This core function of occupational health services often involves a lot of time and resources if a blanket approach is to be undertaken. Research shows that this time can add little value. For instance, Whitaker and Aw (1995) found that there was no difference in rejection rates of em- ployees screened by a multi-staged process compared with those who were medically examined. This raises the question of whether this is a good use of resources and if it is cost-effective to spend a lot of time on pre-employment screening. If an assessment of the needs of the or- ganisation has been made then the requirements for pre-employment screening will have been identified. From this, fitness standards criteria can be produced, which will set out the fitness requirements for the var- ious jobs, and an appropriate system for screening can be developed to ensure that the standards have been met.
The result is an efficient way of tailoring the service to meet the needs of the organisation while also taking into account relevant legislation.
It ensures that screening relates to the risks involved in individual jobs and aims to help both employer and employee.
and which they want to ‘own’. The best way of achieving this is to get all staff involved in developing it, which will help them understand the occupational health service objectives and alleviate some of their anxiety about change.
Defining the values of the service provides a common frame of reference – everyone will understand the behaviours that are ex- pected of them. It assists with setting the rules for business practice and clarifies relationships with customers, shareholders, suppliers and employees. Perhaps more importantly, defining values provides a focus for those employed by the occupational health service, pro- viding performance criteria, guiding people’s behaviours and actions, enabling effective delegation and empowerment, and giving a basis for performance assessment.
The statement of values must address four main areas of the occupa- tional health service’s commitment (see Figure 3.2).
Once the ‘Purpose and Values’ statement has been developed and agreed, the business planning process can begin. The business plan sets out how the purpose and values are to be implemented in practical terms and how the statement is to be made active.
The planning process begins with identification of goals and objec- tives, measurement of performance (part of quality) and a report on business results. For example, the goal may be related to customer satis- faction; the objective is to be customers’ chosen supplier of services; and the measurement criterion is for 95 % of customers to say that their re- quirements are met. Developing the business plan will require a critical analysis of the occupational health service’s strengths and weaknesses,
The Client
e.g. Who is the client (employer/employee)?
Understanding, identifying and meeting their needs.
Delivering services on time and to agreed standards.
Developing services to meet their present and future needs.
The Occupational Health Service Staff
e.g. Recognising and respecting the contribution they make to the success of the service.
Providing opportunities for career development and equipping them with the necessary skills to contribute to the development of the business.
The Suppliers
e.g. Understanding their constraints and ensuring they understand the needs of the occupational health service.
Being loyal and fair, honouring obligations to them (e.g. paying bills!) The Investor (The Employer)
e.g. Achieving a return on the investment (providing value for money).
Developing the service, new ideas and ways of working.
Contributing towards the profitability of the company.
Figure 3.2 The Occupational Health Service’s Four Main Areas of Commitment
Strengths
What you are good at and need to capitalise upon e.g. expertise of staff, location, knowledge, quality.
Weaknesses
What you are not good at and need to improve e.g. not commercially minded, inflexible, not business focused.
Opportunities
Changes and/or influences that can be taken up and developed to grow the service e.g. impact of European Union legislation, present supplier, high cost of sickness absence
to companies.
Threats
Those things that threaten the survival of the service e.g. outsourcing, competition, company downsizing and cutbacks.
Figure 3.3 SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis). This helps to focus on the issues that are most likely to affect the success (or failure) of the ser- vice, and needs to be carried out fairly ruthlessly so that all issues are examined objectively (see Figure 3.3).
In carrying out this exercise, it is important not to become demor- alised and focus overly on weaknesses and threats. With a positive attitude, both of these can be turned to advantage and re-focused as
‘opportunities’. Once you have identified weaknesses in and threats to the service, you can immediately take action to minimise them. But it is more dangerous not to identify them and to continue in the same old way, becoming complacent, and then one day wondering why the service has crumbled.
The SWOT analysis having been completed, the next stage is to build up the occupational health service’s business profile. This requires iden- tifying what the occupational health service can offer – the skills and experience of the team – and from that deciding what services you can offer and what staff and budgetary resources will be required to deliver these services. It will be important to decide on the core activities of the occupational health service and what the major activities will be; these can be itemised in a priority list that targets the needs of the company receiving the service.
For example, if, in agreement with your client, managing attendance is identified as a major problem, that will be the priority activity for your service to target. This should be documented with details of the type of activity the occupational health service will undertake in order to support and help the client, together with the measurable outcomes you hope to achieve. By so doing, the occupational health service will be able to monitor its progress and contribution, and feed back to the customer information on the evaluation of the services provided. This provides a means for continually monitoring and updating what the
service is doing to ensure it meets the needs of the customer, and begins the quality control process.
The business plan provides support for the development of perfor- mance appraisal systems in that it provides a way of identifying what each team member can contribute and allows for this to be used to set objectives for individuals and for the team as a whole.
The next stage in the business planning process is the development of critical success factors (CSFs). These are the essential outcomes that must exist in order for the purpose to be accomplished; in other words, those things that are vital to the survival and development of the occu- pational health service. CSFs should be written as a commitment, such as ‘we must have/be’, and should be discrete elements with a mixture of tactical and strategic outcomes. It is vital to involve the occupational health team in their development and to obtain consensus; again, ‘own- ership’ is paramount. CSFs should be few in number, no more than eight, and must target the areas of the occupational health service that most need to be addressed in order to move on.
An example of a CSF might be: ‘We must have services that are deliv- ered efficiently which meet our clients’ needs.’ To achieve this, it is neces- sary to examine the image of the service; a customer satisfaction survey should be carried out to obtain information on how the client rates the service. This will provide a basis for development and a focus for bring- ing about changes in the way the service is delivered. Another example might be: ‘We must have effective and relevant business systems.’ This will require a review of existing systems and a definite commitment to improvement, with the necessary investment as required. The main purpose of developing CSFs is to focus effort and commitment in a structured way to support the overall business objectives. They are very powerful tools for improving the service.