Evaluation of Occupational Health Intervention in Woolworths NZ

This report evaluates the effectiveness of occupational health intervention in Woolworths NZ, including factors considered, limitations, and recommendations for successful implementation.

Occupational Health
Strategic Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Evaluation of occupational health intervention......................................................................1
Factors considered while evaluating occupational health......................................................3
Limitation of report along with recommendations for successful implementation of
intervention.............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
An occupational health strategy maintains a safe and healthy workplace. By implementing a
comprehensive occupational health policy, employers will determine the health risks associated
with current products and processes, eliminate hazards where possible, and identify safer
alternatives. Woolworths NZ is the second largest grocery company in New Zealand, with
revenue of NZ$6.2 billion for the year to June 2018. Alongside Foodstuffs, Woolworths NZ
forms part of the New Zealand supermarket duopoly. This report contains the information in
three assessments such as evaluation on the basis of intervention of health and occupation.
Factors that are considered while evaluating the health of occupation and limitations of the health
and safety measures with the recommendations of implementing in a different manner
Silaparasetti, Rao & Khan, (2017)..
Evaluation of occupational health intervention
Occupational health refers a field of health which is mainly concerned with safety as well as
welfare of people at work in an organization. It is stated that companies are now focusing on
providing safe and healthy working environment to their people at work n order to make them
able to work with concentration and also for fostering a healthy working environment. So it can
be said that one of the main aim of occupational health is to make a safe working environment
and protect workers, their family members, customers and all those who get affected from
working environment.
There are some common law of duty which needs to be followed and considered by all
employees in order to make them safe and protect them against any injury and accidents at
workplace. Statue law is one of the main acts which consist of several specific duties imposed to
companies in order to regulate workplace safety and issues. Some occupational health and
safet6y issues include: heat stress, back injury, high noise, obesity, injury due to ineffective
working environment and unfixed railing, stairs, unclean floor and others. So it can be said that it
is important to make and implement effective intervention work occupational health and safety
and also evaluate them in order to their effectiveness and performance whether implemented
intervention plan is effective and people at workplace can be made feel safe and prevented
against injury or not. An effective intervention plan consists of all information’s that who will be
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responsible for managing health and safety6, for which t6ypes of injury and accidents who will
be liable, policies which required to be implemented and others Schelvis & et.al., (2016). In this
context it is found that it is not possible for directive to provide information on how to manage the
psychosocial work environment so, for this purpose national policies have been developed in some
countries like management standards in the UK, New Zealand etc. This strategy is being applied to
organizational-level occupational health interventions for improving employee health and well-being
by making them able to change the way work is managed and organized.
Some steps of successful implementation of intervention include: preparation screening of
psychosocial risks, action plan, implementation and evaluation of outcomes. One of the main work
which needs to be done by employees and mangers is to determine intervention process like who will
be liable for project, how all people will be informed in development of activities. In the context of
Woolworth New Zealand which is the second largest grocery company and now a subsidiary of
Australia’s Woolworth requires maintaining a healthy working environment in order to retain their
employees for the long run and engage them for taking competitive advantages.
Process measure by CDC model: There is a CDC framework which can help manager of
Woolworth in measuring performance and effectiveness of intervention plan of occupational health
and safety. As per this framework, manager can identify stakeholder engagement level, productivity
level, increment in performance level of employees. It is stated that working in an effective working
environment allow and encourage employees to focus on their work which leads to improved
performance and overall improved productivity as well. And by knowing and comparing
performance level of employees manager can identify and measure effectiveness of intervention. If
there is increment in performance then it simply means that intervention plan is effective and if their
is poor performance of employees which means employees are not feeling safe and facing problems
in concentrating in functions Intervention Activities Evaluation in Occupational Health and
Safety. (2016). According to the performance, productivity level and engagement level of
stakeholders, company can make changes in implementation plan by improving some policies which
can allow them to make effective working environment.
Occupational health and safety management system is one of the effective tool which is being
used in New Zealand for ensuring safety and knowing effectiveness of performance of intervention.
In this context it is also stated that Woolworth New Zealand mainly focuses on leadership for
evaluating effectiveness the extent to which tools are performing in a way to minimize accidents
Steel, Godderis & Luyten, (2018).
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Regression model is one of the other main model which is also being developed for
predicting safety outcomes and effectiveness of intervention. As per this model, managers
identify relationship between dependent and independent variable. Managers also make a list of
all employees which have been affected from occupational health and illness while working in
organization before and after implementation of models. By identifying differences in the rate of
illness before and after implantation of intervention, they can measure effectiveness. Reduction
in the rate of illness of workers at workplace after implementation of models make them able to
know that whatever models they have implemented are effective and if there is no changes in
rate of illness then they require to make changes and improvement in strategies and
implementation plan.
