The process of creating ISO45003 and more with Stavroula Leka
Welcome to The Work Well Podcast! Today we kick off season 5 of the podcast with an amazing guest: Stavroula Leka. Stavroula is a Professor of Work Organization & Well-being at University College Cork and very recently co-chaired the working group that developed the ISO45003 standard.
Stavroula is a Chartered Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Fellow of the Academy of Social sciences, President of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology (EAOHP), and Board member of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH).
I’m delighted to share our conversation with Stavroula to start our 5th season. Take a listen!
What was it like creating ISO45003?
Brian opens up this episode by asking about the process of creating ISO45003, the first global standard for psychological health and wellbeing, published in June last year.
Stavroula got involved in standards development back in 2009 through the British Standards Institution when she was leading the Prima EF Project. She developed the first national standard on psychosocial risk management in the workplace (in the UK). Later on, together with Canadian experts who developed the Canadian national standard on psychological health and safety, Stavroula made a proposal to develop ISO45003, and then a global committee was created which included about 80 people from many different jurisdictions. Said committee covered the technical and practical aspects of the standard.
The process of creating a global standard for psychological health
Stavroula walks us through the process of creating a global standard, which involved numerous meetings with international representatives of each country on the ISO45003 working group before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
After agreeing on an outline of the standard and its different sections, the group had to discuss how the standard would work in practice for each country. Regarding this, Stavroula comments: “You need to start thinking about how your practices align with 45003 and down the line through the process of accreditation or certification of 45001, also focus on this aspect more.
How can small organisations align themselves to ISO45003
There has been a wide debate over how smaller companies can make the best use of ISO standards, since most studies on ISO45001 focus on large organisations. Stavroula says that on the ISO website there is specific guidance aimed at the implementation of ISO 45001 for smaller companies.
Stavroula’s team’s initial idea was to create something similar to what the Canadian standard had done with their first national auditable standard on psychological safety in the workplace, which had annexes that provide specific guidance on how to implement that standard in smaller organisations. However, at the moment, that was not possible, so those companies will have to depend on the guides published on the ISO website.
What countries are more successful implementing ISO standards?
Stavroula makes a fair point by stating that organisations that have a tradition of adopting ISO standards are mostly based in countries where there is a long history and awareness of safety standards in the workplace, such as the countries in the European Union.
“They need support to implement the right types of interventions to address these issues. And I think we'll see, again and again, the need for support, and that is in Ireland as well. This is why our tools have been developed”, adds Stavroula.
She also comments that, at the moment, the priority would be to forecast emerging risks and put in place preventive measures. However, more work is needed in this area as well as further sharing of good practices across countries.
How to encourage participation in health and wellbeing practices among employees
One of the most common questions from wellness leaders is how can they encourage employees who need wellbeing interventions the most to actively engage in those activities.
"Sometimes it's hard to reach the people who need the intervention. That usually is because they have developed a certain level of cynicism or even burnout because of their experience of the organisation or simply fatigue in relation to different organisational initiatives", says Stavroula.
To promote this, she talks about the importance of involving key figures in the workplace in wellness interventions and also following through the process to the end, so the results would be more noticeable to employees, encouraging them to keep said practices inside and outside the workplace.
The future of work and virtual work according to Stavroula Leka
Brian and Stavroula discuss what the future of work will look like, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of remote work. In December 2021, Stavroula published a paper for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work where she spoke about the future of virtual work. You can take a look at it here.
The issue here is how we can use these technologies to give a voice to employees who need them. “There [on the paper] we address this issue. You have the gig economy workers who are, maybe, not covered sufficiently in different legislative frameworks, then there was the fact that we have no collective agreements or bargaining or a voice at least from these employees. And there is also a more diverse workforce that you have to look at and what are the needs and possibilities going forward”, she says.
Regarding the future of work, Stavroula says that the number one priority in this matter is the psychosocial work environment and mental health and the pandemic has only raised awareness of it, so we are hopeful to see a significant improvement in the wellbeing practices implemented from now on.
If you’d prefer to watch our conversation, you can view it on YouTube through this link.
If you liked this episode, you can also find Stavroula Leka on LinkedIn or you can also contact her via email Stavroula.Leka@ucc.ie
About Your Host
Brian Crooke is a wellbeing educator, speaker and adviser, empowering organisations to promote and sustain wellbeing within their workplaces.
He is the founder of The Work Well Institute and the Work Well Community and is Course Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin. He is the host of The Work Well Podcast.
If you’re looking to bring sustainable wellbeing to your workplace then check out The Work Well Institute’s flagship programme, Developing a Workplace Wellness Programme that Lasts.
In his spare time, Brian is bringing free resistance training to every county and community in Ireland through his parkHIIT social enterprise.
If you have any suggestions for future topics you'd like to hear on the show, email Brian directly, brian@workwellpodcast.com