Purpose
An anonymous, interactive and freely accessible digital self-service tool designed to help staff understand how their health interacts with role demands, working environments and styles of work. Supporting people to make earlier best fit career decisions, this tool can help partners improve system retention, reduce sickness absence and increase long-term attendance at work.
Key aims:
- Enable staff to reflect on health needs and identify best fit roles.
- Prevent avoidable sickness and workforce exit.
- Provide anonymous, self-service space for reflection, without requiring referral.
- Support education partners, health & care organisation and employment support teams to have early, holistic, supportive conversations around health and career changers.
Strategic Drivers
- Workforce Retention & Recovery: Rising MH, MSK and neurodiversity related sickness and turnover. Related sickness impacts retention.
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion: Tackles inequitable career barriers by providing anonymous, self-service support for students, job seekers and the workforce.
- Digital Transformation: Embeds health and career reflection into the established platform, Career Compass.
- Leeds Health & Care Workforce Strategy: Supports a healthy, adaptable and proactive workforce through embedding personal responsibility and support for career decisions.
Approach
- Health and career framework: Co-produced framework with partners to identify key career factors affected by different areas of health.
- Self-assessment: Covering readiness for change, health areas affecting work and specific challenges and strengths.
- Signposting: Career information and support via Career Compass, guidance on career changes and health signposting.
- Reflection: Supporting users to reflect on what’s important to them and identify appropriate support to take their next steps.
- Embedded: In partners support to staff – in occupational health, HR, wellbeing support, in careers support through employment support services and in universities and colleges through tutors and careers services.
Focus
- Early Prevention: Proactively identify best-fit career options to minimise sickness.
- Empowering: Accessible, free and anonymous tool supporting informed decisions without referral.
- Reducing Inequality: Tool focused on health areas with greatest impact on our workforce, including those managing multiple health issues and/or neurodivergence.
Academy Role
- Accelerate Progress: Drive rapid development, testing, and rollout of the digital tool within Career Compass.
- Connector: Bring together Occupational Health, HR, Thrive at Work Hub, digital teams, and staff networks to co‑design workable solutions.
- Catalyst: Use tool insights to highlight retention risks and explore support where needs are emerging.
- Partnering: Work with system partners to embed the tool in careers, health and redeployment support.
- Innovating: Test and embed a new model of career exploration, to understand application across wider factors affecting work. Informed career navigation that enhances digital self-service and early intervention.
Expected Impact (Healthy Leeds Plan Alignment)
- Improved Retention: Students and staff identify good fit roles earlier in their career, leading to reduced exists from the sector, ill health retirement and turnover.
- Reduced Sickness Absence: Students and staff identify good fit roles, reducing sickness absence.
- Healthier, More Resilient Workforce: Improved insights into personal health and work needs, confidence to identify and make changes, confidence to seek help and support.
- Greater Equity: Tackles health inequalities, discrimination, and barriers faced by neurodivergent and marginalised staff.
- Better Health–Role Fit: Safer working, improved experience, and better patient care.