Measuring Effectiveness
of Health and Wellbeing
Initiatives
in Organisations
The Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award is
delivered in Australia and New Zealand by
a joint venture between Instep, Investors in People New Zealand and Investors in People Australia
Five-Minute Self-Assessment of your
Health & Wellbeing Strategy
Yes/
Sort-of/
No
Does your organisation have a strategy with measurable success criteria
to improve Health & Wellbeing of its people?
Does your organisation ensure it has the resources it needs to
implement Health & Wellbeing plans?
Are Health & Wellbeing plans accessible and fair for all people?
Could managers describe strategies to support work-life balance that
meet the needs of both your organisation and its people?
Do managers understand the capabilities required to support Health &
Wellbeing and are there plans to develop these?
Is the Health & Wellbeing approach explained during recruitment and
induction activities?
Is there a culture where people receive timed and constructive feedback
on their performance?
Could people describe how they are given information and support in
relation to Health & Wellbeing?
Can senior managers explain the impact of Health & Wellbeing on
improving the performance of your organisation?
Overall is there a genuine commitment to improve the Health &
Wellness of your people?
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Contents
1. Who are the organisations involved in delivering the Health & Wellbeing Award?
3
2. Do health and wellbeing initiatives make any difference? What is the research
saying?
4
3. Who is this booklet for?
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4. What is the Health & Wellbeing Award?
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5. Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award Leaflet
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6. Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award Evidence Requirements
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7. Health & Wellbeing Interactive
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8. Case studies



Large employer (2,200 employees) – Kimberly-Clark UK
Medium employer (776 employees) – Bupa Cromwell Hospital
Small employer (28 employees) – Old School House Day Nursery (early
childhood centre)
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Who are the organisations involved in delivering the
Health & Wellbeing Award?
The Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award is a quality
international standard that is research driven, evidence
based and outcome focused. It is best described as
neither a product nor a service but a framework. It uses a strategic framework that
good employers look for to enhance wellness in their workplace. Indeed, the Award is
the recognition of good practice against the standard to help organisations address the
wide range of issues around health and wellbeing at work. In other words, it provides
employers with a voluntary framework to use in planning, implementing and reviewing
steps they can take which will improve the performance of their people through
improving their health and wellbeing.
The Health & Wellbeing Award is a useful business improvement tool focused on return
on investment, engagement and productivity. With the Investors in People Standard, it
is one amongst the few on the market that is measurable. This international standard
measures the effectiveness of an organisation’s employee engagement, suggests
remedial action to attain best practice and thus improves individual and organisational
productivity.
Instep Limited is a national behavioural healthcare company that helps
companies and their employees to enhance performance by
encouraging emotional and physical wellness. Instep works with
around 250 New Zealand companies, providing consultancy to promote wellness in the
workplace and counselling services to help identify and resolve performance problems.
Investors in People NZ (IIPNZ) and Investors in
People Australia Ltd (IIPA) provide consulting
services to organisations with particular emphasis
on people strategies and the alignment of these to the
business strategies and plans. Using the Investors in
People Standard as its point of difference, IIPNZ and IIPA are able to provide a full suite
of services from diagnostic assessment through to intervention programmes such as
leadership and management development. IIP has over 40,000 clients globally.
IIPNZ, IIPA and Instep have formed a joint venture called
Salusora to deliver the Health and Wellbeing Good Practice
Award in Australia and New Zealand.
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Do health and wellbeing initiatives make any
difference? What is the research saying?
Effective health & wellbeing programmes improve employee engagement and
productivity.
COSTS
In New Zealand

The increasing prevalence of mental illness and musculoskeletal problems has
contributed to increases in the number of sickness and invalid benefit
recipients. In 2007, 1 in 8 New Zealand households had no one in work.

Over the year to March 2010, the number of Sickness Benefit recipients in New
Zealand increased by 5,000 people, or 9 percent. Over the last five years (2005
until 2010) the number of working‐age clients receiving a Sickness Benefit
increased from 44,000 to 56,000. The majority of people on the Sickness Benefit
had psychological or psychiatric conditions; 41 percent between 2005 and 2010.
The next most common condition was musculo‐skeletal disorders with 15
percent of people on the Sickness Benefit suffering from this disorder.

