Cheong Liang Ruey 31923243

BACHELOR OR COMMRCE
BUS 320 ADVANCED HUMAN RESOURCE PERSPECTIVES
Individual Report
Work Health & Saet! Ca"e St#$!
Student Name: Cheong Liang Ruey
Student ID: 31923243
Lecturer: arc !ong
!otal "ord#: 1$$%
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Table of Contents
T%tle Pa&e"
Cover +age 1
!a-le o, Content# 2
./ecutive Summary 3
Identi,y +ro-lem# and Ca#e )naly#i# 3
Solution# 4
Recommendation# $
Implementation# 0
Conclu#ion %
)ppendi/ ) to & 1 Re,erence# 2
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Executive summary
Todays workers have getting more involved in their occupational life than ever
before. This increases the length of workers working hours, while the reasons can be
many. Workers like Terry, is clearly a workaholic and worship his work. He is
probably belonging to the group of people that believe they can only attain their
achievement in their career.
The World Health Organisation (WHO has found that stress is one of the biggest
threats in the !"st century and occupational stress as one of the second most common
health problem (T#, !$"%. Health and safety in workplace is ever&increasing in the
importance that 'ingapore is implement a strategy for Workplace 'afety and Health
'trategy (W'H !$"(.
)n this essay, we will first look into the case study of stress and workaholism and
analyses it and identify problems. Here, we list out the problems that Terry and his
company is facing. *fter which will we look into some possible solutions that can be
helping Terry and his company to rectify the situation in his company, follow by the a
recommendation for the implementation. While the topic about W'H can be so wide,
we will narrow this case study report focusing more on occupation stress and
workaholism as the case is about.
Identify Problem and Case Analysis
'ingapores +mployment *ct consent that employees normal hours of work should
be ,, hours in a week with ma-imum of .! hours of overtime in a month. Terrys
working hours is hitting the level of /$ or more hours in a week is hovering around
the ma-imum hours that listed in 0art )1 of the +mployment *ct (2O2, !$"%. This
part of the +mployment *ct is applicable only to employees earning not more than
3!$$$ basic monthly salaries. 'ingapore 2inistry of 2anpowers Workplace 'afety
and Health (W'H have already made significant progress in the recent year and even
established a W'H strategy towards !$"(. 4espite of this progress, 'ingapore legal
framework is still a far cry from countries like *ustralia with more e-tensive
Occupational Health 'afety legal re5uirements that could have a better protection on
Terry. )n *ustralia, where employers have the 6duty of care7 that unpins all OH'
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activities re5uired the employer to ensure the working environment is safe and
without risk to health.
2any organisations like Terrys 8+O, consider workaholic positive because the
organisation makes profit and e-cessive working of their workers and side effects of
this type of working culture is often ignored or 9ustified through some pri:es and
encouragement (;assel, "<<(. #ood H=2 practise and management supports are
intrinsic to a healthy and safety in workplace. The rewarding of workaholic action
may result in an acute negative outcome.
Terrys behaviour has also affect his team and creates a culture to work long hours.
This could be a form of occupational stress phenomenon that is acute problem to the
company. This not only endangers the physical and mental health of the employees
and this will lead to an unduly cost to the organisation. Work holism can result in
negative behaviours such as absence, isolation, low efficiency, high stress,
occupational faults and accidents (2arko chi& et al. "<<". 'tudy have been conducted
and found out those workaholics, like other stressful personnel tend to complain more
about their health and e-perience an-iety disorder (2c 2ilan, !$$". These
workaholics are also found to have more tendencies to caught diseases like headache,
asthma, heart palpitation and digestive problems and occupational stress. While
occupational stress claim is not available yet in 'ingapore, countries with more
developed W'H like >? and *ustralia, occupational stress claim can be a massive
cost to organisations and companies.
Solutions
)t is important for organisations and *nnette to recognise and acknowledge that
Workaholic and occupational stress as a form of occupational ha:ard too. The
management should manage the hardworking culture with organi:ation culture based
on proper performance and work life balance.
+mployees that suffer from occupational stress maybe reluctant to report and fearful
to seek assistance from the management. =easons for such reluctance could vary
among individuals but one of the most commonly reasons are the employees fear that
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9ob security will be affected by reporting the condition. The management and 8+O
and Terry should be more aware of and educate with occupational stress and ha:ards
and more acceptance to recognising it as a ha:ard. Workers should have self&aware,
responsible and discipline to his or her health. =eporting should also keep as
necessary confidentiality.
