Eli Lilly wellbeing programme listens to employees

Thanks to Health & Safety Review for this article.

MARGARET KIRBY

Speaking to HSR recently, global HSE consultant for Europe and Asia with Eli Lilly, Úna Feeney, outlined some of the important steps involved in developing a successful workplace well-being programme for the Kinsale-based manufacturing site, which employs over 900 people.

1. Gain management commitment:

Management commitment to the programme is essential. For Eli Lilly, employees are their greatest asset. They prioritise employee health, safety and wellbeing, employee retention, reducing absenteeism, and attracting a talented workforce. Having a successful workplace health and wellbeing programme is seen as an important factor to achieve these goals.

“Promote and educate employees on the resources already in place ”

2.  Establish what is already in place:

Eli Lilly already had a well-established in-house Occupational Health department, which provides proactive health and wellbeing-related activities and services to employees, which was supported by HR and HSE. It is recommended that companies starting out on the process complete an initial review of any policies, procedures, or programmes to identify what is already in place and build on these.

You may already have an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), HR & H&S policies, e.g. sick leave, maternity leave, parental leave, carer’s leave, social clubs etc, but these may not be easily identifiable as being health and wellbeing-related to your employee population unless they have availed of them in the past. Promote and educate employees on the resources already in place and what is available to them, before looking at doing more.

3. Build on existing programmes and promote them:

If there are existing measures or programmes in place, they should be examined to see if they are being utilised. If they are not, consider why they are not used? They may need to be promoted so employees understand what is on offer, and how to avail of it.

A good example is an EAP programme, which is a 24/7 confidential service that provides psychological, emotional, and general support to employees and their families offering counselling, financial, legal and consumer advice etc. Is this service utilised and if not, why?

This is a valuable resource for organisations, especially in the times that we are in now during the pandemic, where many people are struggling. EAPs are often underutilised and evaluated and often due to lack of education and promotion. Look at all your current offerings, if a service or programme is not considered of value to the employee, then this should be considered, and a decision made as to whether to change it, improve it or discontinue it.

4. Brand awareness:

One of the key measures which Eli Lilly has undertaken is grouping all the health, safety, and wellbeing measures under one brand, so it is easily recognisable to employees. The brand ‘Live4Life’ has worked well to build awareness. It is based on four elements, Live Safe, Live Fit, Live Healthy and Live Well, and how all these behaviours are interdependent on one another. This area is constantly evolving, and you need to keep current to your employees’ needs and demographics.

5. Listen to the “Voice of the Employee”:

Eli Lilly started the process by establishing what was important to employees, as sometimes the company implemented what they thought employees needed, not what the employees actually wanted. They customised the HSA Work Positive online tool to survey their employee population, with some additional wellbeing questions, and received a very positive response from their workforce, as to what was important to them going forward. Organisational, departmental, and individual reports were provided back to employees, with anonymity ensured. This encouraged employees to respond and engage in the process.

6. Implement ‘low-cost and no-cost measures’ first:

There are many low-cost or no-cost measures which can be used, including availing of services from local resources to raise awareness, e.g. Pieta House, the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Heart Foundation among a few, which provide free or low-cost resources and tools around physiological and physical health and wellbeing. Simple yet effective initiatives can work well when implemented effectively.

Measures which require more significant investment can be implemented also. Eli Lilly obtained feedback from their employees that an onsite fitness centre would be of interest to most of the population. The company worked with an external fitness management company and installed a temporary gym on site to establish what the usage was initially. The demand was overwhelming, and since then, the company have built a state-of-the-art fitness centre on site.

7. Provide feedback to staff:

Employee engagement is key for Eli Lilly and using the voice of the employees, through employee surveys such as the HSA Work Positive Survey, helps employees know that their feedback and input is important to the company, and therefore encourages buy-in to initiatives and programmes.

For more information on this programme, you can contact Eli Lilly global EHS consultant for Europe and Asia, Úna Feeney, on Feeney_una@lilly.com

This article  is reproduced courtesy of Health & Safety Review.