NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) is the independent organisation “responsible for providing national guidance and advice to improve health and social care”. NICE has recently published a new Quality Standard, “Healthy workplaces: improving employee mental and physical health and wellbeing”.

You can see the standard at https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs147

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THIS QUALITY STANDARD?

This Quality Standard (QS) aims to improve employee health and well-being (which includes both physical and mental health) by providing a structured framework which will mean that improvements can be both monitored and measured.

ABOUT THE QUALITY STANDARD

There are 4 quality statements as follows:

1: “Employees work in organisations that have a named senior manager who makes employee health and wellbeing a core priority”

This will task an individual senior manger with

• leading the initiative for organisational health and well-being and
• providing support to help line managers and employees make improvements.

2: “Employees are managed by people who support their health and wellbeing”

This recognises the “significant influence” that a line manger has over “employee attitudes and behaviours” if health and wellbeing form an integral part of the line manager’s role. The aim is to ensure that managers are supportive, ultimately making employees feel

• valued
• content and
• able to discuss any concerns before they reach a “crisis point”.

3: “Employees are managed by people who are trained to recognise and support them when they are experiencing stress”.

This deals with the importance of training and supporting line managers who have the most regular daily contact with individual employees and, as such, are in the best position to

• identify the early signs of stress and
• help prevent the symptoms escalating into illness and sickness absence

4: “Employees have the opportunity to contribute to decision-making through staff engagement forums”

This recognises that employees must have the opportunity to be able to voice opinions, raise any concerns and, wherever possible, offer suggestions for the solution to known areas of difficulty.

What does this mean for me?

The guidelines apply to everyone, including employers, managers, HR professionals, employees and the self-employed.

NICE states that outcomes or benefits for everyone in the organisation should include:

• “increasing productivity
• lowering staff sickness levels
• improving job satisfaction
• improved staff retention rates”

Now would be a great time to

• examine your existing policies relating to health and well-being and
• evaluate whether you follow those policies and determine, if not, why not
• begin a consultation to reviewing your existing policies which takes the NICE QS into account