Navigating the Minefield

Preventing and conquering the barriers to complex injury management cases

The Causal Links Between

Organisational Health and Individual Injury
Presented on behalf of
Self Insurers of Victoria

Insight SRC Pty Ltd

Level 9, 34 Queen Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone: 03 8611 0600
Email: enquiries@insightsrc.com.au
Website: www.insightsrc.com.au
 About Insight
SRC…

Insight SRC is a highly-skilled consulting organisation capable of building the productivity

and effectiveness of enterprises through innovative and empowering leadership and
organisational development strategies.

We deal with the problem, not the symptom, by creating the tools, knowledge and
capacity that our clients can then apply to a self-managed process for cultural and
organisational change.

Insight SRC works as a strategic partner with our clients to develop long-lasting
relationships. You have the expert understanding of your operating environment. We have
the deep conceptual knowledge of HR development and the powerful statistical tools and
change processes to back it up.

The solutions we develop are not off-the-shelf formats. Our flexibility in thinking and
deployment is a result of a holistic approach to organisational issues.

Together we work to give you insight into the way your people work, and the pathways for
improvement.

As partners, we create knowledge – the most powerful tool of the contemporary organisation.

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 Our theoretical frameworks …

Insight SRC has been instrumental in creating the knowledge and setting the standards in
the HR, consulting and scientific management communities:
research awards
(e.g., we have received many prestigious research awards, at the national and international levels, for the
quality of our organisational research, and have been rated in the top 10% of researchers worldwide)

creating the knowledge that drives international thinking

(e.g., we our recognised as thought leaders on the key drivers of wellbeing, motivation and performance, and
have published extensively in the top-tier scientific journals in management and organisational psychology)

establishing the theoretical frameworks that underpin policy and practice

(e.g., we developed the organisational health framework that now underpins the policies and practices in a
wide range of private and public sector organisations to build accountability and improvement in people
issues)

Our research highlights four fundamental truisms that build effective performance
Empathy – building trust, respect, and understanding
Clarity – building dialogue, discussion, focus and accountability
Engagement – building teamwork, empowerment, and shared ownership
Learning – building in feedback, personal growth and challenge
… these underpin the key team and individual behaviours that drive wellbeing
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 Engagement is the critical path to wellbeing and performance …

Our focus, on establishing and understanding the link between people and performance has
clearly demonstrated that engaged employees are the foundation of effective organisations.
The Russell Investment Group
A study of the companies on Fortune’s annual list of “100 Best Companies to Work For” showed that these
companies returned five times as much to investors as the market in general

Towers Perrin/ISR
Using data from 664,000 employees across 50 countries worldwide, Towers Perrin/ISR found that companies
with highly engaged employees had lower turnover, lower absence, higher customer satisfaction

McKinsey
Lowell L. Bryan, a McKinsey Director, argues that companies focus too much on measuring returns on
invested capital and not enough on measuring the contributions of their people, and believes that we should
use financial-performance metrics to focus on returns on talent rather than returns on capital

Insight SRC
Working with a range of Australian private and public sector organisations, we have established a strong link
between engaged employees and business performance:
Boeing Australia – engaged employees drive business excellence (2003 Gold Award)
Medium-sized Bank – engaged employees drive financial performance (2006)
RACV – engaged employees drive retail and call centre customer satisfaction (2002 SIOP)
Victorian Education – engaged employees drive student retention and academic achievement (2007)
State and Commonwealth Public Sector – engaged employees lead to lower costs (1992-2007)

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 Typical challenges when building engagement …

Building engagement can be a time consuming, costly and threatening pursuit:

Getting it right
(e.g., organisations often embark on engagement programs without first establishing the root cause of
wellbeing and performance outcomes)

Survey fatigue
(e.g., organisations often implement a range of diagnostic activities, including culture and climate surveys,
stress audits, 360 degree feedback surveys, pulse surveys, engagement surveys, etc)

Lack of common language

(e.g., embedding a common cultural language around ‘people’ is not helped by the use of different
frameworks, tools and providers that all come with their own ways of talking about leadership and culture)

Lack of integration
(e.g., different diagnostic tools usually draw on different conceptual frameworks, resulting in fragmentation
and competing messages, a lack of ownership for core issues, and time consuming development
processes)

The blame game

(e.g., organisations sometimes struggle to build ownership of development needs at the right level, with
managers blaming employees, and employees blaming managers – finger pointing is much easier than
change)

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 Using organisational health as an integrative framework …

Through a range of scientific and commercial projects, we have examined the key
drivers of organisational health with data from over 1,000,000 employees world-wide.

Public Sector Private Sector

Accountants and Economists Airline Employees

Community Services Workers
Emergency Services Workers
Hospital Staff
Local Government Employees
Police Officers
Primary & Secondary Teachers
TAFE Employees
Transport Workers
Engineering Employees
Finance Sector Employees
Information Technology Employees
Insurance Employees
Resource Industry Employees
Retail Employees
Telecommunications Employees
Utilities Employees

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 The Organisational Health Framework …

Emotionality

Stress
Leave
+ +
+

Emotion Non certified

+ Negative + Sick leave
Focused Stress
Experiences _
Coping
_ _
_ Turnover
_ Intentions
Org. + Job
+ Climate Satisfaction
+ Discretionary
+ _
+ Performance
+
Problem
+ Positive +
Focused Morale
Experiences Customer
Coping
Experience

+
+ +
Profitability

Sociability

Based on Hart & Cooper (2001)

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 Simplifying the Organisational Health Framework …

Individual Organisational
Characteristics Characteristics

Organisational
Distress Morale
Performance

we actually control those things that make

the most difference to wellbeing and performance …

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 Research evidence …

Individual Individual Workplace Workplace

Morale Distress Morale Distress

Emotionality 67
Organisational
Organisational
Climate 51 Organisational
Climate -36
Climate -60
Sociability 30 Organisational
Negative
Climate 85 Emotionality 45
Work Experiences 23
Emotionality -30
Emotionality -29 Negative
Positive
Positive Work Experiences 25
Work Experiences -10
Work Experiences 28 Sociability 15
Emotion
Sociability 05
Negative Focused Coping 04
Work Experience -18
Emotion
Focused Coping 03

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 Even more research evidence …

Job Workers’ Noncertified Turnover

Satisfaction Compensation Sick leave Intentions

Emotionality 55 Emotionality 40

Individual Distress 28 Organisational Organisational

Organisational Climate -19 Climate -39
Climate 77 Individual Morale -28
Individual Morale -34
Job Satisfaction -16
Emotionality -36 Organisational
Climate -26 Individual Distress 22
Emotionality 11
Positive Positive
Sociability 13
Work Experiences 34 Workplace Distress 11 Work Experiences -14
Negative Negative 13
Negative Work Experiences 12 Negative
Work Experiences
Work Experiences -23 Work Experiences 06
Emotion Workplace Morale -10
Sociability 11 Focused Coping 12 Positive
Work Experiences -06 Sociability 09
Positive
Work Experiences -11 Job Satisfaction -06

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 Improving service delivery …

Linking wellbeing and service delivery in a call centre environment

Innovation
23

Organisational Staff Customer

Leadership
Climate Well-Being Experience
52

Retention

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 Organisational climate and safety behaviours …

Workgroups Individuals Outcomes

58 23
35
Safety Safety
Knowledge Compliance

54 57
Organisational Safety
Climate Climate
28

43
Safety Safety
Motivation Participation
29

23

Neal, Griffin & Hart (2000) Safety Science

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 Days compensated after back injury …

23
23
42 48 42 Days
Pain Impact
Catastrophise
Severity On Life Compensated

-22

-20

67
Organisational Claims
Climate Management

Hart, Norris, Wearing, McMurray, Disler & Malinovskaya (1997) University of Melbourne

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 Return to work after back injury …

23
50 48 47
Pain Impact Days
Catastrophise
Severity On Life Compensated

41

-28 -31

80 -38
Organisational Claims Return
Climate Management to Work

Hart, Norris, Wearing, McMurray, Disler & Malinovskaya (1997) University of Melbourne

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 Putting the pieces together …

There are no magic silver bullets when it comes to improving organisational health.
Nevertheless, we can develop a set of principles and practical tools that enable us to structure
our thinking and improvement activities.

Leadership Cultural Employee Organisational

Behaviours Behaviours Wellbeing Performance

Concerns and/or
Opportunities

?
Core Business Empathy Energy
Change Management Clarity Enthusiasm
Development Engagement Pride
People Learning Passion Symptoms

a strategic approach focuses on the causes, not the symptoms…

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 Dynamic equilibrium theory of stress …

Stress is a systemic concept that may be observed when two conditions are met:

a state of disequilibrium exists within the system of

variables relating people to their environment;

and

this state of disequilibrium brings about change in people’s

normal levels of psychological well-being.

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 Practical definitions …

Distress refers to the negative feelings that

people
experience as a result of their work
(e.g., anxiety, depression, frustration, worry)

Morale refers to the positive feelings that people

experience as a result of their work
(e.g., energy, enthusiasm, pride, team spirit)

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 Emotion is the key to staff wellbeing …

Employee Satisfaction Employee Wellbeing

H
i Utopia Go, go, go ...
M g
o h
r
a
l L
e o Presenteeism
w #$*!#!

Low High
Job Satisfaction Distress Quality of Work Life

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 Police experiences and their wellbeing …

Administration 84

Supervision 83 Decision-Making 78
Communication 71
The Job Itself 73
Resources 67
Management 71
Workload 66

Work & Home Life 62 Administration 68

Outside Support 61 Workload 67

Coworkers 56
Customer Service 65
Career Opportunities 52 Negative 58
Positive
Amenities
External 50 Experiences Experiences
Coworkers 57
Complaints 49
Frustration 49 Work Schedule 56

Activity 49 Equip. & Resources 56

Insecurity 48
Family 54
Personality Clashes 47
Victims 29
Dual Careers 35
Danger 24 Offenders 18

Victims 22

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 Consulting through balloons and weights …

By focusing on the actual

experiences that an
employee has had over the
past 1-2 months, it is possible
to identify the key factors that
contribute to staff wellbeing
and overall performance –
Organisational
without ‘loading’ the dice
Health
through a checklist or
questionnaire.

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 Key drivers of motivation and wellbeing…

Causes
Employee Development

Co-worker Interaction

Feedback 50% of Individual Morale

Goal Alignment 85% of Workgroup Morale

Participative Decision-Making 80% of Workgroup Distress

Role Clarity 45% of Individual Distress

Supportive Leadership

Work Demands
Explains

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 Building a quality organisational culture …

Research in a wide variety of private and public sector organisations demonstrates that the following four cultural
pillars underpin wellbeing, motivation and performance in all organisations:
• Empathy (Supportive Leadership)
• Clarity (Role Clarity)
• Engagement (Teamwork, Empowerment, Ownership)
• Learning (Feedback, Employee Development)
Importantly, the relative strengths and weaknesses across these four pillars differs across teams. This indicates that
improvement strategies have to be tailored to the specific needs of individual teams.

Clarity

Empathy Learning

Engagement

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 Building the culture that underpins high performance …

Supportive
Leadership

20
40 Employee
30 Individual
Feedback Retention
Development Morale
24
72 47 22 33 40
Role
Clarity
Stress
Claims
45
56
Workplace
Teamwork
Morale
44 38

Absenteeism
33

39 -41
Empower- Workplace
Ownership
ment Distress
40 Discretionary
59 66
29 Effort

33 -42

-55
Excessive 30 Service
Individual
Work Delivery
Distress
Demands
-21

Leadership and Management Culture

Empathy Clarity Engaging Learning

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 Understanding what is most important …

Workgroup Morale Workgroup Distress Individual Morale Individual Distress

Excessive
Supportive Leadership 52
Work Demands 66
Supportive Leadership 74
Role Clarity 48
Supportive Leadership -60
Coworker Interaction 74 Supportive Leadership -42
Employee Development 30
Goal Alignment -41
Role Clarity 45 Role Clarity -41
Participative
Participative
Goal Alignment 39 Decision-Making 16 Excessive
Decision-Making -19
Work Demands 30
Participative Coworker Interaction 13
Individual Morale -14
Decision-Making 15
Appraisal & Recognition 12
Role Clarity -18

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 What is behind supportive leadership – a transformational approach…

Focus on Focus on Focus on Supportive

People Development Core Business Leadership

Manages People Builds Own Skills being approachable

Coaches Staff
knowing the
Seeks Feedback Is Entrepreneurial problems staff face
Effectively
Manages Change supporting staff
Builds Relationships Creates a Quality
Environment communicating well
Values Training & with staff
Supports Staff Development
Provides Direction can be relied upon

Effectively Manages

Projects

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 Moving toward an emotional intelligence framework …

Research in a wide variety of private and public sector organisations demonstrates that the following four
cultural pillars underpin engagement and performance in all organisations:

Empathy the extent to which workgroup leaders understand the needs of

workgroup members

Clarity the extent to which workgroup members have a sense of purpose and
know what is expected of them

Engagement the extent to which workgroup members collaborate, share ideas and
solve problems together, leading to shared Goal Alignment of
workgroup goals

Learning the extent to which workgroup members feel their efforts are being
recognised and their capability is being developed through appropriate
learning and development opportunities

These four pillars underpin Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee’s (2002) emotional intelligence approach to
leadership - their six styles of leadership include visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting
and commanding.

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 Why are the four pillars of culture so important?

Wellbeing & Loyalty Absence Customer Sales

Motivation Behaviours Retention Cost Experience Performance

85% 60% 25% 15% 50% 55%

the leader and cultural behaviours that form the foundations of engagement and performance

Four Pillars of Leader and Cultural Behaviour

Clarity

Empathy Learning

Engagement

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 Behaviour change – the difficult part when improving wellbeing …

Bringing about a change in the factors that contribute to employee wellbeing is not
straightforward. Pre and post-test evidence, from a range of different improvement
programs over the past 17 years, has demonstrated that action-learning programs that
focus on behaviour change have the greatest chance of success.

Minimum chance of success:

Building knowledge (e.g., sharing ideas, reflection, one-off training days, etc)

Maximum chance of success:

Changing behaviour (i.e., if behaviour does not change, improvement does not
occur)

People can see and experience behaviour change in others, but they can’t always see and
experience change in other people’s knowledge!

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 Key questions of leaders coming into the program …

Improvement in organisational health should be strategic and holistic!

Engagement:
1. Do staff have a shared view about the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses?
2. Are staff on board with the proposed improvement process?

Clarity:
3. What are the organisation’s improvement goals?
4. How do these goals fit in with the strategic plan for the organisation?

Empathy & Engagement:

5. Do we need to implement an action learning process?
6. How should we create project teams and champions?

Learning:
7. What learning activities do we need to build into the process?
8. Do we need to review the leadership structure and roles?
9. Do we need to develop a vision and strategic plan?
10. Do we need to build empathy among leaders?
11. Do we need to improve meetings?
12. … what can I do personally to make a difference?
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 Improving the four pillars will reduce workers’ compensation costs …

$1,378,783 saving over three years in one worksite of 80 people!

$1,000,000

$800,000 $771,004

$600,000
$469,967

$400,000
$270,610
$193,652
$200,000

$0
Baseline End Year 1 End Year 2 End Year 3
Change Program

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 Key learnings …

There is no ‘magic silver bullet’ that will enable us to improve wellbeing and performance.
However, there are common factors in the leader and cultural behaviours that underpin success
in all organisations:

Distress and morale are central to staff well-being

The quality of the organisational climate you create is critical

to staff well-being and organisational performance

Empathy, Clarity, Engagement, and Learning is the key to success

High performing workgroups can only be established by working

‘collaboratively’ to build an engaging environment that motivates
employees and delivers core business results

Action-learning is the best way to create new behavioural habits

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 Our contact details…

Dr Peter Hart Roger Dingle

Managing Director Senior Consultant

Insight SRC Insight SRC
Level 9, 34 Queen Street Level 9, 34 Queen Street
Melbourne, 3000 Melbourne, 3000
Phone: +61 3 8611 0600 Phone: +61 3 8611 0600
Email: Email: dingle@insightsrc.com.au
hart@insightsrc.com.au

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