Managing people: the breakfast menu

Healthy working and performance management. A discussion of the approach and a report on a survey of NHS organizations

Achieving high performance in an organization is a complex business. Most approaches are too piecemeal, unidimensional or iatrogenic. Healthy working is an approach to managing performance that attempts to overcome these problems by aiming, in a holistic manner, to harmonize those factors which affect, either separately or jointly, individual physical, mental and emotional health and individual and organizational performance. The approach is based on a set of values and a series of steps. The first step has to be establishing an information base-line--the four key indicators. A survey was undertaken by PBS to establish the availability and usefulness of data in NHS organizations; summarizes some of the issues raised. Although a worryingly small number keep useful data or produce useful information, much can be done in making critical links if available data is fully used.