MANAGEMENT OF SAFETY, HEALTH & WELLBEING

MANAGEMENT OF SAFETY, HEALTH & WELLBEING

Introduction

Work is very vital to an individual’s level as it provides meaning needed to generate a strong focus in life. Research shows that people who work enjoy and healthier and happy lives compared to individuals who do not engage in work. For instance, a working person is capable of recovering from sickness much faster than a non-working individual. Thus, it evident that working helps us build self-esteem and confidence relative to the financial rewards that come with toil. Being in work provides a sense of pride, personal achievement, and identity in our daily lives. As such, it is easy to interact and socialize with other people to build rapport and contact. Therefore, it’s critical to evaluate the positive and negative impact of work on an employee’s health, organizational performance, and safety and wellbeing.

The positive and negative aspects of work on employee health, safety, and wellbeing

Positive aspects  

Work provides a purpose and routine to wake up in the morning to carry out some constructive aspects within an individual life. As such, routine job bolsters a person’s health because the workplace serves as a social environment needed to shape an individual character. Working creates a correlation between health and working, depending on the kind of undertaken task. Workers who articulate work as fulfilling tend to achieve positivity, thus living a much healthier life compared to others (Fit for a Work team, 2015). Therefore, work engagement and affiliation to a specific job creates body stimulus that promotes the health of most of the elderly population. So, policymakers should increase the ease of elderly people to engage in paid work as part of their health therapy. However, people should not be coerced to work until death since working should be considered as a personal initiative.

A research carried out by Mr. Heller Sahlgren shows that retirement resulted in short-term and long-term effects on health, such as depression (Farrell, 2017, pp. 1). Therefore, the research shows the positive contribution of work in promoting individual health conditions. Acute to mild range depressions result in loss of appetitive, fatigue, and lack of concentration, which are detrimental to a person’s health conditions. So, work positively impacts on raising awareness on the health benefits attributable to work in an attempt to live a happy life (Bryson Forth & Stokes, 2014). Working helps remain healthy while an individual is at the prime age in life, especially to the well-educated people. Thus, work can be used to keep individuals mentally and physically fit due to the continuous engagement of their minds. For instance, Mark Truitt being 70 years, has tried to retire four times but finds it hard to quit work. Mark Truitt states the health conditions of people who retire deteriorates very fast leading to numerous anomalies in their health life.

Working results in the development of cognitive health benefits and keep the brain sharp on changes in the environment (Dollard & Bakker, 2010, pp.582). Research shows that working beyond the traditionally recognized retirement age helps remain sharp, thus bolstering individual cognitive health (Farrell, 2017, pp. 1). As such, there is a continuous need to remove organizational and cultural barriers that hamper working health benefits (Fit for a Work team, 2015). Besides, working under self-employment is thought to reduce the risks of developing dementia and diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Work is, therefore, attributable to making the brain nimble by improving its ability to think quickly and understand. As such, work improves mental health and intelligence levels to prevent the occurrence of cases such as dementia with the advancement in age. Cognitive health is vital to every human as a move to prevent the occurrence of resilient brains relative to a decline in concentration levels due to age.

Healthy work practices influence the development of safety and mental wellbeing in the workplace. Thus, work makes employees enjoy living a healthy lifestyle of their choice relative to age-related changes in one’s life. In the modern era, the workforce has been used to reduce members’ vulnerability to exploitation (Amélie, Roxane & Lieven, 2013, pp. 1). Hence, work forms an excellent avenue to articulate issues faced by people in contemporary society. Besides, work helps apply risk management portfolios to minimize exposure to safety perils that jeopardize workers’ wellbeing. Hence, a healthy workplace stands to identify possible risks in the environment to increase preparedness towards working changes (Dollard & Bakker, 2010, pp.582). As such, the use of a risk management plan at work ensures that duty holders systematically safeguard workplace safety and wellbeing of its staff. Work has, therefore, been used as the best code of practice towards managing health and safety risks experienced at the workplace.