The number of clients receiving an Invalid’s Benefit at the end of March has
increased each year, from 72,000 in 2005 to 85,000 in 2010. Due to the
long‐term nature of conditions which people receiving Invalid’s Benefit have,
very few people move from an Invalid’s Benefit into paid work or on to another
benefit.

In a study commissioned by the Southern Cross Medical Care Society, it was
estimated that the total cost to employers from the poor health of employees
is $2 billion per annum. This works out to be on average over $1500 per
employee per annum.
In Australia

Over the period 2001-2010 there has been a 70% increase in requests for
sickness certificates, independent of industrial relations changes and without a
corresponding rise in morbidity.

According to a Direct Health Solutions study of 120 Australian organisations, of
which the majority were large employers:
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- The average annual absence rate for 2009 was 4.0% or 9.3 days per employee,
an increase of 0.7% from 2008 levels;
- The cost of absence has increased from an average of $354 per absent day in
2008 to $370 per absent day in 2009.
BENEFITS
In the UK

The Bupa Cromwell Hospital evaluated its return on investment for the health
and wellbeing initiatives undertaken. From this evaluation the hospital could
ascertain that factors related to the Investors in People Health and Wellbeing
Award contributed to a reduction in staff turnover levels, which were down 7%
to 14.6% in 2009.

By focusing on both the health and wellbeing of its staff, Claridge’s Hotel has
benefited from a 28% turnover of staff, whereas the industry norm is 60%; low
long term sickness rates; the ability to attract staff; 88.3% staff satisfaction rate,
which is much higher than the industry norm; and increased staff awareness of
the benefits that are available to them.

The American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS) report that working towards the
Investors in People Health and Wellbeing Good Practice Award has made staff
turnover gone done from 18% three years ago to 10% over the last two years.
Furthermore, sickness levels have remained low during this period with the
employees taking on average just 2.5 days off per year. This compares very
favourably to the UK average of 7.4 days per year. According to the
organisation’s staff satisfaction survey, employee engagement levels have also
improved by 2% over the last year.
In the United States

Healthy employees stay with your company. Organisations with highly effective
wellness programmes report significantly (6 - 10%) lower turnover.

Johnson & Johnson say that their wellness programmes have saved the
company $250 million on health care costs over the last decade – a return of
$2.71 for every dollar spent.

H-E-B estimates that moving 10% of its employees from high- and medium-risk
to low-risk status yields an ROI of 6 to 1.
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
A 2009 study by Dr. Ronald Loeppke and colleagues of absenteeism and
presenteeism among 50,000 workers at 10 employers showed that lost
productivity costs are 2.3 times higher than medical and pharmacy costs.

In a seminal Dow Chemical study from 2002, of the average annual health costs
for a Dow employee an estimated $6,721 were attributable to presenteeism,
$2,278 to direct health care and $661 to absenteeism.
Sources:
-
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Australasian Faculty of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine Position Statement on
Realising the Health Benefits of Work, Sydney 2010.
-
Leonard L. Berry, Ann M. Mirabito, and William B. Baun, What’s the Hard
Return on Employee Wellness Programs?, Harvard Business Review,
December 2010.
Full articles are both available on www.insteplimited.com (see Further Readings).
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Who is this booklet for?
This Information Pack aims to provide organisations with all useful information they
need to know about the new health and wellbeing standard from Investors in People,
officially known as the Health and Wellbeing Good Practice Award (HWA), delivered in
Australia and New Zealand by Salusora, a joint venture between Investors in People
New Zealand, Investors in People Australia and Instep Limited.
This international standard measures the effectiveness of your organisation’s employee
engagement, suggests remedial action to attain best practice and thus improves
individual and organisational productivity.
To give you a quick overview:

The HWA is a quality international standard developed by Investors In People
and that is evidence-based

It provides employers with a voluntary framework to use in planning,
implementing and reviewing steps they can take which will improve the
performance of their people through improving their health and wellbeing

