The London Fire Brigade (LFB) is the largest fire and rescue service in the United Kingdom. It exists to make London a safer city. The organizations vision is to be a world-class fire and rescue service for London, Londoners and visitors. LFB employs approximately 7000 staff, of which 5800 are operational fire fighters and officers. It is part of a group of organizations under the umbrella of the Greater London Authority (GLA) and is the third largest fire-fighting organization in the world: protecting people and property from fire within the 1587 square kilometres of Greater London. Providing Londoners with 24/7 coverage, the LFB has 113 fire stations, plus the river station, which are crewed by four different watches, operating on a two-two-four watch system (two days on, two nights on, four days off). In meeting the needs of London, LFB is the only UK fire service to have a predominantly whole time (full-time) work force. Other brigades across the United Kingdom use a combination of full- and part-time staff, and retained fire fighters who carry out fire-fighting duties in addition to their usual employment.
The approach
In November 2005, LFB carried out a stress/well-being audit of all staff using Robertson Coopers ASSET survey tool. ASSET is described in Chapter 5. The survey drew a 37 percent response from staff (N=2712). The results from the survey highlighted some positive findings relating to relationships at work and pride regarding the role of the organization. It also highlighted some hotspot areas, which indicated less than typical responses. In the main, these were perceived pressures about job security, change, resources, pay and benefits and control. Overall, the results were considered to be typical of an organization that was undergoing significant change, which since the 2003 industrial action that had taken place was very much the case at the LFB.
To further understand the results that had been achieved from the audit, a number of focus groups were run following the survey to help interpret the data and identify a range of possible solutions to the areas highlighted. These focus groups were then followed by a larger engagement exercise with line managers across the brigade, who were subsequently tasked with discussing further the results with their staff at fire stations. This was done to ensure that a full understanding of the results was gained and the outcomes of this work informed the development of corporate and departmental action plans. A stress steering group was set up, with all departments represented and overseen by a senior LFB manager. The group was tasked with monitoring and delivering both the corporate and departmental action plans.
As such, the stress/well-being audit served as a platform for the development and implementation of a wide range of new interventions which were driven by and included in the corporate action plan. This comprised four main streams of activity, which were considered to be key to addressing the areas identified: Communication; Change; Role Clarity; and Training. When developing the corporate action plan, a conscious decision was taken to utilize initiatives already being progressed by the organization. However, there were a number of specific interventions that were developed to address the gaps, where either the work being undertaken was not considered sufficient to address the issue(s) identified or where there were no specific work streams/packages planned that were considered to address that area (examples of which include the work around health and well-being, and some of the more specific training offerings developed).
Case studies
The range of interventions included in LFBs corporate action plan are summarized below, and two of the most extensive programs of activity: the Health Roadshows which focused on improving the general health and well-being of the workforce and the Fit for Life training course which sought to improve individuals personal resilience are described more fully.
Interventions
- Communication - to further support communication in the organization, the results of the audit were widely communicated in internal bulletins, supported by a specific stress leaflet that explained the symptoms of stress and identified a range of available resources. In addition, as a result of a review of the organizations internal communications, a new approach and style was adopted for staff briefings and internal communications, which was further supported by the introduction of a new performance review system for staff.
- Change - work was undertaken to identify the behaviors required of managers to support change, and these were then reviewed as part of the range of development programs offered by LFB. A program of staff engagement round table discussions, developed to support any new change initiatives introduced, were utilized to provide feedback which was then incorporated into the planning and implementation process.
- Training - as part of a strategic review of training being undertaken by the training and development department, additional work was undertaken to understand and address any gaps in relation to the training activities delivered against the national Personal Qualities and Attributes (PQA) framework. This included work on developing a leadership strategy for the LFB, and reviewing the competencies and associated training requirement for effective Line Management. Further work included in this area was the development of specific offerings for individuals and managers around stress and well-being, with initiatives and an associated brand (LFB Healthy) being developed to support the improvement of the general well-being of the workforce.
- Role clarity - was supported by the development of a formal policy outlining the required elements for induction, the introduction of a program of breakfast briefings for HQ-based staff. Improved role clarity was further supported by the introduction of a new performance review system (as mentioned above).
Health roadshows
The audit had highlighted that in some areas individuals perceptions of their physical and psychological well-being were below average when compared to the general working population. As such, the LFB developed the LFB Healthy brand and associated strategy, under which a range of health and well-being promotional activities were undertaken.