'ome practical solutions can be suggested like, sending these workaholics to courses
with concepts like 6time management 6 0roblem solving skills7. 'ome family
activities, like ;amily day reminds employees of family awareness and to allocate
time for their family. 2anagement can even consider consulting employees family
members to reduce the adverse effect of 6workaholics7. +mployers should have
confidence about their employee leaves and working plans. Thus, encouraging
employees to take a break and replenish their power after completing too much works
('hariat @ 'hokuh, !$"!.
'ome of the e-amples that management activities that could be implements solutions
for occupational stress areA firstly, management should be communicating and
clarifying e-pectations of work standards and deadlines including key management
issues that may occur ie conduct investigations, disciplinary matters. 'econdly,
management should assisting employees to prioritise work to meet realistic deadlines
and providing feedback on performance. Third, they should monitor individual and
group workloads (0remier, !$$%.
Recommendations
One of the responsibilities of the managers human resource management is to
prevent and manage workplace ha:ards including occupational stress. )t is
recommendation that Terrys company should consider developing a strategy
management for W'H. This strategy should have a risk assessment to involves
identifying ha:ards in workplaceA assessing the likelihood of the ha:ards occurring
and its conse5uencesA and deciding whether the ha:ards can be eliminated and if not
how it can be controlled. The ne-t section of the essay we will look into the
implementation of the strategy.
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Implementation
The strategy can be considered into four main principles, including the identification
of ha:ards, implementing a strategy to assist employees, training and development for
employees and develop a protocol for critical risk management.
;irstly early recognition and support the ha:ards. These workplace ha:ards should be
identify to determine actual and potential ha:ard to eliminate the risk or control the
impact. 2anagement need to positively address employee perceptions, inappropriate
management behaviour and cultural barriers in order to assist employees with
occupational health and safety concerns or work related in9ury or illness, including
occupational stress. These issues are to be addressed for early intervention and
support programs will be effective. The use of some tools or checklists could be
useful (see appendi- *. 0rioriti:ing the identify ha:ards and an assessment of the
ha:ard fre5uency and impact is can inform the management to of its priorities in the
development of strategy (see appendi- B. ;or Ha:ards like occupational stress, there
are some indicators and data that management can gather and look out for areA safety
audits, workplace inspection reports, absenteeism and sick leave records, accident,
in9ury and incident reports, results of consultations with staff, conduct confidential
surveys, staff turnover statistics, health and environmental monitoring and e-it
interviews (0remier, !$$%.
'econdly, implementing intervention strategies and programs to assist employees. The
intervention strategies should vary on the type of ha:ards identifies. 'trategies for
occupational stress can be include +mployee *ssistance 0rogram (+*0 and assist
employees to remain at work. The early identification and actions of managers are
crucial to the assistance to employees facing ha:ards like occupation stress. 'uch
actions can prevent or minimise stress&related issues and assist in preventing
employees absence from duties. +*0 assist with both personal and work&related
disorders. +*0 will provide access to confidential counselling and referral to self&help
professionals.
Thirdly, is to provide information and training for and to staffs. 2anagers may re5uire
training and guidelines to help them identify troubled or distressed employees. *fter
conducting a risk assessment, a training program should be developed to inform
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employee the occupational ha:ards (stress to promote a preventive measure. Training
programs could help employees learn how to cope with stress. 2anagers should be
given information and training on general management and supervisory skills,
competency to e-ercise workplace safety responsibilities, support services and local
policies and procedures.
;ourthly, develop procedures to prevent or manage critical incidents because
occupational stress may lead to like critical situations that threaten life or health, or
situations that can result in physical in9ury etc. 0rocedures should have an early
intervention response plan that is incorporated into the companies overall risk
management plan for occupational stress to manage such situations.
Conclusion
The world governments including 'ingapore will continue to increase their standard
in W'H and this will affect and influence the conduct and practices in H=2. The
success of developing a safety culture and create a safe work environment could not
lies on H=2 practice only. )nstead it is the responsible of all the stakeholdersA the
employers, unions, legislative, employees and safety representatives.
Workplace safety is also beneficial all stakeholders and may reduce and eliminate the
unforeseen cost for companies due to occupation ha:ards. Workers compensations and
penalties due to workplace in9uries can be massive depending on types. *lthough such
compensations are much lesser when comparing 'ingapore to other countries with
well&developed W'H, 'ingapore is enhancing its W'H with strategy !$"(. 'oon
'ingapore companies will have to force into the change.
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APPENDIX A
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Source Premier!s Department "ccupational Stress #a$ard Indentification And
Ris% &ana'ement Strate'y ()*+
APPENDIX ,
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So#r'e( Pre)%er*" De+art)e,t O''#+at%o,al Stre"" Ha-ar$ I,$e,t%%'at%o, A,$
R%"k Ma,a&e)e,t Strate&! 20.3
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