Improving Employee Health and

Wellbeing at the University of Chester

Karen Cregan, Assistant Director of HRM Services

Challenges• To develop a holistic approach to health and wellbeing across the

organisation.

• To develop a Healthy University programme where interventions create organisational citizenship.

• To reduce absences within the workplace

• To integrate with other University strategies so that health and wellbeing interventions can contribute to overall employee and student performance

• Maintain engagement of staff and students through challenging times

Business Case• Increased pressure (inside and outside work)

• Negative impact on mental and physical health of individuals (increased presenteeism and absenteeism)

• Improvement in Staff Survey results – moving from good employer to employer of choice

• Reduced performance – low performing departments, frustrations with communications and change management

• Corporate Social responsibility – The right thing to do!

What do we want to achieve?

• Healthy University

• Workplace Wellbeing Charter

• IIP Health and Wellbeing

What are we doing?

•

Research• We explored the association between physical health and

nutrition with other individual outcome measures, including Quality of Working Life, Engagement, Sense of Purpose, Perceived Productivity.

• Providing measurements of engagement and performance

Comparison of General Working Population (GWP) Norms 2010

GWP (Mean)

n=39240

Chester(Mean)n=120

Working in this organisation is motivating 3.56 4.11

I feel that it is worthwhile to work hard for this organisation

4.20 4.58

If necessary I am prepared to put myself out for this organisation

4.53 4.70

I am committed to this organisation 4.60 4.93

I am committed to achieving the goals of my job 5.04 5.21

Total Engagement Score 21.89 23.53

My current job goals are specific 4.20 4.58

I am committed to achieving the goals of my job 5.04 5.21

My job goals and objectives are clear 4.22 4.64

The level of challenge in my job motivates me 4.21 4.65

Total Sense of Purpose Score 17.69 19.08

Gender

SummaryLifestyle

•70% of staff are happy and satisfied in working at the University of Chester

•Those needing help mentally are provided opportunities for support

Nutrition

•We eat a little less than the general UK population

•What we eat is generally healthy

Psychological wellbeing

•Asset - Higher engagement of staff than the mean average

Fitness

•50% of staff are over-weight to obese (UK average is 59%)

•Our cholesterol and BP is much better than the average UK individual

•60% of staff are fit enough to be healthy

Achievements• A steady reduction in both short and long term sickness absence which has reduced the

average number of sick days per person per annum from 8.3 days in 2007 to 6.3 days in 2012.

• There was a 33% reduction in sickness absence as a result of musculoskeletal conditions between 2007 and 2011.

• There was a 52.4% reduction of mental health related absences between 2007 and 2011

• 82% of staff said they were aware of the Health4all brand.

• The results of the Survey have shown that when benchmarked against the other 212 public sector organisations supported by Capita in 2011/12, that the University is an ‘Employer of Choice’.

• The Health4all team has played a pivotal role in the implementation of University-wide projects such as business continuity planning, staff health and safety training and sickness absence monitoring to support communication interventions such as the Swine Flu pandemic.

Staff survey -Areas of Strength

Staffs’ most positive perceptions

Pay and benefits Quality service

Clarity of roles and responsibilities

Working together

Equality and diversity Work life balance

Management Feeling valued

Working environment Learning and development

Job satisfaction Culture and values