December 17 2020
Occupational health looks at the mental and physical wellbeing of employees in the workplace.
The main aim is preventative. Occupational health policies encourage safe working practices and look at ergonomics, which can range from how you sit at your desk to manual lifting.
But it also monitors the health of the workforce and supports the management of sickness absence of employees – ascertaining the nature of an illness and giving advice on how to support employees back to work.
Occupational health policies and working practices benefit both the employer and the employee.
An employee receives advice and training on preventing illness and injury, as well as support back into the workplace if they do become ill.
An employer maintains a healthy workforce leading to greater productivity and greater job satisfaction for their staff.
Employees can refer themselves to occupational health. If you think you need occupational health services, you should always speak to your employer in the first instance to understand what services are available and how you can access them.
Alternatively, it can be a management referral. These referrals can be on the advice of a human resources team as HR ensures companies invest in proper training and education of employees when it comes to health and safety.
It is an employer’s duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and therefore they must do whatever is reasonably practicable to achieve this.
Many smaller companies do not have the size of workforce to sustain a dedicated occupational health service.
For this reason, many SMEs use external occupational health providers such as My Occ Health in order to support their staff as and when needed and carry out medicals and other occupational health assessments.
Occupational health provision will depend on the size of your company or organisation. It can be provided by a nurse with occupational health training and a part-time doctor, or through a range of specialists, including:
Occupational health is usually provided at an employee’s place of work, but if your employer does not have a dedicated service, you may need to travel to attend appointments with external providers. Here at My Occ Health we offer video interviews and assessments direct to employees.
Medical details are private and confidential to every person and no manager has the right to know an employee’s medical details.
However, the employer does have a number of responsibilities relating to health for which they can ask specific questions of an occupational health service such as ours. In this scenario, our doctors and nurses are bound by the principles of patient confidentiality and act as a filter between the employee and their medical details and the employer and their specific questions.
December 2021
The Christmas season comes loaded with many lovely things, including delicious meals, colourful parties, awesome family get-togethers, and more. Sadly though, there’s often a downside to Christmas, with a spike in illnesses often the unexpected gift that visits along with Santa each year.
December 2021
It is estimated that over 1 billion people in the world are dealing with one form of disability or another. This is a significant number, and as such, disregarding people with disabilities during the recruitment process would be discriminating against a large percentage of the global population.
November 2021
When flu season is in full swing, the risk of catching flu or a cold from others is heightened. The workplace can be a pool of germs — sometimes all it takes is a single sneeze to spread the virus and affect dozens of colleagues.
