Why analyse Workforce Outcome Indicators?
Compiling Workforce Outcome Indicators for your organisation will help you determine if work-related stressors, psychosocial distress and critical incident stress are possible issues anywhere within your organisation. This information will also help your organisation benchmark and generate possible key performance indicators (KPIs) that have specific measurable targets for inclusion in the action plan.
Who should analyse Workforce Outcome Indicators?
The Work PositiveCI coordinator is responsible for analysing current workforce outcome indicators. This information may need to be sourced from relevant internal departments or external agencies. For example, you may need to obtain absenteeism and staff turnover data from the relevant HR department.
| Possible Workforce Outcome Indicator | Potential Source |
|---|---|
|
HR department |
|
Occupational health department/HR department |
|
Health and Safety Department and/or line manager |
|
Insurer/indemnifier (e.g. commercial insurer/ State Claims Agency) |
Understanding your Workforce Outcome Indicators
Absenteeism (i.e. sickness absence)
High levels of sickness absence may indicate a potential problem area, and as such, warrants an assessment of the levels and possible causes of absence.
Turnover data (employee turnover rates)
If there are high rate of employee turnover in particular areas of an organisation, this may indicate an underlying problem regarding work stress. Exit interviews will provide an opportunity to discuss the reasons for employee turnover and help identify if there is an underlying stress related reason for the rates in turnover.
Accident rates and On the Job Errors
High rates of accidents and on the job errors in specific work departments may be an indication of work related stress; a review of the causes and frequency of accidents may help to identify underlying issues.
Complaints/Interpersonal conflict reports
Increases in employee complaints of interpersonal conflict to management or between employees and their manager are also indicators of stress in the work place, whereby stress is manifested in difficulties in work relationships or situation specific complaints.
Workers compensation claims
Litigation cases relating to psychological injury against any organisation are sometimes a strong indicator that stress control interventions are either not resourced or working at an optimum level.
Occupational health referrals
A review of occupational health referral numbers and their prevalence over a calendar year provides a significant indication of work impacting health. This may highlight problematic services, areas or work units in particular organisations where methods, content or conditions are impacting on employee health.