DEPARTMENT FOR CHILD PROTECTION

CORPORATE HEALTH FRAMEWORK

“WELLNESS@WORK”

Ways to be healthier and happier at work and to build and maintain positive workplaces

February, 2013

INTRODUCTION Wellness at work is a function of both what the organization does to support its staff and what individual staff do to look after their own wellbeing. This framework encompasses the Department's commitment to providing a safe working and learning environment for all staff, and sets out three pillars of wellness@work that the Department can support and promote. The Department's commitment to providing a safe working and learning environment for all staff is realized through:

Human Resource policies that support workplace wellbeing consistent with the code of conduct, and maximize the opportunities for flexible work arrangements;

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) policies, training and workplace representatives to manage and promote awareness about workplace hazards; and

Specific initiatives such as providing flu shots at no cost for staff each year. The three pillars of wellness@work that the Department looks to support and promote are:

physical health and activity, personal responsibility, PERMA - positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and

accomplishment - for positive workplaces.

These pillars lie at the intersection of work and personal life, and as such, the Department's role can only be to promote and support. The Department's contribution will evolve over time and in each workplace as will the framework and its application. wellness@work is important for all departmental staff as our work is often complex and emotionally challenging and can result in high levels of stress. The nature of our work affects all staff whether in service delivery or support roles but the immediate impact is of course most profound for front line staff working directly with families and children. These pillars of wellbeing complement the Department's commitment to being a learning organization, having a strong values base, and the way we organize our work with teamwork as fundamental and supervision as critical. The pillars are strengths based and build on a strong departmental history of promoting and supporting personal resilience to manage the demands of the Department's service delivery work. The final leg of the wellness@work framework is some basic organizational arrangements for the Department to drive and sustain its implementation, both to meet our commitment to providing a safe working and learning environment for all staff as well as to promote physical health and activity, personal responsibility, and PERMA - positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment - for positive workplaces. Corporate responsibility for promoting wellness@work is a partnership between the Human Resources directorate and the Learning and Development Centre.

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Operational responsibility for realizing a safe working and learning environment as well as promoting the three pillars of physical health and activity, personal responsibility and PERMA lies with each workplace, its line management, occupational health and safety representatives and individual staff. PROVIDING A SAFE WORKING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT The Department, that is, each of us collectively, have responsibility for seeing that the workplace is safe for all. The Department corporately also has responsibility to have in place the necessary guidance, structures and support for the work to be clear and manageable, and the Department actively builds this through the collective wisdom of its staff and shared leadership. Staff with formal leadership positions, particularly those who supervise other staff, have additional responsibility for setting a safe and supportive workplace environment. The way that supervisors manage workplace relationships directly affects how people feel about their work, themselves and how they in turn get on with others. Authority needs to be exercised skillfully. Formally, there are a range of departmental policies that aim to ensure a safe working and learning environment. In many ways these are very basic standards and processes for resolution when problems occur. As such they form a base rather than constitute wellness@work and comprise:

Code of Conduct (refer Administration Manual chapter 2.1.01) Workplace Elimination of Harassment (refer Administration Manual chapter 1.3.07),

Anti-Bullying (1.3.08), Grievance and Issue Resolution (1.3.09) Occupational Health and Safety Policies (refer Administration Manual chapter 1.7):

Fitness for Work, Alcohol and Other Drugs in the Work Place, Communicable Diseases, Critical Incident Debriefing, Dealing with Aggressive By Clients, Emergency Procedures, Eyesight Testing and Screening, First Aid, Hazard and Incident Reporting and Investigation, Hazard Risk Management Procedures, Inspecting the Workplace, Occupational Overuse Syndrome –Prevention for Keyboard Operators & Writers, Occupational Safety and Health Issue Resolution Process, Occupational Safety and Health Policy, Occupational Safety and Health Roles and Responsibilities, Safe Use of Vehicles, Smoking in the Workplace, Workstation Ergonomics, Workers Compensation and Injury Management, Works Safe Notices.

Additionally, it is the case that the nature of our work can present specific dangers and threats to staff. The design of offices reflects the need to ensure safety while engaging clients. Managers in workplaces need to respond compassionately and effectively in the event of violence or threatening behavior, affording staff opportunities to debrief, implement tailored risk management strategies and provide affected staff with the specific support they need.