Employees’ retention rate: For better evaluation of intervention in occupational health and
safety manager of Woolworth needs to compare engagement and employees retention rate
because it is one of the main factor and ways of measuring effectiveness of performance. An
increased rate of employees retention is directly proportion of effectiveness of company’s
working environment because employees are more likely to stay with the Company who
implement better policies regarding health and safety Sørensen, (2016). So, by measuring and
comparing employees’ retention rate before and after implementation of intervention they can
measure effectiveness.
So, from the above discussed models, processes and factors it can be said that company can
measure effectiveness of its implemented intervention in occupational health and by making
changes accordingly it can ensure workplace safety for all people at work.
Factors considered while evaluating occupational health
Management commitment and employee involvement: Evaluation of effectiveness of
intervention is not an easy task as there are several factors which need to be considered in order
to know as implemented plan is in right direction or not. It also allows manager of companies
like Woolworth New Zealand in identifying areas of improvement. One of the main factors is
management commitment and employees involvement. If employees are taking interest and
active participation in implemented intervention plan in occupational health and safety that
means plan is effective and can give effective outcomes. Management commitment is this
evaluation process give a motivating force and resources for controlling activities and making
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plan successful. In some program and intervention models main factor which decides and lead to
success of it is commitment and actions taken by managers to safety and health. It is important
for them to control and work on models after implementation in order to know all areas of
improvement and effectiveness and overall providing safe environment to workers
Mohammadfam & et.al., (2017). Managers need to evaluate whether all employees are
communicating with each others in an effective manner and leader is also communicating vision
and all safety policies with employees or not because it makes employees engaged and a active
for participation.
They also require providing a visible top management involvement in program so that all
workers can understand management commitment and this factor and evaluation of this action
makes able to company in making implementation plan successful. Making sure that all
employees are performing their responsibility towards preventing themselves against workplace
accidents as per the implemented plan and policies also make them able to know effectiveness of
their performance of occupational health and safety. Making employees accountable for meeting
their responsibilities and evaluating their performance by their engagement level, company can
know effectiveness and can accomplish the main goal of fostering safety at workplace for all
people.
Worksite analysis
Analysis of the worksite involves different types of examinations of work so that they can take
out hazards that are already relying in the market. It is assessed on the basis of conditions which
deal with the changes that may bring hazards to them. If the policies of safety and health are
ineffective then it is because of the unawareness of hazard and failure of the team to determine or
identify it. If the management is tend to be effective and assess any work which involves
situations or conditions that are harmful for the worksite then there are possibilities that they can
save the harmful occurrences. There are some of the measures through which it is easy to find
hazards that have potential Tsalis, Stylianou & Nikolaou, (2018).
 It is necessary to make sure that worksite has been surveyed as it is concerned with the
health and safety of team. Other than this they need to make sure that survey must be
updated with time and employees have knowledge about this so that even they can put
their efforts in it.
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 Anything such as facilities, machineries, processes, equipment and materials which are
considered for the level of expansion must be done after the planning has been made.
 The more they make it as a routine to analyze the hazards of the job more it will be
beneficial for them.
 It is necessary to build a system so that they can make sure that their employee notifies
the management of the company which can be hazardous. This will help them to use the
system without the feeling of reprisal because by responding in timely manner their
confidence will be encouraged. The approach of this system works on the insight of the
employees and experience in the level of protection which helps the employees to resolve
their problems Lingard, Oswald & Le, (2019).
Safety and health training
In order to make the program of safety and health effective it is necessary that they
complete their training. With the help of training they will be able to identify the responsibilities
of both the aspect of management and employees. It is necessary that training given to them must
be assessed or linked with the requirement of the job and its practices so that they can perform
more effectively. The nature of training and level of complexity will rely on the site and the
potential of hazard that can affect the site.
Employee Training-
Programs of training must be on the basis of hazards that they can be exposed to so that
they can learn the ways through which they can avoid them.
Supervisory Training-
It is necessary that supervisors of the company have the full knowledge of role so that
they can keep the site safe and activities to carry them out can be easily used. It is necessary that
they analyze the work so that they can assess if there is any hazard involved. Other than this it is
necessary that physically protection is maintained in the areas of work. Other than supervisors of
the company needs to make sure that programs of training for employees must be on continuous
basis so that hazard of high potential can affect their performance. It is necessary that supervisors
of the company understands the responsibilities of health and safety Fonseca & Carvalho,
(2019).
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Other than this there are some elements in the culture of the company such as accountability as
managers of the company has to work with high efforts so that it sets examples for employees
and any change in their behaviour will reflect the outcome of the work. Other than this it is
necessary that the expectations of safety are communicated to everyone. Also with this they need
to imply the ethical management system through which they can bring more safety into their
culture de Celis and et.al., (2017).
