Can workplace fun increase productivity? Can fun help to mitigate negative psychosocial factors and help to prevent discomfort, pain or injury? What is ‘fun’ anyway, and is there a ‘best way’ to make fun happen in the workplace?

Ask ten people to describe their idea of fun and you’ll get ten different answers. Each will involve ten different sets of activities, places and people. If you try to draw conclusions from these answers about what fun actually is, you’ll only end up scratching your head. It doesn’t take long to realise that each person’s idea of fun is entirely subjective.

Maybe it’s not the people, places or activities that matter so much, as how engaged you are with what you’re doing. Whether at work or at play if you’re completely immersed and time flies, chances are you’re having fun. Conversely we’ve all experienced the sense of time dragging when we’re bored or uncomfortable.

The concept of ‘flow’

In his seminal work, 'Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience', Hungarian psychology professor Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi outlines his theory that people are most happy when they are in a state of ‘flow’. Flow is a state in which they are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter (Csikszentmihalyi 1990).

Building on Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow, Abramis (1999) research found that ‘a certain form of ‘play’ at work appears likely to increase organisational involvement. This kind of ‘play’ may additionally increase job satisfaction and a sense of competence and mastery in life’ (Owler, et al 2010). Key workplace conditions that can contribute to this kind of ‘play’ include challenge, skills, autonomy and feedback.

In an ideal world, everyone would work where they could experience a state of flow at least some of the time. In reality we know that this doesn’t always happen, so there’s opportunity to alleviate the situation for those who find their jobs difficult, stressful or monotonous.

Fun is part of a package

Research suggests that fun interventions to relieve stress or boredom are not effective in isolation. In other words, if there are problems with organisational culture, employee relations, or psychosocial issues in your workplace, a fun initiative won’t fix them (Owler, et al 2010).

Workplace fun is not a ‘silver bullet’ and it won’t magically fix everything. It is only one of many human resource and people management practices that can be useful. Think of it as one part of a big picture.

People most enjoy a workplace where:

• they feel supported, appreciated and acknowledged (publicly when needed)
• there is adequate training, opportunity for advancement, and adequate remuneration or other benefits.

If we combine these good practices with a fun environment, people will want to come to work.

Fun and laughter can certainly relieve stress by breaking up monotony or creating a mental or emotional break. But it is also important to remember that workers can be cynical about fun initiatives if they are imposed without consultation, or introduced at the expense of other good supportive practices.

Get approval, and get your workers involved

When you plan fun at your workplace, begin by getting approval from management. Once that’s sorted, involve your workers in the planning process from beginning to end.

Your health and safety representatives can often help with this and it’s worth the effort. They will recognise that you are interested in what they have to say, and that their welfare is important to their employer. There’s also a good chance they’ll take ownership of the initiative because they’ve helped to create it.

When you’ve decided on the course of action, make sure you explain why it was chosen. The people whose ideas were not chosen will accept it more easily if they understand why.

Options for fun activities

‘Organised fun’ is the most obvious approach. Activities organised by a team or by management and integrated into the work day fall into this category. Here are some ideas:

• team breaks to relieve stress, or when there is a deadline (everyone stops for five minutes and plays a game) or to celebrate a sale, or a milestone (such as in a call-centre)
• at staff meetings awards can be given out for achievements both serious (high achievers) and light-hearted (the funniest joke of the week, the most colours worn in one outfit)
• staff can have mufti days for fund raising, or theme days such as wearing green for St Patrick's Day etc.
• team outings such as chartering a fishing boat for a day, volunteering, tree plantings etc.
• other activities that are not part of work but occur at work, such as shared lunches, a cake and/or card for birthdays.

Fun and productivity through effective management

When workers feel comfortable, supported and appreciated, they are quite likely to promote a happy work environment through their positive state of being.

Workers can also have fun doing work tasks they really enjoy. Workers are very productive under these conditions because the pleasure of the task creates intrinsic motivation. In fact it can be hard to get them to stop!

So do your best to match workers to tasks that they like. If there’s work that’s unpleasant or difficult see if it’s possible to break it up with other more enjoyable activities, or share it around a number of people.

Fun and psychosocial issues

Studies have shown that fun can help workers to manage and/or reduce stress (e.g. Karl, et al 2007; McDowell 2005), and it is known that laughter has many health benefits. Pleasant and informal interactions with colleagues such as lunch, coffee and a catch up and friendships at work are often experienced as ‘fun’. These interactions increase workers’ social support networks and through strengthened relationships, create added incentive to come to work.

In a study of 341 men and women (Abramis, 1989, p. 38), the employees who said they had fun at work also reported they were:

• less anxious and depressed
• more satisfied with their jobs and their lives in general
• more convinced that other people have fun at work
• more motivated by their work
• more creative at work
• better able to meet job demands
• less likely to be absent or late to work.

