Civil Service People Survey 2012

1. Civil Service People Survey 2012 Wellbeing: a toolkit for action February 2013

2. Contents Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

3. Wellbeing in the Civil Service People Survey Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

4. Measuring wellbeing in the CSPS shows us what the individual gets out of our work on engagement Organisational performance Engagement is a measure of an employee’s emotional response to working for their organisation, evidence shows that higher engagement is correlated with improved outcomes for the organisation as well as enhanced levels of wellbeing for the individual.1 Experiences of work Employee engagement Employee wellbeing Our traditional description of the benefit of focussing on employee engagement has tended to focus on the organisational benefits... ...research shows that work is a key influencer of individuals’ levels of wellbeing, but in order to understand our impact we need to measure it. 1. A review of the latest evidence on the relationship between employee engagement and organisational outcomes can be found at: http://cdn1.engageforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/The-Evidence.pdf which follows the 2009 Government commissioned report MacLeod D and Clarke N (2009) Engaging for Success: Enhancing Performance through Employee Engagement, London: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Summary of findings

5. Promoting wellbeing in the Civil Service will benefit our employees and set an important example • Wellbeing at work is the consequence of an interaction between the working environment, the nature of the work and the individual. • Responsibility for improving wellbeing should sit at the organisation level; we should also encourage employees to take responsibility for their own wellbeing. • “A government lead in promoting wellbeing in its own workforce would be win-win: besides benefiting the considerable number of public sector employees and the performance of its own business, it would set an important example to the private sector.” • Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project, 2008 Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

6. What do the wellbeing questions measure? Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

7. The wellbeing questions measure our employees’ levels of individual subjective wellbeing Measuring our employees’ wellbeing shows that this is something we care about, above and beyond what they can contribute to the business. Subjective wellbeing concerns people’s self-reported wellbeing, aiming to measure how people think and feel, rather than relying on objective indicators (such as educational achievement, employment, or material wellbeing). Survey questions that ask people to evaluate their own wellbeing allow for individual differences in terms of values and identity to be expressed. For example, one person may feel that their salary has the greatest impact on their life satisfaction, while for another, family relationships may be more important. The wellbeing questions can be used in conjunction with the existing engagement questions to provide us with a more complete picture of Civil Servants’ psychological health at work. This will allow organisations to develop interventions that will deliver benefits at both the organisational and the individual level. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

8. They comprise evaluative, eudemonic and experience approaches • The four wellbeing questions are used by the ONS to measure national subjective wellbeing. They were developed with expert academic advice and represent a balanced approach to the measurement of subjective wellbeing, drawing on three main approaches. • The evaluative approach asks individuals to step back and reflect on their life. • The eudemonic approach measures individuals’ sense of meaning and purpose in life. • The experience approach seeks to measure people’s positive and negative experiences over a short timeframe to capture people’s wellbeing on a day-to-day basis. Eudemonic wellbeing focuses on self-realisation, and defines wellbeing in terms of the degree to which a person is fully operational. It evolves from pursuing contexts and relationships that fulfill intrinsic human needs while continually extending the self. For the ‘experience approach’ questions, the adjective ‘happy’ has been chosen as it is commonly used for positive affect questions; ‘anxious’ is widely used as an indicator of poor mental wellbeing (e.g. in the European Social Survey). Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

9. Acting on your results: five action points for wellbeing Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

10. Our five action points provide a range of approaches the Civil Service can take to promote wellbeing • We have put together five action points for wellbeing, along with ideas for how to implement them and relevant case studies from within government. • The action points cover universal and targeted approaches, and include actions which can be undertaken by organisations (‘downstream’) and individual employees (‘upstream’). • Action points one and two are directly focused on wellbeing, while action points three to five address the broader workplace factors which impact on wellbeing. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