Moreover, work forms a complex relationship between safety and wellbeing to the workers through increased support while offering products and services. Hence, work should be harnessed to a healthy level to minimize exposure to risks and hazards that jeopardize workers’ wellbeing. Furthermore, work ensures that employees join hands to assist others while unwell in a move to speed their recovery (Bryson Forth & Stokes, 2014). Hence, work is utilized as a platform to address the wellbeing of other people during their point of need. The support provided to the unwell allows work to continue smoothly while giving back to society. In the modern organization setting, work has been used to curb the rising prevalence of chronic diseases hence articulating health, safety, and wellbeing concerns of the stakeholders. As such, a positive mark is developed to achieve benefits that even surpasses financial gains at the workplace.

Negative aspects

Long working hours prove detrimental to an employee’s health, happiness levels, and overall wellbeing. A research conducted by the Institute of Employment Studies reveal that working for over 40 hours per week leads to poor performance, health problems, and decreased productivity (Hall et al., 2016, pp. 1). Consequently, worker motivation reduces, thus halting the overall wellbeing at the place of work. Moreover, working for long results in musculoskeletal disorders resulting from sitting in the same position for a long period of time, thus causing back pains. Continuous movement during the day is perceived as a form of exercise to provide much-needed body relief (Fawcett, 2016, pp. 1). Some musculoskeletal disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, can result in severe effects and abnormalities characterized by huge muscle pains.  As such, work should moderate to avert possible health problems in the future caused by repetitive muscle injuries.

Work creates life imbalances forcing workers to ineffectively meet their wellbeing in regards to family time. The life imbalances increase dissatisfaction levels at the workplace because the time for family and friends plays an essential role in personal development. Hence, work should provide time for its workers to interact as a means to spur the happiness, safety, and wellbeing of the staff members (Hall et al., 2016, pp. 1). The imbalances are set to increase stress levels associated with long working hours. High-stress levels are detrimental to an individual’s health and could lead to heart-related conditions, mental conditions, and high blood pressure problems. To avoid imbalances at work, managers must put into place systems that prevent exhaustion, such as health and wellness programs. Such programs stand to provide a holistic nature having tools requiring the members to promote their health and wellbeing at the workplace. Besides, working promote multitasking, which proves detrimental to productivity.

Work in an unfavorable environment has a negative impact on the workers’ health, safety, and wellbeing. Unconducive working environment exposes staff to occupational diseases such as deafness, heat stress, and ergonomic disorders, which would lead to suffocation (Dollard & Bakker, 2010, pp.582). As such, the unfavorable conditions at work expose the staff to safety concerns like evacuation procedures in case of an emergency. Thus, workers are always at risk of external dangers characterized by poor planning of the workplace environment (Kaynak et al., 2016, pp. 150). Hence, there is always a need to promote work health concerns to increase efficiency and productivity required to promote employees’ wellbeing. In most organizations, work does not form a cordial relationship between the staff and workplace environment conditions hence jeopardizing the security of involved stakeholders; for instance, working in a noisy environment negatively staffs’ wellbeing and ability to concentrate on delegated tasks and duties.

Huge amounts of work halt the implementation of workers’ health and safety policies required to protect them from workplace alienation (Zwetsloot et al., 2013, pp.192). The tremendous amount of work prevents an employee from adhering to set procedures that govern the workplace environment. The staffs tend to be exhausted and unwilling to fulfill their delegated mandates towards the achievement of set goals and objectives. Thus, work reduces the amount of control against changing dynamics in the working environment relative to modern trends. Adherence to current trends has been thwarted by stipulations on the need to work continuously to achieve set financial goals (Kaynak et al., 2016, pp. 150). As a result, workers’ wellbeing in terms of vacation time is not articulated due to changing rules at the workplace. For instance, work has created static workplace guidelines to provide powers only to the organization executive to make critical decisions to govern a firm. So, the staff has been compelled to follow slated guidelines, which at times infringe on their rights.