Abramis also noted that fun may be a result as well as a cause. For example, it is possible that doing a good job creates a feeling of fun as opposed to fun causing people to do a good job.

Make workplace health and safety fun

Finally, we’d like to highlight that workplace health and safety has something of a reputation for being dull, so why not liven it up as well?

An office based DPI Programme member told us how the HabitAtWork Workbook helped to engage staff with health and safety in an enjoyable way. First everyone worked through the learning section of the workbook together. Then the staff were divided up into small teams.

A week later, each team met for ten minutes and worked through the pages on ‘Individual Factors’. They looked for individual factors that might be affecting them and talked about possible solutions. The week after it was ‘Psychosocial Factors’ and so on, until all seven groups of contributory factors had been covered over seven weeks.

At the same time, teams competed to see which one could find and resolve the most contributory factors, both in and out of the workplace. This added competitive zest (and a measure of humour) to everyone’s efforts.

At the end of the process staff had:

• engaged in and been aware of a number of different aspects of health and safety for eight weeks
• enjoyed the short weekly breaks away from their work
• interacted as teams in a different way from usual
• identified and begun to address a number of contributory factors in their workplace and at home.

In closing, remember:

• fun means different things to different people. Don’t assume that what’s good for one is good for all
• always involve your workers when planning fun initiatives
• workplace fun is most helpful when combined with effective management of people and the work they’re doing.

We’re interested to know how DPI Programme members use fun in the workplace. If you’ve got a story to tell please let us know.

You can download copies of Dr Owler’s articles from the Research papers and reports section of the DPI Toolbox. Contact Maddy if you need help to log in.

See the end of this newsletter for information about the research referenced in this story.

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In October we told you about nine new industry specific booklets that encourage readers to take a multi-factorial approach to preventing and managing musculoskeletal problems. This month we spotlight the healthcare industry and some of its key contributory factors. We also look at how small and simple interventions on a number of fronts can get big results, and can even improve organisational safety culture.

Here’s a snapshot of what healthcare industry workers may face:

It’s six a.m. The hospital and the morning shift handover meetings are about to start. Each healthcare worker has perhaps eight patients on their case load, and some may require significant assistance with moving and handling. A few co-workers have called in sick and temporary staff from the nursing agency will need help from others to get started.

Healthcare workers are often challenged by the physical and mental demands of their jobs. On any day they may need to physically move patients, administer medication and keep records, calm worried patients and relatives or respond to a medical crisis, along with many other routine tasks.

In their work they are exposed to a wide range of contributory factors that can lead to discomfort, pain or injury. Some factors are well recognised, such as the loads and forces involved in patient handling. Others are less obvious - for example psychosocial issues such as bullying, individual factors or problems with how work is organised.

How much do musculoskeletal problems cost in healthcare?

In 2010, forty-two percent of all entitlement claims in the healthcare industry were made for musculoskeletal injuries, at a cost of 9.7 million dollars. This high cost relates to a small army of healthcare workers who had at least a week off work due to a musculoskeletal problem.

It’s impossible to add up the impact of these problems on their family, friends and general health, never mind the wider community.

Big and small interventions to resolve contributory factors

At first glance injury prevention in health care can look like a complex and expensive exercise. Assistive equipment, or building modifications for example, are generally big ticket items and usually need to be accounted for in business planning and budgets.

Big changes are exciting but you can spend a lot of money and still only address one aspect of a many-faceted problem. Meanwhile you have a false sense of security that the problem has been dealt with. In truth, many factors contribute to injuries so a multi-factorial approach is required to address them successfully.

The good news is that many contributory factors can often be resolved without a large financial investment. Low cost, smart interventions on a number of fronts can produce significant benefits for both workers and employers.

This multi-factorial approach to injury prevention also gives you more options while you’re waiting for bigger changes to happen. As a result some expensive interventions may not even be needed, or requirements may change as new information comes to light.

Smart interventions require planning, communication and working together

Some of these low cost smart interventions may be simple to implement. Others will require more thought, but not necessarily much money.

The greatest investment of effort is often in strategic planning, communication, and getting management and staff working together to identify problems and find solutions. You can’t buy this – it comes from owning the problems and working together as a team to solve them.

It’s definitely worth the effort. When everyone from is involved in finding a solution to a problem, there is broad support for its implementation.

Key contributory factors in healthcare and suggestions to address them

1. Low commitment to workplace safety
   Before anything else, get management commitment to workplace safety. When management makes safety a priority it’s easier to get everybody else to follow suit.
   



2. Unhealthy workplace safety culture
   
   A healthy workplace safety culture can only thrive when it is supported and driven by management. It develops when everyone works together to find solutions for problems. It can take a lot of effort to get staff involved at all levels, but once started they almost always take ownership of solutions they develop.
   