It focuses on employee engagement in relation to their health and wellbeing

Mantra is “supportive managers, supportive teams”

It may be seen as a stepping stone to full IIP Standard as 30% of the Evidence
Requirements are covered in the HWA
This Pack is organised into 4 headings:
1. The Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award Leaflet
In this resource you will learn more about health and wellbeing, the benefits to promote
health and wellbeing good practice in the organisations, how the HWA works, what are
its contents and how it is linked to the full Investors in People Standard. You will also
find a link to the HWA website as well as different contacts at the HWA division of Instep
(primary contact) and IIP if you have further questions.
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2. The Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award Evidence Requirements
The HWA is premised around the Plan-Do-Review and it relies on 50
Evidence Requirements that work as indicators of good practice.
3. Health & Wellbeing Interactive
Available on the IIPUK website, the Health & Wellbeing
Interactive intends to introduce the new section
dedicated to the HWA.
Once logged on the website, you have the possibility to
complete the Self Check Diagnostic and get a clear
picture of how well you are currently performing with
health and wellbeing.
Health & Wellbeing Interactive also enables you to access each of the key topics covered
by the Award. You will learn more about why this focus is important and you are
provided with some examples of how an Investors in People Assessor may explore the
issue as part of the assessment of the Award.
The library gathers a lot of articles related to health and wellbeing (e.g. how to manage
stress, create a creativity culture, empower people…). It also includes several case
studies that can help you to address workplace issues.
Finally, the Good Practice Database compiles a huge number of examples of initiatives
that are benefiting other employers.
Note: the UK references will be over time replaced by NZ and Australian ones.
4. Case studies
During the development of the Award, there are already over 440 organisations in the
UK that have chosen additional health and wellbeing focus as part of their Investors in
People Assessment. Three case studies that explain how employers from different
sectors benefited from this new focus and how they used the process to continuous
improve health and wellbeing are presented at the end of the Information Pack. These
refer to organisations of different size: less than 50, between 50 and 1000 and over
1000 employees.
You will also find additional case studies on www.healthwellbeingstandard.com.
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What is the Health & Wellbeing Award?
The Health & Wellbeing Good Practice Award is a quality international standard that is
research driven and evidence based. It is best described as neither a product nor a
service but a framework. It uses a strategic framework that good employers look for to
enhance wellness in their workplace. Indeed, the Award is the recognition of good
practice against the standard to help organisations address the wide range of issues
around health and wellbeing at work. In other words, it provides employers with a
voluntary framework to use in planning, implementing and reviewing steps they can
take which will improve the performance of their people through improving their health
and wellbeing.
The Health & Wellbeing Award is a useful business improvement
tool focused on return on investment, engagement and
productivity. With the Investors in People Standard, it is one
amongst the few on the market that is measurable. This
international standard measures the effectiveness of an
organisation’s employee engagement, suggests remedial action to
attain best practice and thus improves individual and organisational
productivity.
It is made up of three underlying key principles, plan-do-review, each in turn supported
by indicators of good practice – 10 in total. Those include 50 Evidence Requirements as
well, which describe how practically good practices are measured.
10 indicators of good practice
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This new Award focuses on five aspects that are central for increasing people’s wellness,
engagement, productivity and thus performance: planning, supportive management,
supportive culture, work-life balance and evaluation.
Being assessed against the criteria and achieving the Health
& Wellbeing Award involves a number of steps. You need
first to undertake an organisational review in order to have
a clear picture of how well your organisation is currently
performing with health and wellbeing. After having
identified areas of improvement, you have to build an
action plan specifying how your organisation will be
working towards developing health and wellbeing
initiatives. Planning, implementing and evaluating good
practice is to be done by considering all of the organisation members as their
commitment is fundamental for success. Completion of the 50 Evidence Requirements
leads you to be accredited as a Health & Wellbeing Good Practice organisation for 3
years.
In summary, the Health & Wellbeing Award:
-
enables to measure organisations’ health and wellness against an
international quality standard
focuses on people engagement and productivity
helps to identify the elements of shortfall and find the disconnects for
best practice
assists cultural change
10