Work subjects an individual to tax obligations with tax deductions being made on the monthly basic pay. Over the years, laws have not been enacted in favor of the employee, thus compromises their wellbeing with numerous deductions being made (Hall et al., 2016, pp. 1). Therefore, a worker is required to put more effort into work to increase monthly pay despite hardened economic conditions in the modern era (Villar, 2017). Besides, work compels an individual to be at the mercy of the employer. Contract terms will be terminated if set guidelines are not strictly followed, thus compelling a worker always to be submissive. Guidelines have been laid down to promote equity at the workplace to articulate the wellbeing of the employees (Ahmed, Sun & Nazar, 2015, pp. 478). Over time inequalities at work have created huge societal gaps to increase discrimination against the poor in society. Such disparities have always resulted in a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals in the workplace environment.

Impact on organizational performance

Research shows that work that articulates staff health has a positive impact on organizational performance (Voorde, Paauwe & Veldhoven, 2012, pp. 398). The health status of a worker is crucial to the overall performance through strong adherence to the risk management strategy adopted by a firm. As such, a healthy workforce has the capability to manage organizational operations to the best of their knowledge and competence. The World Health Organization (WHO) has come out strongly to advocate the importance of the workers’ psychological wellbeing (Burton, 2010). The psychological wellbeing is a factor put into consideration based on the mental, physical, and mental status of the stakeholders to spur organizational performance. It is evident that individuals with ill health would reduce their productivity in the workplace. As such, sound health is vital for workers to perform optimally towards having a positive impact on organizational performance. A healthy workforce is capable of assessing organizational risks to provide the best course of action.

Moreover, health and wellbeing influence work behavior, thus characterizing the organizational performance. Thus, organizational productivity is subject to the effects of health mechanisms adopted by a firm to spur growth and development. As such, health and workers’ wellbeing develop a direct link to organizational performance relative to risk factors. However, to develop a healthy organization relative to work, the cost is incurred to develop desirable performance levels in an organization. Cost drivers in an organization would halt organization performance since a huge amount of money is used in articulating workers’ concerns instead of investments. Therefore, an organization needs to strike a balance between meeting both the firm’s portfolio and the health, safety, and wellbeing of the workforce. As a result, articulation of the workforce concerns stands to provide continuous growth and development in the organizational setting. Thus, the right working environment is created to promote inclusivity to all organizational stakeholders.

Work that promotes the wellbeing of its employees leads to a positive impact on organizational performance. Articulating the concerns raised by workers bolsters their morale to work towards set goals and objectives (Zwetsloot et al., 2013, pp.192). As such, the staff’s cognitive abilities processes are fostered to enable them to utilize high creativity levels towards the organizational portfolio. Therefore, the workers are able to apply problem-solving mechanisms to find long-term solutions to problems affecting a firm. Besides, work having an insight into workers’ concerns positively change employees’ attitudes towards increasing propensity and collaboration by each stakeholder. Therefore, the workers would be motivated to carry out set duties with high competence levels. Once the employer understands the needs of the workers in terms of health and overall wellbeing it would be easy to articulate organizational demands efficiently. As a result, staffs utilize great levels of energy and devotion to achieve market demands.

The cognitive processes developed by work has a positive impact on organizational performance. As such, the cognitive processes develop subject wellbeing, which spurs creativity and problem-solving skills (Zwetsloot et al., 2013, pp.192). Therefore, research shows that with high wellbeing at work helped an organization develop a complex information strategic approach (Farrell, 2017, pp. 1). Hence, an organization is capable of improving the effectiveness of its output by improving on the level of their task performance. Besides, the cognitive processes at work help spur positive attitudes to assist colleagues in undertaking extra tasks powered towards organizational performance. As a result, a healthy, secure, and wellbeing workforce is seen to spearhead the development of organizational citizenship behavior, which promotes overall prosperity (Zwetsloot et al., 2013, pp.192). Cognitive processes have, therefore, been utilized by top managers to facilitate ambidexterity relative to their different in-role performances.  Consequently, a learning process is created to spearhead for continuous development at the workplace.