   Here are some aspects of safety culture to focus on:
   
   
   • Make safety a high priority at all levels of your organisation. Include it in all strategic business planning.
   • Encourage open communication between workers at all levels of your organisation. Encourage them to report problems early, and reward workers who identify hazards or solutions.
   • Involve workers when you’re planning health and safety activities and interventions.
   • Take a systematic approach to health and safety. Put health and safety systems and hazard management systems in place. Monitor and review them regularly.
   • Identify and resolve any conflicts between safety and efficiency. Establish a clear connection between safety, quality and productivity. Promote safe work practice as ‘the way we do things around here’ to all levels of your organisation.
   • Ensure that sufficient staff are available for each shift and that they know how to do their tasks safely. Clearly define roles, responsibilities and resource allocation for each task.
   • Find ways to strengthen staff motivation and job satisfaction. Support social activities which can help to develop positive work relationships.
   
   
   
3. Time pressure results in unsafe work practices
   
   
   • Assess staffing levels and make sure that there are enough people rostered on to do the work required.
   • Ensure that safe work practices and procedures are endorsed, stated and understood by staff at all levels. Remind everyone that safe practices and procedures support high productivity in the long run. Injuries and breakdowns are expensive.
   
   
   
4. Staff do not participate in workplace health and safety
   
   
   • Emphasise safe work practices and processes during induction.
   • Make safety briefings part of regular meetings.
   • Involve workers in incident investigation and hazard control, and reward those who identify hazards or solutions to problems.
   • Consider using peer safety leaders to increase acceptance of safe handling techniques.
   • Make health and safety participation a ‘Key Performance Indicator’ and include it in performance reviews. Use existing health and safety structures and training as a basis for measurement. Ask workers what they need to be ‘health and safety competent’ and decide together how those needs should be met.
   
   
   
5. Agency staff
   
   
   • Emphasise safe work procedures in on-site inductions for agency workers. At the same time, be realistic about how much you can expect an agency worker to know about your safe work procedures. The worker may only be with you for one shift.
   • Consider assigning a ‘buddy’ to support each agency worker for their shift. The buddy can help them follow safe working procedures.
   • The combined skills and experience of your staff directly affects their risk of injury. When you use agency workers be aware that their different skill-set can alter the risk of injury, either positively or negatively.
   
   
   
6. Shift work
   
   
   • Carefully consider the number of days worked in a row, shift rotation and the number of workers on per shift. Ensure that sufficient workers are available during peak workload hours.
   • Encourage shift workers to eat, sleep and exercise well. Make sure they understand that these things are essential for their health.
   • Encourage shift workers to report any early signs of pain or discomfort as soon as they notice them.
   • Build time for patient handling training into the work schedule. Limit patient handling at times when injuries are more likely, such as when people are tired the end of the shift.
   
   
   
7. Staff turnover
   
   
   • Evaluate turnover rates at least annually. Look for any trends associated with workload and/or stress, and work out how to manage them.
   • Assess whether any aspects of your workplace safety practices act as barriers to recruitment or retention of qualified staff.
   • Ensure that your workplace’s recruitment process informs applicants about the value of your existing workplace safety practices.

The benefits of a multi-factorial approach to injury prevention often ripple past the original problem. As everyone works together to solve problems the safety culture of the organisation itself changes positively. Workers realise that better safety performance makes their work easier. Managers see better productivity and fewer injuries. The developing safety culture gathers momentum as the organisation enters a cycle of continuous improvement that involves everyone.

Tools to support workers in healthcare

• Call 0800 844-657 to order Healthcare Workers - Preventing & Managing Discomfort, Pain and Injury (ACC5849) or download it from the DPI Toolbox. Send Maddy an email if you need help to log in.
• A3 Health Workers stretching poster (ACC5054) order from the Publications page.
• With the Health Industry version of Work Smart Tips you can create customised tips and stretch sheets, to help staff stay well and on their feet at work.
• Encourage workers to use an Active Smart plan to improve their fitness through walking, running or cycling.
• Use www.habitatwork.co.nz online, or order on CD-ROM (ACC5165) from the ACC Publications page. Both employers and workers can use the Manager’s Toolkit to help with injury prevention and management.

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Did you know that the 2003 NZ Patient Handling Guidelines have been in a review process since early 2010? ACC commissioned this major revision to ensure that the guidelines are consistent with current international best practice in patient moving and handling. The draft ‘Moving & Handling People: The New Zealand Guidelines’ aim to promote safe moving and handling practice for workers in the health, disability, social and education sectors.

Most recently the review panel asked DPI Programme members and the general public to comment on the draft of ‘Moving & Handling People: The New Zealand Guidelines’. Now that the feedback is in, they’ve sent us an update about what happens next.

