With a philosophy of helping to maximise workforce productivity through the empowerment of employees to be healthier and avoid injuries, Bodycare Workplace Solutions is also improving the bottom line of its partners while promoting an enhanced culture and staff engagement.
The trans-Tasman based occupational health specialist also brings a collaborative presence in its work with mining companies and their pre-employment processes.
The Australian Mining Review spoke to Head of Strategic Partnerships Rodney Hampel, about Bodycare Workplace Solutions and how it looks to injury-proof a business by providing them with the right information and tools which are easily accessible to clients.
Transforming the industry
“How we collect health data is going to continue to transform and mould how the industry works moving forward. It is very exciting and something that we are proud to be involved in,” Rodney said.
“One of the things that Bodycare does, is that we take a close look at how we can continue to improve the pre-employment or medical assessment process, whether that be by using technology or by using experienced and competent health professionals to conduct assessments, etc.
“Through the use of our technology, our clients are able to better manage their pre-employment process, their coal board medicals, their commercial driver medicals and all their other legislative medicals. That, in addition to the expert health professionals that we employ, really sets us and our client’s business up for success.
Getting it right
Rodney went on to say that when we are dealing with people’s health, it is important that we get it right. With medicals of this nature, any mistake can come with some severe consequences.
When solely managed in house, the whole process can become confusing and complicated to manage, which is why companies are looking to outsource and use experts to assist with making complex decisions about employee’s and their health risks.
“We believe in building the right networks in the right areas in order to make the programme both relationship friendly and valued,” Rodney said.
State-of-the-art technology
Rodney says one way that Bodycare Workplace Solutions can help both its clients and their future or current employees, is by having a state-of-the-art technology system which both the employer and employee can access.
“Imagine the day where a candidate has access to their own health data, allowing them to skip to the front of the queue at a pre-employment assessment, purely because they already have the information there,” he said.
“Not only will that save the employee time, it will also save the employer quite a lot of money. With our technology, that’s something that is quickly becoming a reality.
“We know medicals have existed and will continue to exist for as long as we employ humans to do things, so why not take advantage of any information that is already available.”
More efficient pre-employment processes
Rodney said Bodycare is always taking a close look at how it can make that process even more efficient.
“I love the fact that Bodycare is at a stage where the work we are doing is able to impact organisations on a strategic level,” he said.
“Traditionally, pre-employment assessments were boxes that were ticked by a company who wanted to test if a person was physically or medically healthy. These assessments were typically generic in the way they were conducted.
“A lot of the time it was relatively basic. All a candidate had to do was see if they could pass an eye test or do a squat and cough properly.
“From there, the candidate received their tick and they were ready to go through to the next stage.
“One of the things we recognised was that a majority of the challenges our clients were encountering with new employees, was not so much that they weren’t medically fit, but they were not functionally fit for the inherent requirements of the role.”
Tailored pre-employment assessments
What Bodycare found was that there was a need for building and tailoring pre-employment health assessments to include functional capacity testing, Rodney added.
“For example, if a candidate had a past history of a shoulder injury, we would then tailor the assessment to include a more rigorous shoulder test, which would assess whether that candidate would be able to complete the task or role. By doing this, we have been able to ensure that completing the task wouldn’t then aggravate the candidate’s pre-existing health problem,” he said.
“It’s information like this that we thoroughly investigate and evaluate against what we call the inherent requirements of the job. This is done to ascertain whether a potential employee can in fact do their job safely, while ensuring we mitigate any future risks that might present down the track.
Rodney believes the potential is there to create something powerful through the creation of a harmonious relationship between his company, employers, and employees.
“It is a relationship built with trust where everybody is looking to try and create value together,” Rodney said.
“We have clients where the relationship works beautifully, where there is that constant back and forth, and we are constantly working together, tweaking the medical so that they can get the best kind of value on a regular basis.”
Trans-Tasman service
Rodney said Bodycare Workplace Solutions is well placed to service the mining industry in Australia and New Zealand.
“We have a large clinical network across Australia and New Zealand who all utilise our technology platform, so if a client in a mining company requires a pre-employment assessment, we’re able to send their candidate to one of our nearby clinics to complete the assessment,” he said.