Moreover, occupational wellbeing fosters organizational performance due to decreased sick leaves and other stress-related compensations. However, an improvement in workplace wellbeing does not necessarily mean minimizing stressors at the workplace, but undertaking initiatives to reduce distressing situations (Ahmed, Sun & Nazar, 2015, pp. 478). Such undertakings are meant to promote positive experiences and emotions in the workplace. Research shows that failure to achieve positive experiences and high working morale is the major cause of workplace stressors. In such a case, occupational wellbeing is necessary for increasing the morale of the workers with the aim of developing a favorable organizational climate.  So, quality leadership is provided to foster staff recognition processes required in the overall decision-making process. The approach developed by quality leadership styles stands to increase productivity and the overall performance in a firm. Moreover, a healthy workforce ensures that workers’ wellbeing is fully articulated in a move to decrease incurred costs during compensations.

A healthy and secured workforce achieves high job satisfaction levels, which consequently lead to excellent organizational performance. As such, the workers develop high enthusiasm levels towards their job to increase their work rates relative to stipulated goals and objectives (Voorde, Paauwe & Veldhoven, 2012, pp. 398). On the other hand, negative emotions and failure to articulate the workforce concerns lead to anxiety and anger, which negatively impact on the organizational performance. Such an organization’s work is faced with high distress levels, which could be detrimental is not articulated properly. Distress is attributable to a series of negative experiences that do not provide a broader understanding of a contentious issue. Thus, an organization needs to ensure the workplace provides healthy working conditions to achieve its set objectives within the stipulated timeframe. So, it is possible to address challenges posed by stressors in a move to foster organization performance despite the numerous shortcomings in the modern working environment.

Fostering workers’ wellbeing, security, and health minimizes the rates of withdrawal, which tend to be expensive at the organizational level. Hence, organizations realize an upsurge in voluntary performance hence increasing the overall output. Employees would be energized to undertake other tasks different from their designated roles to improve output levels (Ahmed, Sun & Nazar, 2015, pp. 478). Thus, stakeholders would be motivated to carry out and help others in difficult situations within the organization. So, voluntary performance improves customer behaviors by supporting the organization’s performance based on the desired quality levels. Robust models are therefore developed to govern a firm operation geared towards overall output and success. Consequently, organizations are capable of psychologically empowering its stakeholders towards a common goal to achieve excellence. Individual consent at workplace changes to ensure set objectives are achieved within allocated timeframes.

Finally, failure to provide insight into employee’s security, wellbeing, and health help develop healthier behaviors and operational practices. For instance, mental health issues lead to counter-productive behaviors at the workplace, which could be detrimental if not articulated as soon as possible (Voorde, Paauwe & Veldhoven, 2012, pp. 398). Mental and physical health issues such as personal traits lead to low consciousness and emotional stability to create problems in organizational performance. As a result, an unhealthy workplace is characterized by low self-control levels, which consequently creates problems for the management and fellow workers. So, work behavior is greatly affected and reduces the zeal to work for a given organization. The organization resolutely faces huge losses, which hampers a firm’s performance relative to market trends in the modern working environment. Thus, articulating workers’ concerns is vital in increasing the performance in a firm in order to achieve stipulated goals and objectives.

Conclusion

The essay provides a competent approach to the positive and negative aspects relative to workers’ health, security, and wellbeing. Some of the positive aspects include the ability to reduce depression levels mostly to elderly individuals in society. As such, individuals are able to develop cognitive processes towards living a healthy and happy life. Also, work helps develop a cordial relationship between security and wellbeing to form a correlated approach to employees’ health. On the other hand, the negative impact of work on health and wellbeing provides the detrimental effects of the workplace environment on individual lives. Furthermore, work poses a number of impacts on organizational performance based on staff health, safety, and wellbeing. Thus, organizations have been provided with the required guidelines to foster developments while articulating the workers’ concerns. So, organizational changes need to be carried out to reduce worker exploitation.

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