Improving Performance Through Wellbeing and Engagement

Improving performance through wellbeing and engagement
Wellbeing and engagement

From the perspective of the project, wellbeing and engagement are about creating a work
place environment where people can perform to the best of their abilities. This includes the
provision of support and choices which allow individuals to remain healthy, but is also wider
than this, encompassing aspects such as effective leadership and management, good
communications and well managed change.
Why now?
In knowledge intensive organisations, our people are at the core of everything we do and key
to our success. As institutions face the challenges of funding cuts, potential job losses,
restructures, and doing more for less, how will you ensure that your staff remain motivated
and engaged?
This project recognises that difficult times are having an impact on our people. Supporting
our staff now - so that they remain healthy and able to attend work, are able to cope with the
stresses of change, and can to perform to the best of their abilities will ensure a strong,
resilient, and loyal workforce in the future.
This is backed up by clear research showing that investing in employee wellbeing can lead
to significant business benefits. For example:
Performance improvement
Research by the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health shows that presenteeism amounts
to an approximate cost of 600 per employee, per year. Across the UK HE sector this is
a cost of 223,476,000 per year (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health).
For the UK HE sector, if a 10% increase in performance is worth a minimum of 5% of
salary (1,606 per employee), the potential saving (372,460 employees) is
598,170,760 per year (Robertson Cooper Ltd).
Reduced sickness absence
Reports suggest that (across all sectors) mental health problems account for 25% of
short term, and 47% of long term absences (Royal College of Psychiatrist).
Research suggests the overall cost of mental health problems is equivalent to 1035
per employee, per year (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health).
Sickness absence
Attendance management work at University of Liverpool led to an absence reduction

from 4.7 to 2.3% in 5 years (saving of 2.5m per year).
Efforts to increase employee physical activity at the University of Bolton led to a
reduction in absence from 11.69 days per person, per year, to 8.38 days.
The potential value of a 10% reduction in sickness absence, to the UK HE sector is

16,850,090 per year (Robertson Cooper Ltd, 2008).
The pilot project

A HEFCE funded pilot project was run (Oct 2008-9) called Creating success through wellbeing
in higher education. Led by the University of Leeds, in partnership with a number of other
HEIs, the aims were to identify best practice around employee wellbeing, create opportunities
to learn and share across the sector, and identify gaps in knowledge.
Key achievements include
Despite increasing places by almost 50%, the 6 project workshops were fully booked,
with large waiting lists within weeks.
250 individuals and 100 different institutions attended the project workshops
Active support/input from major sector associations including AHUA, UCEA, UHR, USHA
and ECU
Regular engagement with the 3 major trade unions
Phase 1 highlighted that are 2 major gaps which are currently preventing HEIs from realizing
the business benefits associated with improved employee wellbeing and engagement:
Sector specific business case for wellbeing and engagement including an

understanding of what really works
Practical guidance and information to help institutions to learn and improve their
practice
Phase 2 project
A second bid was made to HEFCE to continue this work over an additional 2 years (October
2009-11), and help to fill these gaps. This phase of work is being led by the Universities of
Leeds and Bristol, in partnership with the Universities of Birmingham, Chester, Newcastle,
Queen Mary, London and Winchester, and Grimsby Institute for Further and Higher Education.
It is governed by a Steering Group made up of representatives from key stakeholder
associations and works closely with the major trade unions.
Subsequently funding has also been secured from the Scottish Funding Council which, from
April 2010, allows Scottish institutions to benefit fully from the project. The University of
Glasgow is the lead Scottish institution. We are also in the process of negotiating funding
from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales.
Project aims
To develop robust evidence for a higher education specific business case for employee
engagement and wellbeing
To increase sector understanding around topic-based interventions, their
implementation for maximum benefits, and the impact they can have on performance
indicators
To develop a clear evaluation criteria for a range of workplace interventions
To increase expertise, and build capacity, across the sector around key employee
engagement and wellbeing topics, creating a sustainable solution which supports
institutions beyond the lifetime of the project.
Key strands of activity

The project seeks to meet these aims by carrying out work across three major strands:
1. Engagement and wellbeing interventions
Feedback shows that, without clear evidence, institutions find it difficult to know what
interventions and activities have the greatest impact on areas of performance. This
strand will involve working with recognised experts Robertson Cooper
(www.robertsoncooper.co.) to pilot 11 topic based interventions across a diverse group
of institutions. The aim is to be able to measure the impact of these interventions on
different aspects of performance, and to be able to translate the learning from the
pilots into practical case studies. Interventions are as follows:
Building resilience through goal orientation University of Leeds

Developing a wellbeing brand Newcastle University
Embedding engagement and wellbeing in change management University of Bristol
Improving leadership and management practice for improved psychological health and
wellbeing Grimsby Institute
Measuring the impact of transformational change interventions on individual wellbeing
and engagement University of Leeds
Nutrition, Physical and Mental health University of Chester
Organisational communications and wellbeing University of Winchester
University Board response to Staff Engagement Survey University of Birmingham
Re-defining the academic psychological contract Queen Mary, University of London
Resilience training for senior managers University of Glasgow
Intervention x 1 in Scotland tbc
Intervention x 1 in Wales tbc
2. Wellbeing and performance mapping

Again, working with Robertson Cooper, this part of the project will investigate the links
between employee wellbeing and performance. We will be working with 7 institutions to
collect and analyse staff wellbeing survey data against data from the Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE) and National Student Survey (NSS) to identify whether
there are any correlations. One of the aims will be to understand which aspects of
wellbeing and engagement appear to have the greatest/least impact on performance.
3. Dissemination and networking
A programme of communications including an interactive website, e-newsletter, bank of
practical toolkits and case studies, will allow institutions to learn and share information.
The site will be accessible through institutional subscriptions with a free trial available
from Mid-April-September 2010. See www.wellbeing.ac.uk
As a result of changes to funding/income arrangements, we will be unable to run the
extensive programme of workshops and conferences planned. Instead, a smaller
programme of day regional workshops will begin in June 2010. These will be free of
charge.
Definitions discussion
One of the challenges with the wellbeing and engagement agenda is the varied definitions
used. This often leads to misunderstanding, scepticism and suspicion. It perpetuates the
myth that wellbeing is all about alternative therapies and nice to have activities. A recent
article about the HEFCE Work Force Report in the Times Higher, by UCU, highlighted this point
again.
Following discussions with HEFCE and representatives from the trade unions, it is proposed
that a positive way forwards might be to bring together different stakeholder groups from
inside and outside the sector to debate some of these terms and what they mean in a HE
context eg. wellbeing, engagement, psychological contract.
The ODHE group are invited to take part in one of these discussions. This will be
facilitated by Sara Corcoran (Chair of the Project Executive Group) and Jose
Chambers (Member of the Project Executive Group).
If there are any definitions used in your institution please bring these to the
meeting in May.
Contact details
Kim Shutler-Jones, Project Manager
[email protected], 0113 343 6525

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Improving Performance Through Wellbeing and Engagement

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Improving performance through wellbeing and engagement

Wellbeing and engagement

Reduced sickness absence

Attendance management work at University of Liverpool led to an absence reduction

The potential value of a 10% reduction in sickness absence, to the UK HE sector is

The pilot project

Sector specific business case for wellbeing and engagement including an

Key strands of activity

Building resilience through goal orientation University of Leeds

2. Wellbeing and performance mapping

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