11. Action point 1: promote health, wellbeing and resilience Raise the profile of the importance of mental health and wellbeing at work. Provide regular wellbeing or stress audits or screening through available psychometric tools and resources (e.g. NHS wellbeing tool [see the additional wellbeing resources]). Use nef’s Five Ways to Wellbeing to support individuals to take action to improve their own wellbeing. The Five Ways are: Connect, Be active, Take notice, Keep learning, and Give. • Focus on information transfer and knowledge provision through campaigns, events, articles etc. • Facilitate adoption of the Five Ways through schemes encouraging exercise, volunteering, healthy eating, knowledge sharing etc. Consult and engage staff to develop a simple menu of wellbeing activities and options. Strengths-based work: encourage staff to exercise their character strengths for a short period (there are strong links between strength-based approaches and employee engagement). Ensure a safe and pleasant physical working environment. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

12. Case studies: promoting health, wellbeing and resilience • DWP aims to make working for the Department a rewarding and productive experience by improving the health, wellbeing and engagement of its staff; and providing a healthy, safe and supportive environment in which to work. It has implemented a dedicated wellbeing strategy to ensure this is done. • DH has made a commitment that it will ‘practice what we preach’ on wellbeing. it was the first department in Whitehall to sign up to the Time To Change pledge on 10 October 2012, and its Minister for Care Services is the cross-government champion to encourage OGDs to sign up. • DH has also established a Health and Wellbeing Board, chaired by a Director. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

13. Action point 2: provide good specialist support for physical and mental health conditions Ensure staff have access to good facilities and support including HR, Occupational Health, Employee Assistance Programmes, counselling, CBT providers. • Ensure strong support is available for employees experiencing stress or anxiety, e.g. counselling, or stress management training (through Occupational Health (OH) and primary care support services). • Improve integration of primary care and OH services to support mental health and wellbeing, including working relationships between OH providers and employers. Intervene quickly when things go wrong, e.g. if an employee experiences stress, anxiety, or occupational ill-health. • Introduce proactive absence management procedures, such as ‘fit’ notes, improved access to advice and support services, management training in absence management, rehabilitation and job retention. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

14. Action point 3: foster an organisational culture of participation, equality and fairness Support employees to be positive about others’ work abilities, including opposing discrimination based on mental or physical health status, and developing mentoring and coaching. Change the way we think and act about mental health: sign up to the Time to Change campaign, led by Mind, Rethink and the Institute of Psychiatry. • Promote awareness and understanding about mental health issues, and challenge discrimination and stigma. • Ensure all employees have an equal opportunity to participate in approaches to promote wellbeing (especially part-time workers, shift workers, and migrant workers). • Use nef’s Five Ways to Wellbeing to instigate a shift in thinking and approach to mental health: integrate the Five Ways into staff inductions and training sessions. Promote testimonials and leadership team endorsements; these are important in helping others overcome taboos about discussion of mental health issues. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

15. Action point 4: prioritise good management Ensure all managers are effective and supportive: good management competencies include participation, delegation, constructive feedback, monitoring and coaching. • Use the HSE’s stress management competency indicator tool, which lists management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work. Training for managers in social and interpersonal skills, recognising the impact of management on employee health and wellbeing. • Managers should be sensitive to indications of mental distress, and open to discuss and resolve issues early. They should also understand when to refer employees to professional or other sources of help and support. • Managers should develop their emotional intelligence (EI), involving self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. • Managers’ ability to manage teams with flexible working patterns should be developed. Recruitment, development, rewarding and promotion of managers to recognise and promote supportive management skills. Ensure the organisation has visible senior leadership, accountable managers, and systems of monitoring and measurement that embed continuous improvement. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

16. Case studies: prioritising good management • DFID has created a foundation for emphasising good, supportive management by introducing a staff engagement exercise as a mandatory part of its Senior Civil Servant recruitment process. • To develop and embed supportive management behaviours, HMRC has developed the People Impact Assessment (PIA), a two-level tool that ensures people impacts are considered and acted on during planning and implementation of change. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