This included the development of the LFB Healthy Health Roadshows, which were high-impact events, delivered over 10 days, at a range of locations, in conjunction with the Brigades occupational health provider. Staff from across LFB were invited to attend the events for up to an hour, where they could meet with health professionals and outside support organizations, to discuss a range of health topics (physical activity, pressure management, cancer awareness, healthy eating and so on) and have various health measures (height, weight, body mass index, hip to waste ratio, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, lung capacity, lung age and so on) taken.
Over 750 staff attended the events, of which over 400 of these were from fire stations. As a result of the events, a number of staff were either referred back to the occupational health provider, or the individuals GP for further monitoring. Thirty-six percent of those who attended the events indicated that they were going to change their lifestyle, with ninety-five percent of those who attended indicating that they would be interested in attending similar events in the future. As part of the evaluation process biometric data were also gathered, that enabled LFB to compare those who attended the events to the general population, and will provide data with which to benchmark the success of these events going forward.
Fit for life - personal resilience program
To further improve and support individuals who were experiencing high levels of pressure, the organization committed to deliver a personal resilience/stress reduction program. The Fit for Life course was a personal resilience program, which looked at pressures arising from both home and work. The six sessions were delivered incrementally as two-hour inputs over six weeks, with individuals required to complete homework in between the sessions. In this way the structure of the course supported and promoted a meaningful change in behavior and the acquisition of new skills.
The program was aligned to the cognitive behavioral therapy approach of stress reduction. The program covered: the physiology of stress; the identification of the individual symptoms of stress; the specifics of their personal stress cycle; through to the inclusion of their associated thoughts and behaviors; and finishing at session six with the identification of an individual personal resilience plan. An initial evaluation of this course found that individuals made significant improvements in both resilience and general well-being when comparing pre- and post-course self-ratings.
Overall the range of interventions by LFB adopted a combination of top-down (corporate/organizational) and bottom-up (individual centered) approaches, with a blend of focus on both physical health and fitness and psychological well-being. The positive impact of fitness and physical condition on psychological well-being is now well-established (e.g. Hayes and Ross, 1986; Fox, 1999; Hassmen et al., 2000; Penedo and Dahn, 2005).
Careful consideration was taken in the marketing of the various interventions, which sought to emphasize and draw on the positive outcomes of good mental well-being (namely resilience) and physical health rather than solely focussing on stress.
A range of different methods was considered to support the promotion of health and well-being in the organization, particularly in relation to overcoming the logistical challenges presented by the disparate nature of LFBs workforce. One alternative method piloted was utilizing well-being representatives/champions. However, feedback indicated that one well-being rep was required per watch (N = 456) for this to be a successful means of engaging all station-based staff fully. Co-ordinating and engaging with such a large number of individuals, whilst establishing the scope and purpose of LFBs health and well-being strategy, was not considered feasible in the initial stages of this program. It might however be something that is reconsidered once the brand and initial offerings are formally established and embedded.
Outcomes and evaluation
The most important improvement for LFB attributed to the progressive introduction of new well-being initiatives has been a gradual, but ultimately substantial improvement in sickness-absence due to stress and mental health causes. At the time of the stress/well-being audit in 2005 Stress Anxiety/Depression (SAD) was the highest cause of sickness-absence, representing around 20 percent of the total. Four years later SAD was the sixth ranked cause of sickness-absence at eleven percent of all absence. This has been calculated as a direct saving to LFB of over 1.8 million.
As is often the case it is impossible to attribute the reduction in sickness-absence to any single intervention. However, there is little doubt that the range of interventions offered together with a strong integrated branding of well-being activity had delivered substantial benefits to the organization. As well as the headline sickness-absence improvement a number of other tangible benefits have been observed, which include an improved organizational awareness and understanding of stress in terms of both its symptoms and the range of organizational resources on offer to support managers and individuals. Looking back on the work undertaken in LFB, key lessons learnt were that the support and buy in of top managers was critical to the success of this project, as well as utilizing a combination of both top-down and bottom-up approaches to addressing stress and improving well-being in the workplace.
Key benefits of adopting this approach for the LFB were that the information generated from the Audit enabled the organization to prioritize issues, identifying only a small number of areas corporately that were not currently being addressed. More importantly conducting an audit enabled hotspots to be identified at a departmental level where making small changes could really affect great change. In addition, through engaging managers in this process, LFB has raised the profile and awareness of stress and well-being, ultimately improving the organizations capacity to respond.
Note: This is taken from Chapter 15 of the book Well-being Productivity and Happiness at Work by Ivan Robertson & Cary Cooper, published by Palgrave MacMillan and is available on Amazon.
Image credit: Pres Panayotov / Shutterstock.com
See also: ‘Profit over wellbeing’ by Doug Wright in The People Bulletin, 11 August 2010