Contents

1. Workplace culture

How standard of RTW management reflects workplace culture

What influences workplace culture

2. Measuring and understanding workplace culture

Using surveys

Case study

Articles from RTWMatters on workplace culture

3. What's work got to do with it?

4. Are you happy with your working relationships?

5. Workplace stress: we can work it out

6. Saying 'I do' to employee engagement: part 1

7. Saying 'I do' to employee engagement: part 2

8. Getting happier, working better

9. Workplace wellbeing - front and Centre(link)

10. Supervising wellbeing

11. Trust: Dos and Don'ts

12. Ten easy steps for improving workplace culture

13. How to win change and influence people

1. Workplace culture

How standard of RTW management reflects workplace culture

The culture of the workplace is the ambience of the workplace. It can be described as “the way things are done around here”. It influences what people do, how they fit in, and how they are accepted or rewarded within the organisation. 

Workplace culture influences the behaviour of people within the organisation. It defines what is accepted behaviour. 

There are multiple examples of culture influencing the way people behave. 

- An individual who wants to work from 9am to 5pm to maintain a work-life balance has difficulty advancing their career in a high profile accounting firm where most employees are driven to work long hours to succeed. They feel pressured to conform to the work patterns of colleagues.

- Working at heights without fall protection. The community now believes this is unacceptable behaviour and rates of serious injuries from falls from heights have reduced. 

Return to work management is a subset of organisational culture. It is unusual to see a well-managed organisation with a positive culture doing a poor job of RTW management. Similarly, an organisation that is tough on employees and that takes without giving, will not have a return to work program based on sound, people-oriented culture. 

The best RTW culture is one that works with the premise of "give and take". Employees are provided help and support at a time of need; their wellbeing is paramount. In return it is expected they will be an active player, to return to work at the earliest appropriate time, and to contribute to the process with communication, commitment and integrity.

However, if an organisation gives excessively people may become complacent, which leads to reduced morale and frustration. The abuses of those who take excessively reduce the morale of others. 

On the other hand, an organisation that takes to much and leaves people burnt out, wondering why they work for this organisation, will have a high staff turnover. The organisation sets the example and employees see the appropriate way for them to deal with it is to take from the organisation in return. 

Givinv and taking need to be balanced.

Development of a best practice return to work culture can come about by changing the overall workplace culture, and by shifting the return to work culture. However, changing one without the other is not sustainable. 

A partnership approach to RTW management, with changes to the organisation's policies and procedures, can demonstrate clear and measurable costs savings. There are few situations where changes in one management context can affect overall workplace culture and be so easily linked to costs and cost savings. Demonstrating improvement in RTW outcomes by improving the RTW culture demonstrates to senior management what can be achieved.  

What influences workplace culture

Workplace culture is not something that can be dictated; it develops over time and is influenced by a number of factors.

Organisation culture results from the attitude, behaviour, systems and leadership within an organisation.  Some key components include: 

1.  A people-oriented culture 

   An organisation focused on caring for their staff is demonstrated by:

·  Communication. The organisation communicates regularly with staff. For example, if an employee is off work, there will be regular communication with that worker. 

·  Concern is demonstrated. The communication is about the employee’s wellbeing; the organisation wants to do what it can do to assist the employee. 

- An employee with a significant fracture is in pain and needs a day or two to recuperate (medically necessary). The organisation allows the employee to stay home and recuperate, rather than insist the employee attends work and completes forms to prevent a lost time injury statistic. This approach communicates to the employee and to other staff that the employee's wellbeing is more important than avoidance of a lost time injury and the managers' KPIs.

- The supervisor visits the employee in hospital having surgery.

·  Practical steps are undertaken to help the employee.

- An employee in pain is driven to the doctor, rather than left to find their own way.

- The organisation asks what can be done to assist with housework for the six week period after hand surgery.

Organisations create “a halo effect”— if the employee with the injury and co-workers see the organisation behaving responsibly and in a caring fashion; like begets like. The employees’ attitudes and responses are in large part determined by the approach of the organisation. Goodwill is created and people respond in kind. 

2.  Openness and transparency

Trust is developed when an organisation behaves openly and can be relied upon. Some examples of this include:

·  People know how they will be treated before health problems occur. Policies and procedures are in place, and staff are informed and understand the process.

·  The organisation has stated what is and what is not acceptable behaviour. The organisation sets the standards and follows them.

·  Roles and responsibilities are clear and the process is known. 

- If a claim is questioned the employee understands the process, how the claim will be assessed, relevant criteria, time frames, and what they can do if they are not in agreement with the decision reached. 

·  Feedback is given to staff in an open fashion.  

·  Feedback is sought from employees who have experienced a work injury. Senior staff are interested in feedback about the organisation’s system and the information shapes improvements.

3.  Reliability and consistency

·  All levels of the organisation take a similar approach.  Senior managers, human resources officers, return to work coordinators and supervisors deal with issues in a similar way. 

·  People within the organisation do what they say they will do and within the stated timeframes. 

·  The organisation is consistent in its policies, procedures and actions. 