“There is a great standardisation there. We are processing the same type of medical, no matter which clinic the candidate attends, which is conducted using the same online platform which we’ve built in accordance with the client’s needs.
“From there, our medical team screen and review the report put together by the clinician prior to it being sent on to the client.”
Rodney said in a rapidly changing marketplace, employers now need to have a way of being competitive in their skill hire.
“It is a competitive market these days. It is important for us to be able to help candidates move through the pre-employment process quickly so that the client’s hiring team can get potential employees driving trucks and delivering product or on site to assist in the role they are being hired to do,” he said.
“The sooner you move through that process, the better for your company.
“Now, equally as important as the fast turnaround between pre-employments, is the need for a positive candidate experience.
“It is only in the last couple of years that the candidate experience has been looked at and we now understand just how important that is. It really is something that the market has been begging for.
“Let’s say I’m the candidate, I might have a choice of location and client A, or another choice of location and client B.
“Now if I go through a medical which takes two weeks, where the clinician undertaking the assessment barely looks up from the form they’re filling in, it really isn’t going to be the best experience for the candidate. And that’s not the kind of service that we want to provide.
“We prefer a system where the pre-employment process is quick, seamless and the candidate is kept up to date and communicated to via text message every step of the way.
“With our technology we’re also able to track where the candidate is situated along the pre-employment process – right from the moment the assessment is requested, to the moment they walk out of the clinic, through to the moment they are informed of the recruitment decision.”
Tracking information
Rodney said, being able to offer clients tracking information of this nature in the pre-employment space, truly is a game changer.
According to Rodney, client relationships are also changing.
“Historically, a pre-employment was pretty much a transactional service.
“Whereas now we see it as it as more of a partnership where we are providing our clients with the Occupational Health and Medical Service relationship they need,” he said.
“So, not only are we helping clients decide or design the right kind of medicals that are suitable for their roles and risk profiles, but we are also ensuring that they can send a certain message out to the public, or the wider working community, about their culture.
“What we are big on at Bodycare, is being able to provide educational tools to our clients, beyond just the medical means.
“Through the use of this education and tools, clients are conveying that they are not only an employer of choice for the pre-employment candidates, but that they are an ongoing employer of choice”.
Rodney said he believes the mining sector has become very good at managing the health of their employees.
“I think what we are doing is arming clients with faster access to quality health information. Our part and our role in the marketplace is to be the supplier of that information,” he said.
According to Rodney, proactive companies are now transitioning to the “new modern”.
“They are reacting to what’s coming down the pipeline versus how can we do this differently
“What we are trying to do in the marketplace is to be that catalyst – to help accelerate these companies down that path.”
Helping clients big and small
This can also relate to the smaller service and supply businesses that are vital to the mining giants.
“Our technology can really assist smaller companies who undertake even the small contract jobs, on site and off site, for the mining sector,” Rodney said.
“Let’s say one of those smaller companies wants to employ a pipe fitter who was recently employed to do a job with a major mining company.
“The information gathered in the original pre-employment assessment would then be able to be used by that smaller company, eliminating the need to have to do the whole assessment again.
“We’ve got all the data from last time, so maybe the only thing which needs to be updated is perhaps a drug test or a hearing test.
“We are trying to find ways that can make their business’ health assessment programmes more commercially viable because companies can spend millions of dollars on medicals every year.
“Just as importantly, we are all about creating efficiencies. If all you are doing as a company is farming medicals out to the nearest doctor, or the nearest clinic, and there is no process involved, then you can’t really keep track of where you can create some substantial improvements.
“For us, helping to create those better efficiencies and results is a lot of fun. We get a lot of fulfilment out of knowing that we are actually helping to impact these organisations and helping them run more efficiently.
“For our part we firmly believe good relationships are driven through being active listeners to our clients and through encouraging the client to think differently by asking the right questions. This puts us in a better position to respond to their needs.
“That is also the bit that makes it exciting for us. To actually hear their requirements, implement a solution to fit their needs and then to see the fruits of that outcome be a really positive one for them is very rewarding.”
Source
Bodycare Workplace Solutions
P 1300 222 639
E [email protected]
W www.bodycare.com.au
