Courage under fire

How do we transform health, safety and wellbeing during tough times?

In brief:

• There is a need for organisations to consider if transformative health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) strategies are appropriate for today’s challenging times and explore options for HSW change.
• Regardless of the speed or scope of change, organisations needs to place humans at the centre of successful change.
• There is a need for organisations to measure meaningful, impactful change.

Since 2022's release of How can we transform health, safety and wellbeing to be future fit?, the global economic and geopolitical landscape has changed and continues to evolve and bring uncertainty. Organisations are facing significant upheaval as well as internal and external pressures on budgets, resourcing and productivity.

The three key barriers to health, safey and wellbeing (HSW) transformation include:

1. Competing priorities
2. Resistance to change / lack of buy-in
3. Capability

While these barriers present significant challenges, there is still an overwhelming need to improve the way we approach HSW. Internal pressures may mean large-scale HSW transformation is no longer the most appropriate change strategy. So what is?

EY teams have leveraged Balogun et al. research (2004) into change to consider alternatives to HSW transformation. To consider the approach that is best for a particular organisation, HSW change can be mapped on two axes;

• Scope of change (realignment to transformation) – how much change is required?
• Speed of change (slow to fast) – over what time horizon?

By considering these two change axes, conversations with boards and executive stakeholders can be elevated to focus on the HSW outcomes they are seeking and the investment required to achieve these outcomes. Through these conversations, objectives and impacts can be aligned to map a more realistic change program, that places humans at the centre and that will ultimately be more successful.

Regardless of the scope and speed of change an organisation is prepared for, there is an overarching blueprint for success. This includes:

• Being purposeful
• Being insightful
• Being interactive
• Personalising it

Furthermore, there is a need to consider how we are measuring meaningful and impactful change. Organisations have often struggled with how to monitor and evaluate transformations and change programs of work regardless of how big or small they are. There is a need for organisations to design a systematic process for assessing the progress, appropriateness, effectiveness and outcomes of change programs, extending beyond traditional return of investment metrics.