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Creating a healthy workplace
Savvy administrators have long concluded that an emotionally and physically fit employee is a productive employee but in the past the onus to remain healthy was firmly on the worker. As modern competitive demands accelerate and technology empowers us to do more in less time, coupled with spare time pressures, even the most resolute individual can be overwhelmed. And, more often than not, is.
Witness a recent Ipsos-Reid study. Among the findings is that the main contributors to employee absenteeism are depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders, stress and negative relationships with bosses and colleagues.
The impact of work-imposed maladies certainly isn’t lost on the accounting and human resource departments. Costs related to unwell, unhappy and absent staff are astronomical.
Many employer benefit programs provide assistance for staff members looking to address these issues, with confidential counselling and support available in individual or group environments that help workers deal with the personal aspects of their malais. As well, more progressive companies are creating a culture of wellness in the workplace by bringing experts into the office to guide employees toward better health, and ultimately, greater productivity.
As such, many businesses are turning to workplace wellness programs. Private consultants will arrive, assess, appraise, audit and administer a plan, much like a personal trainer with an audience.
In York, enterprises can engage the same brand of expertise from a team of professionals, public health nurses, nutritionists, health educators, dental professionals and public health
inspectors. Waiting in the wings, as needed, are experts in chronic disease, injury and substance abuse prevention, diet, parenting and more. There’s also a library’s worth of resources along with workshops and ongoing consultation.
There is one caveat — you’ll have to suspend your belief in the dictum that suggests free advice is worth what you paid for it because, well, it’s free.
Funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Regional Municipality of York, the York Region Workplace Wellness Program has been around since 1997. Established to ensure local businesses are able to access a variety of public health programs and services, the organization provides consultative services on starting, implementing and sustaining a workplace wellness program.
The sum of the parts that follow would seem greater than the whole after listening to the offerings listed by program team member and public health nurse Mona Hughes.
The first step, she advised, is for one of the program professionals to meet with the organization and developing a needs assessment.
“A company will look at human resource data, things like what prescriptions are claimed, workplace issues and absenteeism,” she says. “One of the key issues is to make sure that the company is prepared to do something about those things they want to do. If the issue, for example, is day care and they know it’s not feasible, don’t include it.”
The assessment should focus on existing company data, issues and the interests of employees. It can also include an optional health risk appraisal. This snapshot appraisal determines the eating habits of staff and identifies who smokes and exercises.
The process, she says, is exceedingly client-centred and highly confidential.
Once assessment is complete, the program consultant reviews the findings and assists in prescribing the programs best suited to meet the company’s wellness objectives.
A comprehensive workplace wellness program has four strategic components, Ms Hughes says.
The first is to increase and sustain awareness for the company’s specific programs. Promotional items and ideas, such as displays, payroll stuffers and newsletters are provided.
Skill building among the company’s constituents is step two. Participants are taught healthy measures, including food label reading, healthy eating and appropriate choices. The idea is to create a positive nutritional environment, such as offering healthier
cafeteria and vending machine items.
Health policy and guideline development, and support towards maintaining the wellness environment and culture rounds out the program.
There’s a plethora of program choices. These include stress management training and healthy active living, which promotes physical activity for the prevention of chronic diseases. The Sunsense program offers education on skin cancer prevention, and the shift work program provides resources and strategies that promotes the health of off-hour staff.
Other resources and services centre on workplace elements such as dental health, indoor air quality, safe food handling and tobacco free living. Integral to the success of corporate wellness programs is management’s buy-in, Ms Hughes says.
“It’s important that management models the behavior and supports the culture,” she says.
“If you want to make an impact, management has to walk the walk and talk the talk.
“There’s also limited benefit if no strategic plan is in place. Everyone needs a clear idea of the goals and the indicators of success.”
Ms Hughes cautions companies shouldn’t expect workplace wellness personnel to run the show. Culpability and ownership are the client’s.
“Our goal is to work with the company,” she explains. “It’s the give-a-man-a-fish or teach-the-man-how-to-fish concept. We want to empower the company to run it on their own. They can always access our advice
and programs.”
For information, call Health Connection, 1-800-361-5653, or visit on-line, www.york.ca.