Welcome to the Healthy Workplaces Project
Retaining high performing staff is an escalating and expensive problem for Australian public services. In addition, stress-related ill-health, the lodgement of psychological stress claims, and work-life imbalance produce substantial costs to individual employees, their families, and the organisation. This issue has been addressed by Griffith University, the Queensland Police Service (QPS), and the Queensland Government, through the development and implementation of the Healthy Workplaces Project.
The Healthy Workplaces Project aims to develop and evaluate an innovative workplace intervention to improve the physical health, psychological well-being, management, and workplace training of QPS members. Healthy Workplaces is a three-year collaborative project that is jointly funded by Griffith University, the QPS, and the Queensland Government. The content of this evidence-based intervention program is based upon pilot research conducted by QPS and Griffith University, in addition to principles of leadership, resilience, and people-management derived from the extensive occupational health and policing literatures. The intervention includes a staff training program to improve the health, performance, and management of "high stress" public service workers.
In addition to the innovative workplace intervention that will be implemented in targeted QPS regions, Healthy Workplaces Questionnaires will be distributed annually to all QPS employees. The application of this structured research design, comprising multiple points of data collection, will provide numerous benefits:
- Identification of risk factors of ill-health and monitoring of these risk factors over a period of three years.
- Scientific evaluation of the intervention, which will contribute to knowledge of stress- and people-management, and will improve the provision of services to QPS employees.
- Increase knowledge of stress and well-being in Australian-specific urban and regional areas.
- Development of strategies to continually maintain or improve the well-being and performance of employees.
- Minimise individual and organisational costs associated with employee ill-health, psychological injury claims, and inadequate work performance.