17. Action point 5: create good work Integrate wellbeing approaches into business as usual: use nef’s Five Ways to Wellbeing as a tool for consultation, to influence service delivery approaches, or to embed improvements in partnership working. Ensure job design that recognises ‘good work’ principles, including strong relationships; fairness (procedural justice); meaningful, secure work; autonomy, control and task discretion; balance between effort and reward; and learning and development. Provide staff with the right to request flexible working arrangements, such as part-time working, home-working, job sharing and flexitime. Promote an organisational culture that supports flexible working. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

18. Further wellbeing resources Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

19. The literature provides advice on how to implement a successful high-level wellbeing strategy The wellbeing literature outlines a ‘wellbeing improvement cycle’, consisting of seven stages. It is suggested that a successful high-level wellbeing strategy should follow these steps. • Identify the perceived issues and programme vision: measure current levels of wellbeing and engagement, and establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). • Develop a robust business case to gain senior buy in. • Create a programme tailored to your business objectives: know your business environment, align health and wellbeing to your business strategy, and clarify your programme’s objectives. Align your wellbeing to your engagement strategy to ensure a truly strategic and coordinated approach. • Dedicate resource to your programme: evaluate your current resources and find the right business partners to deliver your initiative (internal, external or both). • Communicate and launch your programme through a variety of approaches, such as posters, regular updates/features (e.g. on the intranet), email bulletins, training, staff events, informal interactions. • Ongoing programme management. • Measure the impact of your intervention and adjust your approach accordingly. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

20. Civil Servants across government have identified ideas for lower-level wellbeing interventions We consulted with a cross-government group of Civil Servants who suggested wellbeing interventions that could be taken at the lower level, within individual departments. These include providing training on resilience, mindfulness and stress, specific support for staff networks, and line management and leadership development. Trial health and wellbeing kiosks/ Wellpointmachines • Would provide a range of physical health metrics for individuals to track overtime and as well as provide aggregate statistics for departments • Potentially self-financing if coin operated for a small fee. Mindfulness workshops and leadership training • NICE approved approach to improving wellbeing. Strong opportunity to use RCTs to test their impact. • Integrate wellbeing into existing CSL curriculum for leadership development. Line management competency frameworks and development • Integrating external wellbeing competencies into existing Civil Service frameworks and training for line managers. Resilience training • EAP providers could potentially offer resilience training as part of their offer or as an additional cost. • 95% of Civil Service to be covered by new EAP/OH framework by the end of 2013, and providers have to demonstrate they are supporting staff wellbeing. • Evidence from UKBA suggests resilience training may be popular. Stress training and specific support for staff networks • A range of learning modules on stress already exist on Civil Service Learning (CSL). • Explicit support to specific staff networks to help them improve their members’ wellbeing. Bespoke health and wellbeing plans and team building initiatives • IT packages exist that give staff access to individual health and wellbeing assessments, from which personalised plans can be developed. • Wellbeing and engagement are influenced by the relationships between team members, particularly levels of trust. Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing

21. There is a wealth of useful online wellbeing resources, for both employees and organisations The NHS provides a self-assessment wellbeing tool, which can be used by individual employees: • NHS wellbeing self-assessment tool: http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Wellbeing-self-assessment.aspx Organisations will find resources from nef, HSE and DWP useful: • Aked, J., Marks, N., Cordon, C. and Thompson, S. (2008), Five Ways to Well-being: The Evidence, New Economics Foundation (nef): http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/five-ways-well-being-evidence • HSE Line Manager Competency Indicator Tool: http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/furtheradvice/managementcompetencies.htm • DWP fit note: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/fitnote/ Tools for developing a business case for wellbeing are available from DWP and NICE: • DWP workplace wellbeing tool: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/health-work-and-well-being/our-work/workplace-well-being-tool/ • NICE tools and resources on promoting mental wellbeing at work, including business case, costing template, and slide set: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PH22 Civil Service People Survey 2012: Wellbeing