW for injured and/or ill nurses in Victorian hospitals.

In this report, The Victorian Nurses Recruitment and Retention Committee (2001b, 2001c) Survey reported
that nurses faced the following issues:

• (a) Heavy workloads and understaffing, resulting in injury and/or illness;
• (b) Lack of management support when injury and/or illness occur;
• (c) Frequent inability to RTW as alternative duties were not provided;
• (d) Employer barriers to gaining suitable, modified and/or alternative employment,
• including workplace inflexibility;
• (e) Perception that work caused injuries are a natural by-product of nursing duties; [=disposable commodities!]
• (f) Failure to provide support mechanisms post-injury to aid recovery; and
• (g) Detrimental impact on nurses of working conditions, for instance – burn out rates.

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A Good Practice model for RTW management was put forward in the Return to Work Review in 2007, and comprised:

• (a) Commitment to RTW, identified as a core management outcome in the organisation’s business plan;
• (b) Clear definition and communication of RTW responsibilities and accountabilities across the health service;
• (c) Consultation with OH&S Committees and OH&S Representatives and communication with managers and employers;
• (d) Training, with specific programs developed for management, RTW and claims management employees and for employees in general;
• (e) Risk management program, for injury prevention and rapid response to injuries;
• (f) RTW management based on early intervention, RTW planning, suitable employment and stakeholder engagement;
• (g) Performance monitoring and reporting; and
• (h) Continuous improvement through auditing, analysis of performance information, feedback from stakeholders and benchmarking against other health services

But has anything changed since 2007? Nope! We have plenty of evidence on this blog alone from injured nurses who have been treated in the most appalling ways…

Shortlink: http://aworkcovervictimsdiary.com/?p=7613