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THREE PILLARS OF WELLNESS@WORK Physical health and activity Physical health and activity levels have a significant impact on quality life, including our ability to contribute at work and manage stress. The Department will promote and support opportunities for staff to increase and maintain their health and be more physically active. It is up to workplaces and staff to capitalize on these opportunities. The following activities provide a guide as to what workplaces can support:

first, individuals might consider their own health and physical activity, through supervision and Reaching Forward,

information, resources and opportunities provided through wellness@work can help achieve these goals,

individual directorates or business areas may wish to sponsor staff participation in one or two key physical activity events per year, such as City to Surf, Asthma Bike Hike,

promoting Quit Day to support staff choosing to stop smoking, flu injections for all staff, health testing (e.g. skin/sun screening, BMI, fitness) for staff.

In supporting staff to look after their individual health and wellbeing the Department has negotiated corporate rates for private health insurance with HBF and agreements are in the process of being finalised with Bupa, Medibank, and HIF. For more information about taking advantage of the corporate rate to access private health insurance, details will be available on the intranet or by contacting the Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Team at OSH.Team@dcp.wa.gov.au. Membership with private health insurers can provide a range of benefits; from ensuring that you have good hospital cover in the event that it is needed to ancillary benefits such as subsidised gym memberships, weight loss programs and natural therapies are just a few of the common benefits private health insurance often supports. Personal responsibility The Department can support and promote wellness@work but it is up to every individual to take responsibility for their health and well-being. This includes making the right choices for oneself regarding doing the job you choose to do. More broadly too it is a personal responsibility to determine the aspects of our lives that we are happy with, what we are not and what we are willing to change. Taking the wellbeing@work questionnaire or the CLAN Self Care Assessment questionnaire that is introduced to all staff at orientation training (Attachments 1 and 2), or considering the following indicative questions, might help you identify factors that contribute to your wellbeing and happiness and the areas that you want to shift.

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What are you eating? What are you drinking? What are you doing outside of work to keep your life varied? What are you doing outside of work for recreation? What exercise are you doing? What are you reading? Are you taking your holidays? Are you taking your accrued flexi time? At work, are you taking effective breaks or eating lunch tied to your desk? When you are leaving work or going off shift are you off shift, not checking emails? Are you getting the right amount of sleep? Do you have friends from outside the field? Do you have hobbies? Do you have other interests outside of work? Do you have enough separation from work when you are not there to allow you to

retain your passion for the work when you are? These questions strike at the heart of maintaining work / life balance and this issue in turn illustrates the intersection of the personal and the corporate. First, it is a personal decision as how much work and what level of responsibility you seek and can manage, while second, the Department seeks to maximize opportunities for flexible employment arrangements within the context of providing services efficiently and effectively. The availability of tools such as the questionnaires and health and well being related resources as well as publicizing events and opportunities through a wellness@work SharePoint page aim to help you make the changes you choose.

PERMA - positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment - for positive workplaces Within an ethos of shared leadership, we are both individually and collectively responsible for the culture and environment of the workplaces in which we each work. In turn our individual contributions to building a positive workplace are fundamental to our personal wellbeing@work. We can each contribute to building a positive workplace through:

the positive emotions we communicate, our engagement with the work and our colleagues, the relationships we make and the work we put into making those work, the meaning we derive from being part of the mission of the Department, and the accomplishment we experience in our work.

Where do these ideas come from? Aristotle was perhaps the first philosopher to promote the notion that all human action was to achieve happiness or contentment. A lot more recently, Martin Seligman has worked in this area through a number of books as the originator of the field of ‘positive psychology’, from ‘learned optimism’ to ‘authentic

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happiness’ through to a broader notion of well-being that he calls ‘flourishing’. This emphasizes positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment - PERMA - as the important elements of well-being and a rewarding life. There is an evidence base to PERMA but of course there is no definitive or simple way of understanding or achieving well-being as any approach interacts with individuals as different and complex human beings. PERMA does nevertheless provide an easy reference to the personal attitudes and behaviours that build a positive workplace as well as personal well-being. It is a strengths based approach to building positive workplaces. Seligman suggests a number of tools and exercises to promote well-being through PERMA. Seligman’s tools and more information about PERMA can be accessed at his web page http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.aspx. A related approach that many workplaces have chosen to embrace is the FISH philosophy. This comprises four principles or behaviors that promote positive emotions, support engagement, enhance relationships, highlight meaning and celebrate accomplishment. As such, FISH is a powerful approach to building positive workplaces. The four principles are:

Being there – when you are at work, you are at work, when you are with someone they have your attention.

