The power of health and wellbeing data - RSSB Graphic Insights
Measuring workforce health and wellbeing
Monitoring and measuring health and wellbeing (H&W) can deliver improved physical and mental health outcomes for the industry’s workforce. Our award-winning Health and Wellbeing Index (HWI) combines a range of occupational H&W metrics to produce comparable units and costs based on established health economic valuations. It enables the development of effective health related strategies and interventions in the same way safety has progressed using the Fatalities and Weighted Injuries (FWI) measure.
Detailed information about the HWI can be found in our report, and in published case studies.
How poor health affects fatalities
Click on the wellness indicators below to compare the incident volumes statistically equivalent to a single fatality.
HWI captures different aspects of occupational health and wellbeing in a single number derived from their statistical fatality equivalence. The weighting of the different elements feeding into the index was developed based on a review of findings in the health economics literature. This is an analogous approach to that used by the NHS to decide on funding treatments, and similar to the logic that underpins the Fatalities Weighted Injuries (FWI) used to measure safety risk.
Transforming insights into change
H&W data is being collected through a new performance management system - RSSB's Health & Wellbeing Data Hub - to promote industry learnings and share best practice around KPIs such as sickness absence, and health surveillance. Currently being trialled with 21 companies, the RSSB Health & Wellbeing Data Hub will be rolled out widely in 2024.
The chart below is an example of the data surfaced for RSSB's Health & Wellbeing Data Hub users. As well as getting a snapshot of their organisation’s data, users have the option to benchmark against other anonymised companies.
Hover over the chart to investigate volumes of different sickness absence categories.
For more information, or to get involved in the trial contact us.
48,320 cases of Anxiety, Depression or Other Psychiatric Illness
self-reported over the last 5 years
Improving workforce health and wellbeing
Workforce safety is well understood and has benefited from investments and improvements that have made GB rail one of the safest in Europe. Likewise, there is a need to invest and improve workforce H&W. A focus on H&W will help reduce the 1,346,659 days lost to sickness or approximately £356m per year in direct and indirect costs.
Click the button to reveal and compare the difference between injuries measured with the FWI and H&W impairments measured with the HWI.
A comparison of the normalised workforce FWI vs. HWI highlights a large difference in level, with workforce HWI being 35 times higher than FWI. This is not necessarily unexpected, given that HWI will include contributions from causes that are not to do with work, which FWI does not. However, it does emphasise the importance of exploring effective health and wellbeing interventions.
The connection between mental health absences and the HWI
Industry data shows that mental health conditions make the greatest contribution to industry's overall HWI performance. During 2020-2023, data from the H&W dashboard showed that rail industry self reported sickness absences for mental health were about 3% greater than the national UK average, and specifically, in train operating companies, the difference is about 5%.
It has been reported that the higher rates of anxiety, stress and depression absence seen in frontline staff are connected to a rise in the number of assaults and abuse. These are due in part to an increase in fare evasion as a result of the cost-of-living crisis post the Covid-19 pandemic.
Click through each year in the graph below to compare the number of mental health absences with the rail industry average displayed in blue.
Building a healthier workforce
There are significant opportunities for improving workforce H&W in rail. In doing so, we will see a reduction in sickness absences and the cost of impaired health, as well as improvements in the engagement and productivity of the workforce. Understanding these benefits will make investment more attractive and help to prioritise interventions.
