Governance Report for year ended 30 June 2012
11. Good Employer cont.
11.1 Employment Policies and Procedures cont.
The DHB has recently taken part in a Clinical Governance and Engagement survey facilitated by Otago
University to gauge progress in advancing clinical governance and leadership. The findings from this survey and
the follow up interview work will track our progress on these matters in the 12/13 year.
A pan union forum known as the DHB Bipartite Forum enables the gains from the activity of the various union
groups to be shared and monitored and the translation of the national Bipartite Action Group initiatives to
something beneficial and workable at a local level.
The DHB seeks to measure improvement in staff engagement on a biannual basis through a survey with a
pursuant action planning process.
The Staff Service Recognition Programme has grown and developed year by year as an important component
of staff recognition. This has now been in place for three years and feedback from staff and other participants
has been extremely positive. A new recognition initiative for the DHB has been the “Go Team” awards. These
awards are available to staff who go the extra mile with patients/internal customers. A further section of the
awards captures the bright “ideas” from our staff and provides support to take them from concept to
implementation.
The DHB has had no substantiated complaints regarding discrimination with respect to recruitment, selection
and employment.
The DHB has received no applications for flexible work. Feedback from both the Pulse Engagement Survey
and Exit Survey indicate that staff believe the DHB has flexible work practices in place and that these meet the
requirements of employees.
From a Health and Safety perspective, the Bay of Plenty DHB has retained its Tertiary status within the ACC
Partnership Programme, the highest level possible in this program. The auditor also indicated that not only
has the DHB met all 125 standards within the programme but is demonstrating that it exceeds these standards
by the introduction of the DHB’s Health Living program. This program includes the free health clinics, annual
immunization programme and availability of an onsite gym at Tauranga. This demonstrates that Bay of Plenty
DHB is continuing to provide a healthy and safe place for its employees to work in.
The overall impact of these initiatives and effective claims management has been a continuing drop in the cost
of compensation claims to below $100,000 per year with an overall savings of $1.1 million in levy costs as
shown in the table below (dollars).
Claim Costs by Category
Cover Period 2007 Weekly Compensation 98,418 127,421 249,121 144,125 136,566 44,089
Vocational Rehabilitation 5,673 6,372 13,268 12,439 8,928 3,901
Social Rehabilitation 2,264 1,360 15,396 9,685 1,493 384
68,060 78,186 172,282 80,334 76,277 37,686
174,415
717,518 213,339
695,777 450,067
579,013 246,583
718,814 223,264
985,254 86,060
1,105,218
Medical Fees
Total Claim Costs
Levy Discount - After Audit
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
DHB staff have access to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to assist in resolving work-related or
personal issues that are impacting on their ability to work. In 2011/2012 210 staff accessed EAP (a reduction
from 251 in 2010/2011). 73% of this access was related to personal rather than work issues.
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