Participation criteria

Any real-life examples of how work-related stress and psychosocial risks have been effectively managed may be entered. Entries should clearly show how good practice has been applied in the workplace (hypothetical examples will not be considered) and may include evidence of:

• a thorough assessment of psychosocial risks in the workplace, followed by practical activities aimed at preventing or reducing psychosocial risks, implemented with a participative approach;
• organisational actions aimed at reducing work-related stress, including primary (eliminating risks), secondary (protecting workers from the risks that cannot be eliminated) and tertiary (helping workers who suffer from stress and psychosocial problems) levels of intervention;
• organisational interventions focused on the role of top and middle managers in creating a good psychosocial work environment;
• the implementation of a holistic approach to occupational safety and health, including the assessment and management of psychosocial risks and mental health promotion in the workplace;
• the development and implementation of practical tools for the assessment and management of stress and psychosocial risks in the workplace.

Judges will be looking for evidence of:

• genuine and effective management of psychosocial risks and work-related stress;
• innovative interventions aimed at the workplace;
• the successful implementation of interventions;
• real and demonstrable improvements in safety and health;
• workforce diversity being taken into account;
• effective participation and involvement of the workforce and their representatives;
• the sustainability of the intervention over time;
• transferability to other workplaces (including those in other Member States and to small and medium-sized enterprises);
• timeliness (the intervention should be either recent or not widely publicised).

In addition, the intervention should meet, and ideally exceed, the relevant legislative requirements of the Member State in which it has been implemented. Interventions focused on the individual, such as training, should also demonstrate how they are a part of a wider approach to managing psychosocial risks at work.

Good practice examples should not have been developed solely for commercial gain. This relates to products, tools or services that are or could be marketed.

Good practice entries are welcomed from enterprises or organisations in EU Member States, candidate countries, potential candidate countries and the European Free Trade Association, including:

• individual enterprises;
• enterprises or organisations within the product, equipment or personnel supply chain;
• training providers and the education community;
• employer organisations, trade associations, trade unions and non-governmental organisations;
• regional or local occupational safety and health prevention services, insurance services and other intermediary organisations.
• official partners of the Healthy Workplaces Campaign.

The Good Practice Awards are coordinated at the national level by EU-OSHA’s network of focal points: www.healthy-workplaces.eu/fops. The network partner in your country will provide you with details on how to enter the competition.

Entries are first judged at the national level and national winners are then nominated to take part in the pan-European competition, which will select the overall winners.

If you are a multinational or pan-European organisation and an official partner of the Healthy Workplaces Campaign, you can directly apply to EU-OSHA.

Details of how to enter the Good Practice Awards at the European level can be obtained from gpa [at] healthy-workplaces [dot] eu

More information in the flyer Good Practice Award 2014-2015