Limitation of report along with recommendations for successful implementation of intervention
There are some laws which is necessary to be implemented in the culture of the company
so that no legal action is taken against them by the government of New Zealand.
The health and Safety at work Act 2015 is the law of New Zealand workplace it came into
working since April 2016. The taskforce which is independent on the department of health and
safety had an insight that their measures were failing. In order to overcome these factors they
needed to make changes in the act which has increased the level of security and improve the
conditions for employees so that they can work safely. This act relies on aspects such as
participation, leadership and accountability by the workers, government and business. On the
basis of it this act sets the principles which guide the companies such as Woolworth to offer
more protection to the workers so that they can work safely. The approach of this act believes
that this cannot be done alone. There are many limitations which is because the company has not
been able to successfully implement the law into their culture and they are still working with
their old practices and methods which makes the employees of the company expose to more risk.
This is increasing the rate of injury that worker faces in the workplace which is also affecting the
goodwill of the company in the eyes of customers and employees and the level of productivity is
getting reduced. The reason behind that because of less safety measures employees are working
slowly which is why they are not able to meet their goals and objectives Kaassis & Badri,
(2018).
Recommendations-
It is necessary that in order to apply the act effectively they need to implement it with the
new key changes and practices so that they can make changes such as monitor and record their
health on a constant basis so that they can reduce the level of risk involved and manage it
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properly. This will help the management of the company to reduce the rate of injuries their
employees are suffering from. It is necessary that they need to make and assign everyone the
responsibilities because company cannot comply with the guidelines of the act alone and
improve their reputation in the market. Officers of the company such as partners, directors,
members of the board and executives of the chief must make sure that there is diligence so that it
can be assessed that they understand the level of responsibilities of health and safety. They need
to guide their workers to look after their own health as it is not possible that company can look
after everyone and manage other work too. The more they cooperate and the more they follow
the instructions they will be working under the policy which will ensure that the act is being
implemented and intervened properly. Even they need to guide the customers to follow practices
as per the rules so that actions taken by them do not hurt anyone else. The nature of the business
is enabled and complied with this act easily which helps the company to get more coverage all
over New Zealand. Also if these measures are taken in the right way then they will be able to
increase the level of retention of employees which will help them to save cost and achieve more
of their goals.
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that Woolworth need to make changes in their
policies and comply with the act of Health and Safety as they are still working with the old
approach and because of that they have been facing issues as the rate of injuries of employees
has increased at the workplace. This is affecting the goodwill of the business and the rate of
productivity is also decreasing. This is why it is necessary that company complies with these
factors so that no legal action is taken against them.
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REFERENCES
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Schelvis, R. M. & et.al., (2016). Evaluating the implementation process of a participatory
organizational level occupational health intervention in schools. BMC Public
Health, 16(1), 1212.
Sørensen, B. O. H. (2016). Evaluating an organizational‐level occupational health intervention in
a combined regression discontinuity and randomized control design. Stress and
Health, 32(4), 270-274.
Steel, J., Godderis, L., & Luyten, J. (2018). Productivity estimation in economic evaluations of
occupational health and safety interventions: a systematic review. Scandinavian journal
of work, environment & health, 44(5), 458-474.
Tsalis, T. A., Stylianou, M. S., & Nikolaou, I. E. (2018). Evaluating the quality of corporate
social responsibility reports: The case of occupational health and safety
disclosures. Safety science, 109, 313-323.
Kaassis, B., & Badri, A. (2018). Development of a preliminary model for evaluating
occupational health and safety risk management maturity in small and medium-sized
enterprises. Safety, 4(1), 5.
Fonseca, L., & Carvalho, F. (2019). The reporting of SDGs by Quality, Environmental, and
Occupational Health and Safety-certified organizations. Sustainability, 11(20), 5797.
Silaparasetti, V., Rao, G. V. R., & Khan, F. R. (2017). Structural equation modeling analysis
using smart pls to assess the occupational health and safety (OHS) factors on workers’
behavior. Structural Equation Modeling Analysis Using Smart PLS to Assess the
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Factors on Workers’ Behavior (July 17, 2017).
Humanities & Social Science Reviews, eISSN, 2395-7654.
Lingard, H., Oswald, D., & Le, T. (2019). Embedding occupational health and safety in the
procurement and management of infrastructure projects: institutional logics at play in
the context of new public management. Construction Management and
Economics, 37(10), 567-583.
de Celis, I. L. R., and et.al., (2017). Women’s occupational health and safety management: An
issue for corporate social responsibility. Safety science, 91, 61-70.
ONLINE
Intervention Activities Evaluation in Occupational Health and Safety. 2016. Online Available
through: <
https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/model/evaluation/index.html>
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