Interview: Professor Dame Carol Black

In this exclusive interview, IOSH magazine’s former editor Nick Warburton speaks to Professor Dame Carol Black about the importance of giving occupational health a strategic leadership role after it provided an invaluable service supporting business and organisational operations during the pandemic.

In March, Professor Dame Carol Black, author of the landmark report, Working for a healthier tomorrow: work and health in Britain, spoke at the annual Health and Wellbeing at Work conference in Birmingham. 

The former adviser to Public Health England argued passionately that occupational health should have a permanent seat at the top table of strategic decision-making, having demonstrated its critical, leadership role during the UK’s most challenging period in recent history – the nation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

‘When the pandemic came, many organisations found that they either didn’t have sufficient occupational health or sufficient high-quality occupational health,’ she told IOSH magazine. 

‘They needed an assessment of risk for their healthcare staff and this is something that occupational health professionals can do very well.’

The pandemic presented health risks to all staff but certain groups – those with chronic health conditions – were particularly vulnerable. This meant relying on occupational health to identify how the different risks could be reduced. The service also had a vital role in communicating risk controls effectively. 

‘Employees don’t want to be treated as all the same any longer. The pandemic has shown that individuals have individual needs in their working and personal lives'

The additional stress and trauma that the pandemic brought also required sensitive handling and here again occupational health excelled in its support of the workforce, most notably in extending its classical role to include mental health and advice.

For people on the frontline in particular, it was essential that they felt safe and supported so they could deal with difficult situations as they arose, says Dame Carol.

‘It was also important that occupational health supported workers in their need for employers to be flexible – you need to give frontline workers the time, support and flexibility to do their job well and also to recover.’

Occupational health also demonstrated its importance in supporting staff who were asked to work from home. 

‘Suddenly, are you working from your bed, your kitchen table? Do you really have the proper equipment to work at home? Did people become less physically active? There needed to be proper advice on how you do home working,’ she argues. 

‘Also, what is work and what is home? Are you really switching off? The fact that we have all become more digitally-enabled and people need equipment; it can be quite stressful if you are a worker who doesn’t have what you need to work well from home.’

Dame Carol points out that occupational health isn’t invited to the top table very often but there are some good examples out there such as BP where the chief medical officer acts as the interface between the employer and employee and understand the business imperative. This is what the occupational health professional needs to grasp if they are to step up into a strategic role.

‘If occupational health can understand that they are there as much to enable the business to flourish and be as productive as they are to assess risk, they have a much better chance to be at the top table because that is what the board is going to be interested in.’

Looking to the near future, she warns there is a potential risk that, as the pandemic subsides, some will push for a return to past working models. She argues that if such a move is mooted, occupational health professionals need to stand their ground.

‘They’ve probably got to learn to be more assertive than they were before,’ she says. ‘They have shown how important and valuable they can be. You would hope the professional bodies would support them to do this but that does require enabling people in occupational health to have the skills that are needed, the leadership skills, and that might require some training.’

As the nation does, slowly, start to return to a sense of normality, Dame Carol feels that we must be prepared for emerging health risks, top of the list being mental health. 

Health and wellbeing have definitely risen up the agenda in recent years and the pandemic has only underlined this further. 

‘CEOs and boards now know that the health and wellbeing of their workforce is important,’ she says. ‘It is being shown to them very vividly how important it is.

'As the nation does, slowly, start to return to a sense of normality, Dame Carol feels that we must be prepared for emerging health risks, top of the list being mental health'

‘For so many people, the pandemic made them really think about their lives. What did they want from their life? Were they in the right place? Were they in the right job? Did they want change? It made them realise the fragility of life.’

What the pandemic has definitely done is create uncertainty, which has had a significant knock-on effect on people’s levels of anxiety. This has also contributed to what many experts refer to as the ‘great resignation’. 

Dame Carol, however, believes that as far as the labour force is concerned, we are going to have to live with uncertainty for some time as people grapple with the post-pandemic world and what they want for themselves and their families. 

‘They have the knowledge that perhaps they do have a bit more bargaining power now and that is important,’ she says.

The pandemic has also highlighted poor health and placed additional responsibilities on employers who need to be more responsive to a wider range of employee needs than ever before. 

‘Our leaders have got to learn how to lead in uncertainty,’ she argues. ‘For many middle managers, they need support and help to really be up-skilled in a much more personalised way with the people they manage. 

‘Employees don’t want to be treated as all the same any longer. The pandemic has shown that individuals have individual needs in their working and personal lives. That puts a bigger responsibility on managers who have got to spend more time understanding the individual needs of their team members.’

It is also clear that the way we all work has changed fundamentally as a result of the pandemic. Hybrid working has become the norm for many employees but even this pattern of work will require flexibility because individual demands will necessitate a more individualised approach. 

Dame Carol concludes, ‘Do we have to rethink what occupational health will need to look like in five years’ time?’

To hear the full interview with Professor Dame Carol Black, listen to our podcast episode here.