July 20, 2018

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Wellbeing

What does wellbeing at work look like for you?

British Safety Council is running a multimedia poster competition focused on wellbeing in the workplace.

Recognising the changing nature of how we work and the stresses employment brings to our lives, the British Safety Council has challenged workers to visualise what wellbeing at work means to them.

The organisation celebrated its 60th birthday last year and throughout its history has been campaigning to make workplaces safer and healthier, using its vision that ‘no-one should be injured or made ill at work’.

Founder James Tye was famous for using a range of promotional and marketing techniques, including specially commissioned posters, to bring to the public’s attention the issues that stood in the way of health and safety. This was a ploy to bring attention to health and safety at a time when hundreds of people were being killed at work each year due to inadequate laws to protect employees.

That’s not the case nowadays and Britain’s safety record is the envy of countries across the globe. However, people are working differently now than they once were, with changes to standard working practices, new technologies, long hours and an aging workforce all contributing to worker wellbeing. This is only likely to increase in the future as social interaction is further inhibited by artificial intelligence.

In a throwback some of the poster campaigns of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the BSC is asking workings to come up with their own designs for its wellbeing campaign with the hope of producing a social and historical record of similar significance.

Competition

PersonalProtectionThe competition ‘Images of wellbeing’ offering a range of cash prizes, is opened to all entrants in two age groups: under 21-year-olds, primarily aimed at wellbeing in education, and for people aged 21 years and over. Entries can be submitted by both individuals or teams. They can be a static or a moving poster in a digital format.

The entries should be accompanied by a 300-500-word statement which will explain the following:

  • the theme their design explores;
  • how they would use the poster in the workplace;
  • why they have chosen their message;
  • who the target of the message is;
  • where they would locate their poster (e.g. social media, staff room etc).

The closing date for entries is Friday 19 October 2018. All shortlisted entries will be displayed at an exhibition in a central London venue and widely published online. The entries will be assessed by a judging panel which will include Dr Mike Esbester, Senior History Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and a social historian specialising in health and safety.

Matthew Holder, Head of Campaigns at the British Safety Council, said: “The British Safety Council has a proud legacy of producing posters to inform, educate and campaign for safety, health and wellbeing in the workplace. For sixty years, our posters were a striking and often humorous reflection of the developments that transformed the workplace in Britain. Their subjects ranged from the occupational health and safety matters to headline news, such as the 1995 poster featuring the Pope in a hard hat to publicise HIV awareness, one of the most complained about advertisements in UK history.

“Today workers face new risks to their health and wellbeing. We talk about a picture of health, let’s see what an image of wellbeing may be. Submissions that are abstract, text-based, colourful and mysterious are all welcome. Those entering the competition will have an opportunity to show their thinking on the subject and their experience of the latest technology to produce the work which will be both ground-breaking and inspirational.”

To enter, or for more details, click here.

What makes us susceptible to burnout?

In this episode  of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.

We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.

stress

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