·  An organisation that deals with compensable cases in one way but has completely different rules for non-compensable cases is stating to their staff that costs or organisational issues come before employee issues. The organisation sets up a culture in which employees report problems under the system that best covers or protects them. More importantly, the organisation is saying their financial bottom line comes before the employee’s needs and wellbeing. 

- A manufacturing company of 600 employees provides RTW programs for work-related health conditions. However, if the condition is a personal or non work-related problem the person is expected to be fully fit before they can return to work. A middle-aged worker who develops a shoulder problem is assisted with RTW if lodged as a work-related problem, but not if dealt with as a personal matter. The incentive to lodge a workers compensation claim is substantial.

4.  Active leadership

Workplace culture is influenced by senior staff. Senior managers who espouse positive practices but tolerate unsatisfactory practices are not providing active leadership.   

Active leadership promotes good practices, through policies and behaviour. Examples include:

·  Involvement with program monitoring. 

·  Reviewing work disability organisational reports and requiring them to demonstrate key outcomes.

- Outcomes might include the proportion of: cases reported within the organisation's stated time frames, RTW meetings supervisors have attended; or of cases where the person has been contacted within the first 48 hours; the number of days lost or days of modified duties etc. 

·  Senior management gets in touch with injured employees and asks after their wellbeing. This has a huge impact on the organisation and demonstrates to middle managers that senior managers are committed to employee wellbeing. 

5.  Actively dealing with problem situations

In the best systems, not all employees will seek to return to work or honour the spirit of the system. While supporting an employee is vital, dealing with an employee who is not working within the system is equally important. An organisation that does not deal effectively with a problem loses credibility. Management of problem cases tells others what is acceptable, and protects the morale of the organisation. 

The spirit of co-operation between a person and their work colleagues has a major impact on return to work. If colleagues are doubtful or mistrusting the situation their attitudes are more likely to be negative. 

Dealing with any problem situation requires tact and balance. While difficult, weeding out problem situations is just as important as providing support to employees. 

6.  Job Issues

Job issues influence morale, the desire of employees to be at work, and attitudes to return to work. Job issues influence the person's sense of what they can contribute and whether they are needed in the workplace. Problem job contexts include:

·  High demand/low control jobs

·  Unhelpful management styles

·  Poor social support

·  Perceived time pressures.

Task variety and a sense that the employee can influence their situation are positive job features.

Getting the culture right can be a significant challenge. It is hard to improve a negative culture, but it can be done. External support may assist. Methods for improvement include:

- Reviewing what has been done in other similar organisations

- Obtaining an organisational psychologist's review and recommendations about what is needed for the individual workplace

- Enlisting the help of a business coach to assist senior management.

While it can be difficult to get the culture right, getting it wrong is very costly. Poor RTW outcomes are a clear example of high costs that can result from a negative approach and culture. Shifting the approach and demonstrating the resultant cost savings from improved RTW management can provide the impetus for more generalised change.

2. Measuring and understanding workplace culture

Using surveys

Information gained from Employment Opinion Surveys can be used to create a better workplace. Through carefully focused and crafted questions, employers are able to identify aspects of the workplace that are negatively impacting on the organisational performance.

Once the trouble spots in the workplace are identified, initiatives can be created and then implemented to bring about a number of tangible improvements, including, but not limited to, reductions in:

• Workers' compensation claims;
• employee absenteeism; and
• workplace bullying and harassment.

As for the costs associated with implementing Employment Opinion Surveys, it can vary depending on the complexity of the survey, and the level of results analysis you require. Costs will vary according to the number of employees and type of survey. Costs may be in the order of $10-100 per employee for the survey, and $300+ per division for the results to be analysed.

The use of Employment Opinion Surveys is illustrated through the real life case study below, care of Dr Peter Cotton, organisational psychologist.

Employment Opinion Surveys were conducted in an underperforming school that employed 80 people. The school in question:

• had been through a forced amalgamation
• was performing poorly on established performance indicators
• had seen other initiatives fail to improve its performance.

Case study

Results of the initial survey

A survey of workplace culture was conducted across a large number of schools. The results are shown in the graph below.

The survey assessed a number of measures of workplace culture, such as employee morale, role clarity and participative decision making etc. The vertical bars show the results across all schools surveyed, with the dark blue representing the best performing schools, the light blue the average, and the mid blue colour the lower performing schools.  On measures 12 and above a higher score represents poorer performance. 

The solid black line represents the case study school.  As the graph below illustrates, the school was performing poorly in virtually every indicator of school performance. 

The results indicated the school’s fundamental workplace culture was poor; change would require  the development of a more cohesive and professional culture within the school. The approach was to focus on improving leadership within the school, with resultant involvement and engagement of staff.

Indicators after the program

In the graph below, the thin black line represents the baseline results. The thicker black line shows the results of the Employment Opinion Surveys undertaken after completion of the program of leadership coaching for improvement in workplace culture. 

While there was no material change to the student behaviour, excessive work demands and individual distress, there was a notable improvement in virtually all other measures. Significant improvements were made in the a