A Report to Determine the Benefits of a Good Staff Welfare System

A REPORT TO DETERMINE THE BENEFITS OF A GOOD STAFF WELFARE SYSTEM BY MARK ROSS 21ST October 2012 CONTENTS Introduction1 Executive Summary1 Staff welfare and organisational objectives1 Process for assessing staff welfare2 Actions to be taken2 Communicating responsibilities for staff welfare3 Recording and maintaining staff welfare systems4 Conclusion4 Bibliography4 i 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1 This report has been asked for by my manager to determine the benefits to the company of good and well integrated staff welfare system.

Recent statistics produced by the companies Human Resources department show that the levels of sickness and absenteeism are unacceptably high. 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2. 1 This Report considers 5 main objectives: Discuss the relationship between staff welfare and organisational objectives. Explain the process for assessing staff welfare. Identify the actions to be taken by the manager in dealing with a staff welfare Issue. Describe how to communicate responsibilities for staff welfare to then team. Discuss records that may be maintained to demonstrate that staff welfare is supported. . Discuss the relationship between staff welfare and organisational objectives. The relationship between staff welfare and organisational objectives can be can be a bit of a balancing act but there are many basic requirements we all expect when we go to work: Safe working conditions / work environment (risk assessments carried out) Safety from any kind of harassment e. g. bullying, sexual, racial. Good employee relations with people being treated with dignity and respect. Equal opportunities. Adequate induction into the company and ongoing training.

Some of these process’s come at a cost and given the current economic downturn many companies may want try and make cutbacks in certain areas namely ongoing training which can be expensive. If we are able to show our staff that we really care about there interests and personnel development it has been shown in studies to increase the overall feeling of well-being in the work place, this is proven to increase productivity and reduce rates of sickness and absenteeism which in-turn leads to a positive effect on bottom line profits. A study by Dr Kerstin Alfes of Kingston University Business School found that:

Keeping staff happy might not be a high priority for employers in the economic downturn. But a report from Kingston University argues that a contented workforce can help an organisation to succeed and can even make the difference between whether or not a struggling company survives the recession. 1 4. Explain the process for assessing staff welfare. The process for assessing staff welfare can be achieved in several ways, all are based on an open and honest flow of communication from front-line staff up the chain of command using well defined process’s.

Making the chain of command clear is also very important so staff know the correct approach to take and who to contact with any given issue/grievance. Here are some of the methods we currently have in place to assess staff welfare: Surveys / Questionnaires. Suggestion Box’s (Anonymous). Regular performance reviews / appraisals. Near-miss and accident reporting. Back to work interviews. All these process’s are based on getting an understanding of how the workforce feel at work and improvements that may be needed to make things run smoother. One process our company hasn’t yet developed fully is a workplace counselling scheme.

This concept originated in the USA and looks at staff welfare not only in the work place but outside it too, it recognises that many problems affecting productivity and welfare are not only work related. This counselling must be confidential and empathetic to the personal needs on the individual employee. 5. Identify the actions to be taken by the manager in dealing with a staff welfare issue. A manager may deal with staff welfare issues in the following ways, closely assessing the information gathered during the processing of a staff welfare issue and also looking into other relevant information is one of the most important step.

We need to get to the bottom of the issue and take a balanced view on all the concerns raised. Actions to be taken: Following of policies and procedures that are in place. Meetings with those concerned with the specific staff welfare issue. Close assessment of information gathered. These actions should lead to a good overall picture of the staff welfare issue and allow use to take the correct approach in rectifying or putting controlling measures in place to minimize the issue. Often policies and procedures may need to be updated to incorporate things we have learnt from individual issues.

This can be seen to be good management tool also as it shows our employees that as a company we are always open to continual improvement. 2 6. Describe how to communicate responsibilities for staff welfare to the team. Staff welfare responsibilities can be communicated to staff via newsletters regular meeting appraisals Notice boards eg last accident/near miss currently our company collects data on accident reports/nears misses but it only used as a tool to pass onto higher management and isn’t made freely available to staff, In previous jobs this information has been made public knowledge and published on notice board.

I feel this can be used as a good tool to show that we’re striving to reduce these figures, the same approach could also be taken with sickness and absenteeism. Publishing information such as days lost due to sickness and cost to the company in having to pay for overtime to cover time could show how important we take this issue. 7. Discuss records that may be maintained to demonstrate that staff welfare is supported. There are several ways in which records can be maintained to support staff welfare such as 8. Conclusion 9. Bibliography http://www. kingston. ac. uk/pressoffice/news/59/26-01-2010-a-happy-workforce-is-good-for-business. html