Play – there is always room for humor and fun in the workplace. Choose your attitude – you determine the attitude you have at work, it is a decision

not a reaction. Make their day – doing something special for a client or a colleague makes your

day as well as theirs. PERMA and FISH encompass both individual and collective attitudes and behaviours that develop both personal wellbeing as well as a positive workplace. PERMA suggests we apply its personal imperatives in our work while FISH is a particular approach to driving collective attitudes and action. These are not the only ways to commit, lead and contribute to building a positive workplace. They do suggest concrete ways in which the Department can support and promote this pillar of wellness@work:

Promote PERMA resources through the Learning and Development Network. Consider committing to FISH, perhaps for a set time, in your workplace. Provide FISH resources through the Learning and Development Network. Incorporate PERMA strategies into the recurring personal resilience sessions at

district and specialist conferences and professional development days. News and information through the Wellness Newsletter and SharePoint Pages

(workplace stories as well as topical issues such as smoking, managing stress, sleep, occupational health and safety)

wellness@work and CLAN Self Care Assessment questionnaires for individuals, teams and workplaces (see Attachments 1 and 2)

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Proposed organizational arrangements The Department has champions for wellness and engagement throughout its branches. wellness@work aims to help these champions with ideas and tools and to recognize, and where it is helpful, augment their efforts.

wellness@work SharePoint page This will be the primary departmental information point for information around wellness@work and include:

News – may be personal wellbeing stories, topical news items, promoting particular community events e.g. City to Surf, Quit Day;

Resources – this will include web sites and links where people can obtain information, assistance and resources to support action on the three pillars;

Events – calendar of information/promotion of healthy living events in WA and departmental wellness@work opportunities;

Discussion board – providing the opportunity for engagement on hot topics across the department and link workplaces to share achievements or activities; and

Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) – provides information about workplace safety, policies, processes and OSH representatives.

Linking from the central SharePoint page, workplaces may want to develop their own SharePoint pages to promote local activities, news, local services and discussion. The central SharePoint page will be managed and coordinated by the wellness@work coordinator. wellness@work coordinator

This role will be a responsibility of the Manager – Occupational Health and Safety and include:

The central SharePoint page; Bringing together and assisting local wellness@work champions as needed; and Coordinating and manage global DCP events such as surveys, flu injections, health

and wellbeing tests.

wellness@work local champions This role will most likely recognize the existing efforts of natural champions who have a passion and energy for wellness and organizing social events in their workplace. If a formal allocation of tasks is necessary or helpful, the occupational health and safety representative could assist. A focus on wellness@work for the occupational health and safety representative is an appropriate shift towards building on the strengths of staff balancing the traditional hazards focus. The role of the local champion might include:

Promoting local activities and events and learning; Being part of a network of local champions linked through the SharePoint page and

occasional events; and A local SharePoint page.

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Taking on wellness@work in your workplace It is up to you and your colleagues how much or little you embrace the opportunities and challenges of wellness@work. There is a large amount of activity to build on as the need for resilience in our work has long been recognized and supported through supervison, learning events such as conferences and the local champions who have always been among us. Some ideas for getting started or more deliberate in this quest might be:

Become or support a wellness@work local champion or two Consider opportunities for physical activity in the local area such as bike riding and

walking and get some events happening Share a local news story Include wellness@work as an agenda item on staff meetings. Start a group challenge to help staff achieve their individual goals, such as a

biggest loser challenge when the next television program runs, anticipating and targeting Quit Day, a midday walking group

Lunchbox learning presentations on physical activity, sleep issues, healthy eating, managing stress

Promote the wellness@work and CLAN Self Care Assessment questionnaires Promote taking the flu injection Lunchbox learning presentations on PERMA exercises Take on FISH in your workplace for a year Checking in on wellness@work regularly at staff meetings.

Developed by Dr. Ron Cacioppe, Managing Director, 9 Integral Development/Please only use with permission.

ATTACHMENT 1 Wellbeing @ Work Questionnaire

Please respond to the following five items using the following scale:

0 = Never

1 = Very Seldom

2 = Sometimes

3 = Usually

4 = Very Often

5 = Always

1. I experience happiness, satisfaction and positive emotions in my work. ____

2. I feel my work is contributing to something worthwhile, something larger ____ than myself.

3. I am absorbed in my work and lose track of time. ____

4. Over the last year, I have achieved important things in my work. ____

5. I have good positive relations with the people I work with. ____

TOTAL Add the numbers together for all five statements. Plot your score in the graph below. 25 Total Wellbeing at Work 20 High Wellbeing 15 Moderate Wellbeing 10 Some Wellbeing 5 Little Wellbeing at work 0 The score above represents your total amount of ‘wellbeing’ you experience at work. Martin Seligman in his book, “Flourish, A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Wellbeing”, describes considerable research that points to wellbeing is the state we should be aiming for in our home life and work. Consider which of these factors most contributes to your wellbeing at work and what is most lacking.

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ATTACHMENT 2

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