But, how many times have we heard the phrase ‘I’m just a number here’? By focusing on services such as Employ Health’s Health Hub, you can dramatically improve the way people perceive and engage with health & safety in your business.
What Is Health and Safety Workplace Culture?
Health & Safety culture encompasses the way people think, act and feel within your business in regards to these areas. There are few stronger levers to pull than health for improving the culture of your site. By focusing on using health to improve culture, you create an environment where people feel valued, contribute back to the vision of your business and become leaders of your cultural values.
Why Is Culture Important For Your Workplace?
A reduced workplace injury rate
In a study conducted by Work Safe New Zealand (2019), Claims for WMSD (Work related musculoskeletal disorders) diseases and injuries comprised 27 per cent of all work related ill health days. The median time lost from WMSD injuries has increased from 5.0 to 5.2 since 2011–12. While a short term campaign or safety blitz can raise awareness of injury risk, the best way to reduce workplace injury rates in the long term is to get the flywheel turning by empowering your workers in the health & safety space. The link is a simple one; stronger, happier workers are injured less.
Increased employee productivity in the workplace
One of the biggest contributors to lost productivity within the workplace is a poor health & safety culture. If there is a loss of empowerment with the safety of tasks, or whether your workforce simply doesn’t have the energy & recovery to meet their physical demands, productivity numbers often take a down-turn and continue to compound the poorer the cultural attitudes become.
Employee wellbeing’s impact on absence
Absenteeism is one of the biggest killers of business culture and bottom line. A survey published by the Wellplace New Zealand (2019) estimated that the direct costs of absenteeism equates to $241 per employee per day of absence. Conversely, studies have shown that for every $1 invested in workplace health, there is a $2.05 return on investment for absenteeism costs.
Improved physical and mental health
If you had the option to improve your safety statistics immediately, or improve the physical and mental health culture of your business, which would you choose? Ultimately, the best way to create an enduring health & safety culture isn’t always a change in lag indicators, but in the physical and mental health of your workers. Physically & mentally healthy workers report greater overall happiness levels, and studies have shown that happy workers are also 13% more productive!
Related Services
Having a strong health & safety workplace culture is linked with increased productivity in workers, reduced absenteeism & presenteeism and is integral in a businesses view as an employer of choice.
Employ Health offers a range of services that have a direct benefit to your workplace culture including:
Group Exercise And Personal Training
Workers matching the physical requirements of their jobs are most less likely to suffer injuries and are also likely to see yields to their mood and energy levels while at work. Our personal training & group exercise classes are led by our team of qualified physiotherapists to deliver the highest quality of exercise prescription for individual and group goals.
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Task Specific Ergonomic Assessments
Focusing on the risk stemming from workers is powerful, but if tasks are still carrying an elevated level of manual risk, workers chances of injuries rise, as do negative perception of safety care within a business. Employ Health uses evidence based tools such as ManTRa (Manual Task Risk Assessments) and PErforM (Participative ergonomics for manual tasks) to capture task risk and allow businesses to make informed decisions to mitigate.
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Mental Health Programs
Increasingly across the world we are seeing a rise in the importance (and even legislative requirement) of creating mentally healthy workplaces. Employ Health’s Mental Health programs (including Resilience Seminars & Mental Health First Aid Training) empower businesses to better handle their psychosocial risk and show their employees that they take their mental health & safety seriously.
Read moreFrequently Asked Questions
Workplace culture is all about the way people think, feel and act within your business. Without a strong workplace culture, injuries rise, job satisfaction decreases and bottom lines suffer.
Workplace wellbeing encapsulates services and initiatives that allow work to be a location for creating meaningful and positive change for workers (Be that physically, socially or mentally).
Healthier, stronger and more resilient workers are much more likely to contribute to the vision & values of your business while also improving their productivity.
Accidents can occur for a variety of reasons. Carelessness, poor design and poor controls can all contribute. However, a poor safety culture increases the likelihood of these events occurring.
Mental Health affects worker energy levels, motivation, mood and even physiological health. Workers with poor mental health outcomes are much more likely to contribute to workplace absenteeism, presenteeism & productivity loss.