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12
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15
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Content overlap with IIP Standard
15 of 50 evidence requirements
PLAN
01
Health &
wellbeing
strategy
02
Health &
wellbeing
resources
DO
REVIEW
03
04
05
06
07
08
People
management
strategies
Leadership &
management
strategies
Management
effectiveness
Recognition
& reward
Involvement &
empowerment
Effective
health &
wellbeing
9 of 30 =30%
|
6 of 11 = 55%
09
10
Performance
measurement
|
Continuous
improvement
0 of 9
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HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE?
Visit www.healthwellbeingstandard.com to learn more about the Health & Wellbeing
Good Practice Award
Need more information or have further questions? Please get in touch with us:
Allison Wallerand
[email protected]
(+64) 04 382 8071
Matthew Beattie
[email protected]
(+64) 04 382 8071
Investors in People New Zealand
[email protected]
(+64) 09 360 4025
(+61) 1300 79 8480
Investors in People Australia
[email protected]
(+61) 1300 798 480
For Information:
Investors in People UK
[email protected]
(+44) 020 7881 8966
“
www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
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INTRODUCING HEALTH AND WELLBEING INTERACTIVE
This new free to use tool is available from the Investors in People website. The resource will provide new and
existing clients with the opportunity to read about the Health and Wellbeing Good Practice Award, complete Self
Check diagnostic, access Good Practice downloads and consider the Good Practice Guide.
Over time, the UK case studies and references to UK based experiences will be replaced by NZ and Australian
examples.
www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
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SELF CHECK DIAGNOSTIC OVERVIEW
The Self Check Diagnostic is based around the main focus of the Health and Wellbeing Good Practice Award.
Consisting of 20 multiple choice statements, the Self Check will provide new and existing clients with an
indication of how they might perform in an Award assessment. Users can take the Self Check as many times as
you like and a diagnostic report detailing the correct answers and rationale is available.
www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
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HEALTH AND WELLBEING TOPICS OVERVIEW
The focus of the Good Practice Award has been presented across five key workplace health and wellbeing topics.
As well as displaying the self check diagnostic results based around these topics, Health and Wellbeing
Interactive also enables users to access each of the key topic to learn more about the Award and access good
practice downloads.
www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
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TOPIC SECTION OVERVIEW
Each of the five main Health and Wellbeing Topics provides more information about why this focus is important,
as well as giving some examples of how an Investors in People Assessor may explore the issue as part of the
assessment of the Award. Each topic section also includes a number of downloads detailing good practice,
templates and top tips for employers.
www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
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ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS OVERVIEW
In addition to the main topics, Health and Wellbeing Interactive includes access to other resources that can help
users to address workplace issues. There are also Case Studies from some of the employers who have already
focused on health and wellbeing as part of their recent Investors in People assessment.
www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
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ALL DOCUMENTS OVERVIEW
Health and Wellbeing Interactive includes over 60 free downloads to help users. The tool can be easily updated
with additional downloads as more and more clients choose to focus more on health and wellbeing as part of
their Investors in People assessment.
www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
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GOOD PRACTICE DATABASE OVERVIEW
Health and Wellbeing Interactive is also the new home for the Good Practice Database that provides users with over
100 examples of initiatives that are benefiting other employers, at this stage mainly in the UK. These examples can
be easily filtered by the user around different health and wellbeing issues.
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www.investorsinpeople.co.uk/healthandwellbeing
From improving employee engagement
and productivity to enabling your
workforce to be ready to embrace
change, the new Health & Wellbeing
Good Practice Award will help you get
sustained performance from your people.
“
People assume that a health and wellbeing strategy is
going to cost money but it doesn’t have to. One of the
great things about our Investors in People assessor
was that he gave us lots of advice on simple things we
could do that people would value but don’t cost a lot of
money to run. There is also a lot of very good
information on Investors in People’s website including
cost effective H&W activities that can make a real
difference.
ElaineWard,DirectorofFinanceandAssistant ChiefExecutive,
GloucestershireWildlifeTrust
“
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