Guest blog by Dr Lara Shemtob
I connected with Kim Baudek (pictured below), senior OH strategy leader and occupational health nurse by background. Kim spent decades at the helm managing workforce health at the nexus of the US’s most critical industries: covering nuclear, national gas and electricity. We got chatting about what in-house expertise can do for organisational health. Here are the highlights from our chat.
LS: So pleased to meet you Kim - I would love to hear more about your career to date.
KB: OH was never in my career plan! After college I went straight into hospital nursing. I was working in the ER and enjoying it. When an opportunity came up to transition into OH nursing, I was sceptical! But a senior nurse on the hiring team persuaded me to give it a go for six months. She explained I would find things different and that, without giving it time, I wouldn’t see the full scope of the role. So I took the job. And as you can see, I haven’t looked back!
LS: Great advice from your senior colleague. It is so important to give any career change time. Even going from one clinical role to another - or one team to another in the same organisation. Clearly it was the right choice to stick around in the specialty! How did you go from clinical to leadership?
KB: That was a very organic transition. One day, my boss was talking through a difficult case around an employee that required time off due to sickness absence protected by law, and I saw a gaping hole in the organisational policies around employee health. I started with that one policy and revolutionised our policy governance bit by bit.
LS: It’s remarkable to me how many organisations - even large organisations, do not have robust policies in place around workforce health. While there is never going to be a policy that covers every eventuality these policies form reference points that become immensely helpful for managers and their teams in navigating the every day.
KB: Exactly. The policies I wrote created a baseline of in-house expertise on how to manage work and health. What was more challenging was ensuring our policies kept pace with legislative change at federal and state level over the years! Compliance is critical but very time consuming to get right. Take the legislation around paid sick leave as an example - this varies state by state in the US. An employee will have quite a different set of legal protections depending on where they are employed. And employers have to keep track of this all at a minimum, never mind the occupational offerings that can deliver value on investment.
LS: Yes, the picture is certainly more complicated in the US. I think this adds to the vulnerability of both employers and employees when work and health challenges crop up.
KB: On this point - what we found was having a baseline of in-house expertise paid dividends when things get complicated. When the COVID-19 pandemic began we soon realised that our critical infrastructure was even more essential for keeping the country running, from hospitals to agriculture, without power, everything would grind to a halt. We had to keep our staff safe and working. Thankfully we had been building an in-house nursing team as even before the pandemic we knew the value was high. When COVID-19 hit, we had enough in-house expertise to develop and role out a rapid testing environment across all our US operations. Our in-house resource gave us the control we needed to respond effectively. Our policies were changing day to day during the first six months of the pandemic but we were able to maintain a high standard of care. The outcomes were good enough for us to keep our essential services running and ultimately, the country running. This is an example of what good occupational health can achieve for the individual, organisation and wider society.
LS: I can see how in-house expertise helps an organisation with rapid crisis response. But how does it offer an edge on the day to day?
KB: Here in the US the challenge with outsourcing occupational health support can be that the providers are just that bit further from understanding an employee’s workplace. Meanwhile, managers have an in depth understanding of an individual’s role but may not have the expert knowledge to generate alternative accommodations or adjustments. We brought more occupational health talent in-house to provide the highest possible level of organisational and role insight used alongside work and health expertise. We found the day to day value of in-house expertise came in the nuances of accommodations offered and the efficiency of service containing back and forth between the organisation, employees and occupational health. Essentially, being on the ground minimises missed opportunities to keep people safe and working and this can mount up in terms of tangible and intangible costs to the organisation and the workforce.
LS: In the UK in-house OH teams are few and far between. I expect this is more to do with market forces and the operational challenges of building and maintaining in-house talent and services. How did you manage to build the service up and get senior leadership ok board?
KB: I think the size and scale of the organisation and nature of the safety critical work in these essential industries made workforce health a clear priority for the leadership. This made for an easier starting point. But you can see how the service, and the case for it, built over time. I was doing presentations all the way up to the C suite on why we needed more resource to support the health and safety of our workforce. I truly believe that informed and engaged leaders in occupational health can make a huge impact where they work.
LS: Yet, we are in a situation where evidence based occupational health is at risk of losing ground both in the US and the UK. The workplace wellbeing market is confusing for businesses to navigate. It’s challenging enough to encourage organisations to invest in leaning on external OH expertise when they need it, let alone establish in-house expertise. How do we help organisations it more of a priority?
KB: I think there is a lot we can do to empower organisations to help themselves. Awareness is essential to being able to recognize gaps in organisational processes and map this to the financial and human cost. Here are my three top tips:
- Everyone in the organisation should be aware of work and health compliance. It’s not a good situation if people aren’t aware of their own leave entitlements or the basics around the relevant legislation.
- When you can’t have expertise on the ground, invest in upskilling managers. Managers with more knowledge and skills around work and health are more proactive and confident when someone in their team needs support.
- Audit your processes. Keep an eye on your numbers - who is off sick, when and why. How long does it take people to return to work on average? Are any teams faster to return? Which teams tend to have accommodations on offer for faster return? These questions can be a great starting point for improving local practices!
