Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Workplace Health Connect
HSE has commissioned an independent evaluation team, including the Institute of Employment Studies, BMRB Social Research and Frontier Economics, to evaluate Workplace Health Connect in terms of how it was marketed and delivered, its impact and any quantifiable benefits that arise. Specifically, the evaluation aims to measure the overall net impact of workplace health support, in terms of the following customer-related outcomes:
The evaluation involves a series of telephone interviews and field studies among users of the service and analyses of the data collected.
HSE is expecting the final evaluation report to be delivered in January 2009. Until this report is available, conclusions and assessments cannot be made on the impact or success of the Workplace Health Connect pilot. In the meanwhile, the following interim evaluation progress reports are available:
This is now the fourth progress report provided on WHC from an evaluation perspective. The report updates provider data outlined in earlier reports and is the first opportunity to see the profile of respondents to the baseline survey of users. There will be one more, final, evaluation report delivered in February 2009.
The WHC service has successfully reached its target audience of smaller employers without access to occupational health support. The effect on these employers having access to the WHC service will be the subject of the remaining evaluation activity.
The July 2007 Progress Report from the evaluation updates readers on what happened within and across the different Workplace Health Connect services over the first half of 2007. The main message in this third report is that the service continued to receive a positive response from employers. In addition, the levels of Advice line calls and referrals onto Level 2 had increased, demonstrating that leads had been followed through effectively by staff at all levels of service delivery.
The January 2007 progress report covers the first eight months of operation of the Workplace Health Connect service. Early positive signs were confirmed, with the level of visits to workplaces on track to reach planned levels. Workplace Health Connect enjoyed a measure of success in targeting resources to employers and employees of small and medium sized businesses, and the service had successfully engaged with employers representing over 305,000 employees. Overall levels of satisfaction with the service were extremely high.
The July 2006 Progress Report gave a preliminary account of the first four months of operation of Workplace Health Connect. These early findings were extremely positive. Workplace Health Connect appeared to have been well received by employers and employees of small and medium sized businesses, and the service was appreciated because it was free, credible and did not adopt a punitive approach.
