Five Star Wellbeing Supplementary Audit

The Five Star Wellbeing Supplementary Audit process involves an in-depth examination of an organisation’s wellbeing policies, protocols and associated arrangements. It acknowledges the outcomes from relevant elements within the health and safety audit and carries over applicable element scoring into the wellbeing module. Completing the Five Star Occupational Health & Safety Audit followed by the Wellbeing Supplementary Audit provides a comprehensive review across the organisation’s health, safety and wellbeing structure and arrangements.

The score for the Five Star Occupational Health & Safety Audit is locked in. If improvements have been made to relevant areas within the three months, then information can be reviewed during the Wellbeing Supplementary Audit, but this will not affect scoring for the Five Star Occupational Health & Safety.

The audit focuses on the key aspects of an organisation’s wellbeing performance and offers a structured path for continual improvement towards best practice. Utilising relevant expertise, experience and acknowledging aspects of internationally recognised wellbeing performance models, British Safety Council has developed a unique Five Star Wellbeing Audit model that objectively evaluates wellbeing policies, protocols and arrangements against current best practice techniques. The audit model is reflective of the recognised PLAN – DO – CHECK – ACT management cycle.

The Five Star Wellbeing Supplementary Audit is undertaken using the following process of objective verification.

The auditor will review all aspects of the organisation’s wellbeing management processes and supportive arrangements against the requirements of the Five Star Wellbeing Audit specification. The auditor will also assess the effectiveness of implementation of these arrangements through observation of relevant agreed site(s) and sampling of operational activities.

During the audit process, management, staff, and relevant stakeholders will be interviewed (as agreed) informally and formally, to discuss aspects of wellbeing management performance relevant to their roles and responsibilities.

After the interviews, a consolidation and verification exercise will be undertaken to enable organisations to respond the auditor’s questions, queries and provide additional documentation if required.

A subsequent report is produced identifying the strengths and areas for improvement within the organisation’s wellbeing management arrangements, focusing on key outcomes, observations and recommendations for continual improvement.

The four sections of the audit (leadership, commitment and planning / implementation / performance monitoring / evaluation and continual improvement) are based upon the PDCA component elements and are also inclusive of the recognised five domains of wellbeing, namely:

• Health
• Good Work
• Values and Beliefs
• Relationships and Voice
• Personal Growth.

Each section is made up of a number of individual component elements relative to the overall theme of the section.

The recommendations arising from the audit against the criteria requirements of the Five Star Wellbeing Audit, are within the audit report in a prioritised tabular format for each section, based upon a straightforward three-level threshold (RAG system).

The report identifies the strengths and areas for improvement within the organisation’s health, safety and wellbeing management systems. The report also includes observations and recommendations, together with action planning, for consideration, together with a quantified (graded) outcome.

Upon completion of the audit process, a comprehensive report is prepared by the auditor and will be issued within twenty-eight (28) days. The report content will include (except for items fully covered in the Five Star Occupational Health & Safety Audit report):

• Executive summary - top-level summary of findings, providing an executive overview of strengths and areas for improvement moving forward)
• Observations - detailed auditor findings relevant to each section and elements within them
• Recommendations for improvement - auditor recommendations for consideration within each section and elements within them
• Action planning tables - recommendation tables for each section which can be used for structured improvement planning or incorporated into an organisation’s own overall planning format.

Optional further support is available in relation to the development and implementation of individual recommendations or the overall improvement plan.

Completing the Five Star Occupational Health & Safety Audit followed by the Wellbeing Supplementary Audit provides a comprehensive review across the organisation’s health, safety and wellbeing structure and arrangements.

The Five Star Occupational Health & Safety Audit provides an in-depth review of an organisation’s health and safety performance against recognised standards and best practice techniques. The audit specification includes relevant general aspects of wellbeing management and arrangements as they are considered integral within a best-practice health and safety management system and safe working environment. Achieving a Five Star outcome from the audit process provides eligibility to the Sword of Honour award scheme. 

The Five Star Supplementary Wellbeing Audit provides organisations, that whilst historically may have focused primarily on health and safety management, now wish to start to focus on wellbeing. It is becoming increasingly recognised that poor employee wellbeing not only results directly in increased costs to an organisation, through increased working days lost, having a less engaged and therefore a less productive workforce, and having increased levels of presenteeism, but also increases the risk of accident or injury. The business benefits of implementing wellbeing programmes are also becoming clearer. Deloitte’s research suggests an average Return on Investment (ROI) of 4:1 from such programmes and Anglian Water recently reported an ROI of 8:1 from their wellbeing programme. The issue of employee wellbeing has quickly moved from being an internal HR function to a priority issue for top management within organisations.

The Five Star Wellbeing Supplementary Audit offers organisations an independent benchmark analysis of their current status relating to wellbeing management and associated arrangements. The audit will provide a structured route toward best practice in this aspect of management and will enable an organisation to prioritise resources accordingly.

The Wellbeing audit outcome, which includes applicable elements from the Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit, may provide eligibility to the Shield of Honour award scheme if a Five Star outcome is achieved.

The audit outcome will also provide stakeholders (both internal and external) with confirmation of the organisation’s commitment toward employee wellbeing and business improvement overall.

Newly introduced in 2023, the Shield of Honour award recognises organisations that demonstrate outstanding commitment to workplace wellbeing.

To be eligible, applicants must achieve a five-star rating in one of the following:

• Five Star Wellbeing Audit

• Five Star Wellbeing Supplementary Audit

Achieving five stars is just the beginning. Like the Sword and Globe of Honour awards, successful Shield applicants must show—through assessment by an independent adjudication panel—a sustained culture of wellbeing excellence that extends from the shop floor to the boardroom.

Workplace Wellbeing Supporters can apply free of charge for the Shield of Honour.

👉 Find out more about the Shield of Honour award

Our audit and consultancy services are internationally recognised and are the best way to ensure your wellbeing systems (and associated arrangements) are suitable for your business requirements, promote continual improvement and are effectively implemented.

As part of our own quality control processes, we ensure: