The Irish Ministry for Health decided to target the workplace in order to promote health and well-being among citizens. A health project was subsequently set up in County Roscommon among small and medium-sized companies. It included a survey of existing workplace health policies and a pilot project aimed at developing better support services. The project received a Health Services Executive innovation award on 11 October 2006.
Some years ago, the Irish government’s Department of Health and Children identified the workplace as a key setting to promote the health and well-being of the country’s adult population. The SME Workplace Health Project in County Roscommon, in the centre of Ireland, was set up to address the need to develop practical approaches to improving the health and well-being of employees in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The project was undertaken by a partnership which included: the Irish Health and Safety Authority (HSA), the national agency charged with responsibility for occupational health and safety, the Health Promotion Services of the Health Services Executive West (the Health Services Executive (HSE) is the national agency with responsibility for managing the country’s health services) and the Roscommon County Enterprise Board. The study was undertaken in two phases:
- a survey of existing policies of workplaces and their support needs;
- a pilot project aimed at developing support services that could then be introduced on a broader scale.
Methodology
The survey was conducted by postal questionnaire, and 453 workplaces completed the survey; it was used to gather information on workplace health policies and activities. Overall, 72% of the workplaces surveyed were micro-sized companies employing less than 10 people, 22% were small companies employing between 10 and 49 people, 5% were medium-sized companies employing from 50 to 249 people, and 1% were large companies employing 250 people or more.
Survey findings
The survey sought information on company activities in relation to health promotion, the provision of occupational health services, how companies managed occupational health and safety, and the provision of training for all staff. The survey also examined absence from work as a result of injury or illness. The key findings of the survey are outlined below.
Health promotion
Some 21% of the respondents stated that they had carried out health promotion activities. The most common measures were policies relating to smoking, alcohol or drug use, sickness absence and bullying.
Occupational health services
The survey report identified that the most common activity in relation to occupational health was the provision of effective air extraction, undertaken by 25% of workplaces. Just 17% of employers carried out pre-employment screening and 16% of companies provided eyesight tests for employees. Some 10% of workplaces provided health checks, just over 10% offered hearing tests and 12% provided visual display unit (VDU) assessments.
The survey found that the greatest proportion of occupational health measures took place in medium or large workplaces. It also established that the majority of companies did not use external occupational medical support.
Safety management
In all, 63% of the respondent workplaces had a written safety statement. Some 41% of companies had prepared their own safety statement in-house, while 25% of the workplaces had hired a consultant to draw up their safety statements. A further 8% of companies had used an insurance company to provide their safety statement.
Training
While Irish law requires all undertakings to provide health and safety training, just over half (52%) of workplaces provided some form of health and safety training for employees. The most common types of training provided were manual handling training (44%), general training (43%), first aid (36%), Safe Pass (23%) and fork-lift truck driving (18%). The fact that less than half of the companies provide core mandatory training – namely general training and manual handling training, which should be provided in every workplace – confirms the perception among safety professionals that a high rate of non-compliance with legal requirements prevails.
This finding also suggests that there is a substantial untapped market for health and safety training services.
Absence from work
Moreover, the survey found that 14% of workplaces experienced incidents that resulted in a person being off work or unable to perform normal duties for more than three days.
Resources for SMEs
Having analysed the results of the survey, the project partnership concluded that a comprehensive information pack should be developed for SMEs. The Workplace Health Partnership, comprising the HSA, the HSE and the Occupational Health Nurses Association of Ireland (OHNAI), therefore created and distributed a workplace health information pack (612Kb MS Word doc). The pack includes information on occupational health and safety, workplace health promotion and a directory of national and local organisations providing support to SMEs.
In addition, a range of support services and tools were put together and either made available to SMEs in Roscommon or, where more detailed work was involved, piloted among a group of 10 workplaces selected from 75 applicants; these were selected on the basis of geographical and economic sector representation. In all, nine of the companies chosen were small workplaces employing less than 49 people. The tenth was a medium-sized company employing between 50 and 249 staff. The average number of employees per company was 42 workers.
A series of events, starting with an information meeting, were organised. Other events included an occupational health and safety seminar and a ‘well-being’ evening, at which examples of workplace well-being and workplace health services were presented. These events were widely advertised in local newspapers and on the radio. Before the initial information meeting, hundreds of letters were sent to SMEs in County Roscommon.
The supports provided to the 10 companies taking part in the pilot scheme included:
- ‘Promoting Health @ Work’, an initiative aimed at creating a healthy work environment and improving personal health and lifestyle;
- occupational health and safety training.
The study report concludes with the suggestion that there ‘would be opportunities to replicate this project and share learning throughout the country’. The project received an HSE innovation award on 11 October 2006.
Further information
Copies of the report are available from the Health Service Executive’s Health Promotion Services, by emailing HealthPromotion@mailn.hse.ie.
Herbert Mulligan, IRN Publishing