The message below came in a news update from the 2011 NZPHG Revision Panel in response to the public feedback they received:

Moving & Handling People: The New Zealand Guidelines DRAFT 2011

Public submissions

Making the draft Guidelines available for public comment was an important part of the rewriting process. We received a flurry of submissions from individuals and organisations, with some even arriving after the closing date. The feedback included praise, criticism, edits and sharing of know-how and web resources.

Thank you very much for your interest and your submissions. We’ve combined your responses with feedback from our reviewers. All together they will help us to sharpen the final document.

Our next task is another intense round of shaping and paring the Guidelines information in response to all the feedback. We plan to complete this before the end of the year, along with proof reading and finalising the new Guidelines document.

Launch of Moving & Handling People: The New Zealand Guidelines

Moving & Handling People: The New Zealand Guidelines will be officially launched at the joint MHANZ (Moving and Handling Association of New Zealand) - AAMHP (Australian Association for the Manual Handling of People) conference in Auckland in March 2012. The conference theme is ‘Challenging the Boundaries’. For more information go to www.mhanz.org.nz or www.aamhp.org.au

Once launched, the new guidelines will be available in hard copy. Selected techniques will also be available on DVD. To make the new guidelines widely available in a cost effective manner, the panel will also advise ACC to:

• make it available on USB memory sticks
• make a soft copy available for download from the ACC web site, along with other material included on the techniques DVD.

Key topics arising from public submission – our response

Two topics were highlighted in the public submissions that we wish to respond to. They are:

1. Training is not effective:
   
   We would like to emphasise that this comment is incorrect. Several of the systematic reviews assessing the effects of training on injuries have basic flaws. For example, they only assessed training without systematic assessment of equipment accessibility, policies and other programme components. They also did not compare active, hands-on training versus passive training in studies involving healthcare workers (e.g., Dawson et al 2007, Martimo et al, 2008). The best available evidence supports the view that hands-on training (i.e. not just lectures or videos) when combined with other programme components is effective in reducing injuries (e.g. see the Hignett et al, 2005 report in the training section)
   
   To quote the relevant text from the draft Guidelines:
   
   “Training on its own does not reduce injuries to carers and clients. Systematic reviews of training interventions have concluded that training by itself does not reduce back pain and injuries among health care staff. However, training that is part of a more multi-component moving and handling programme within an organisation can reduce injuries and absenteeism among staff. Training should be integrated within effective health and safety systems, moving and handling equipment and workspaces that are designed to facilitate moving and handling clients” (p.89).
   
   
2. Where did the six core components in the revised Guidelines come from?
   
   In 2009, a review of literature relating to moving and handling (Thomas & Thomas, 2010) was carried out in preparation for the Guidelines revision. The six core components were developed based on the findings from this literature review, along with other work carried out by Dr. Sue Hignett.
   
   

The reviewers

The panel invited a number of people to review the full Guidelines draft, amongst them Dr. Sue Hignett, Dr. Mike Fray and Mike Betts. We were grateful for their constructive and insightful comments and observations which will help us to markedly improve the Guidelines. Here are their summary comments on the draft:

Dr.Sue Hignett: Overall I found this draft to be a well-written and informative document.

Dr. Mike Fray: I often feel in completing reviews of papers and especially books that my comments are focused on what is missing or possible errors in the document. I have tried to offer suggestions for improvements as I have found items of concern, but I would like to say congratulations on all your hard work on this second version of an excellent document and I wish you and your author team all the best in the completion of this review.

Mike Betts: Overall I felt that the draft document would very clearly meet the information needs of the readers, be they trainers, managers or staff. It was written in plain English and the sections could be read independently of each other as they were aimed at a specific target audience. It is a valuable document, particularly for an organisation that has yet to develop a sufficiently robust programme or for manual handling coordinators who are new to the profession. In most sections there was, in my opinion, nothing missing.

Our special thanks also go to Dr Fiona Trevelyan (Rehabilitation and Occupational Studies, Faculty of Health & Environmental Sciences, AUT University) and a host of other people who gave us detailed feedback on various sections.

Signing out

Every injury - be it to carers or patients - is one injury too many. We hope the revised guidelines will be a valuable resource from which those working in the moving and handling people field can develop material, programmes and systems customised to suit their specific needs and circumstances. In turn we hope this will improve quality of care for patients and their carers.

A year has passed since we drafted the first section for the revised Guidelines. It has been an intense period of reading, writing, rewriting, editing and meetings to get to the current draft stage.

We wish to sincerely thank everyone who has provided advice and shared stories and thoughts with us. We also like to acknowledge ACC’s support throughout the revision process.

NZPHG Revision Panel 2011

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