The HR approach to mental health needs to be challenged

Human Resources (HR) management may seem to be a bit of a punching bag in SafetyAtWorkBlog articles. There is no doubt that HR can do better to prevent harm, especially psychological harm, but so can ever other management profession. One 2018 article was recently reposted by Human Resources Director (HRD) magazine on workplace mental health which deserves some consideration.

Firstly the article is categorised under “Corporate wellness”, instantly locking it into a specific area of HR and occupational health and safety (OHS). The article, written by lawyer Amber Chandler of Barker Henley, also has relevance to risk management, due diligence, Industrial Relations or OHS and, as mentioned in another article recently, could benefit from being posted or cross-posted in those other categories, or even under “Leadership”. The categorisation is likely to have been an editorial decision but reveals something about HR and HR media.

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OHS and the Four Day Week

Recently the BBC’s Business Daily had a short discussion about the introduction of the 4 Day Week. This workplace reform has knocked about for a few years now and seems to have some mental health and job satisfaction benefits. This is enough for it to interest occupational health and safety (OHS), especially as it is one of the few examples of a structural and organisational change rather than an intervention aimed at each individual worker.

The BBC discussion indicates the difference (it may be a schism) between a new way of thinking about work and the old traditional way. The opponent to the 4 Day Week emphasises the individual over the organisational and compares service industries to those that produce goods.

The episode, now a podcast, is a good introduction to the for and against of the 4 Day Week but careful listening shows the challenge ahead.

Continue reading “OHS and the Four Day Week”

SafetyAtWorkBlog 2020 statistics

Occasionally SafetyAtWorkBlog publishes a statistical profile in response to one of the most common questions I get asked – who many readers does the blog have? The internet is far from simple and internet statistics are perhaps the most unreliable of all statistics, as some are purposely hidden, others are intentionally obtuse and almost all of it relates to advertising. Bearing that in mind, WordPress records that this blog has been viewed 3,836,432 times in 2020.

Below is some of the data available with a comparison, where possible, with statistics from two years ago.

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Right information, wrong magazine

The OHS Professional magazine for December 2020 contains a very good article about workplace psychological risks and the occupational health and safety (OHS) strategy to prevent mental harm. The only negative is that it is not published in a Human Resources magazine, or one for company directors. The preventative techniques are well known to the OHS profession and based on independent scientific evidence, but it is other managerial disciplines that need to learn the difference between preventing psychological harm and providing symptomatic relief.

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Here’s to a less crappy 2021

https://youtu.be/GDVrCzndoVA

Thank you to all the SafetyAtWorkBlog subscribers, followers and lurkers (I know you’re out there). Special thanks to the new subscribers in Asia, the United States and Europe and the very important corporate ones in Australia. It is your subscriptions that keep the SafetyAtWorkBlog operating.

2020 has been a shitty year for many reasons, but none so awful as COVID19. It has claimed several important OHS professionals this year, or professionals who were at least important to me.

The world has changed. The world of work has changed and it has made our jobs harder in many ways.

Please stay safe over the holiday break.

Kevin Jones

Australian Safety Magazine continues to improve

The member magazine of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety (AIHS), OHS Professional, continues to improve in the quality of its articles – less advertorial, more authoritative articles. The current edition, December 2020, includes two particularly good articles- one on the manufacturers’ withdrawal of quad bikes in protest and another on psychological health and safety at work. This article will discuss the quad bike article.

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All being well!

This time last year Australia was facing horrendous bushfires and days of thick smoke. Yesterday we, in Melbourne, received over an inch of rainfall. For many Christmas was far less than joyous. At the same time a global incurable coronavirus was spreading.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) took a back seat in many ways but also came to the fore in others, depending on how exposed employers felt their businesses were and whether OHS professionals were sufficiently adaptable; depending on whether one saw public health that affects work as a workplace hazard, or let the public health people get on with their work. In all these circumstances there was a little bit of panic and varying levels of fear and anguish.

Continue reading “All being well!”