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| Over the past two decades changes have been occuring in how business value their investments - and one of their greatest investments is their staff! |
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Well read on&&..
WHAT IS “WORKFIT” - BETTER BUSINESS HEALTH?
“Workfit – Better Business Health” is a programme designed to create a supportive environment for health at your workplace. Workfit is funded by the Hawke’s Bay DHB. Caroline Uttley, the Workfit Coordinator works out of the Sport Hawke’s Bay office. The Coordinator can work with you, AT NO COST, to help you and your staff develop a workplace wellness programme.
Workfit takes a holistic view of ‘health. The Workfit programme recognises there are many aspects to good health such as:
Being more physically active
- Smoking cessation
- Eating a health diet
- Managing weight
- Drug and alcohol awareness
- Stress management
- Personal health care and
- Workplace injury prevention
Workplace health promotion programmes have been shown to be a good return on investment through increased productivity and profitability, as well as reduced absenteeism and presenteeism.
Improved health also impacts on a workplace by reducing accidents, and therefore expenses such as ACC and staff cover for sickness/accident leave. Workplace health Programmes, similar to Workfit have been shown to also be very valuable in terms of attracting and retaining high-calibre employees.
In summary, how do Workplace Wellness schemes benefit the employer?
Reduced Increased
Absenteeism Productivity
Workplace injury/accidents Workplace morale
Staff turnover Communication
ACC & disability costs Team building
Stress & related illnesses Customer care
Recovery time from illness Motivation
There are also non–economic benefits that impact on productivity such as:
Physical strength and flexibility Stamina and resilience
Interpersonal skills Decision-making quality
Time utilisation and planning Positive attitude and outlook
Presenteeism Job satisfaction level
Company loyalty Recruitment and retention
The Workfit coordinator will work with your organisation to identify the priority health issues for your workforce, and to create an action plan to address these. Interventions to deliver to the employees will be suggested by the Workfit Coordinator (these may be services, policy development, advice/talks, etc). Then the organisation will be linked with programmes and providers. These may be provided by both public agencies and private providers. Some will be free and some will have a charge attached.
These interventions have been categorised into seven kete, though some interventions will cover more than one area. These kete are underpinned by the workplace environment, which needs to be one that is safe, and that supports employees to make the healthy choice. Again the coordinator can help suggest changes in the environment.
HOW WOULD “WORKFIT” WORK IN YOUR WORKPLACE?
As with other workplace initiatives, buy in from senior management, staff and unions is critical to effectively implementing a workplace wellness programme. There is a best practise process that the Workfit Team wish to work through, to maximise the success rate, and to see the programme becoming sustainable.
Step 1:
Seek Senior Management buy in and support.
Step 2:
Set-up a team who will drive the programme internally. Should include representatives from different areas of staff if possible, including management, union, and ‘the real worker’ (for want of a better term).
Step 3:
Conduct an “environmental scan”, and a “staff needs and interests’ survey” to gauge what is already available, staff needs and preferences plus any areas of concern. In addition base data can be collected assessing current absenteeism, turnover, and injury figures, to show improvements over time.
Step 4:
Workfit coordinator puts together an action plan (what are the risks, how will they be dealt with and measured) depending on the results of the data collection. This is shared with the onsite Workfit team for their input.
Step 5:
In parallel with step 4, agree on the appropriate set of interventions.
Step 6:
Coordinator can work with Management to assist with creating supportive environments for a healthy workplace. Creating Nutrition policies for the cafeteria, and providing posters to promote stair use instead of lifts are a couple of simple examples.
Step 7:
Critical to communicate the programmes’ aims and options to staff. For example, a memo from the CEO, notice boards, intranet, induction programmes and regular reviews. Even though this is depicted as step 7, this really begins at step 3. Regular communication and encouragement is a key to sustainability.
Step 8:
Evaluate up-take by staff and management, results both intangible and tangible, and assess absenteeism and injury figures again after agreed upon time (3, 6, or 12 months). Change and modify the programme accordingly.
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Healthier employees tend to be happier, more motivated and more focused |
NEED MORE CONVINCING?
What Do We Know About Workplace Wellness?
Firstly, we accept that most of us spend more time at work than at home with whanau and friends. Therefore it would be preferable to create a ‘quality culture’ and work environment that supports individuals’ health & productivity.
The issues&
We also know that lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, smoking-induced disease, and even some cancers are largely preventable. Lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, smoking, stress and fatigue all have negative impacts on worker health.
Stress is prevalent in today's fast paced work culture. Unaddressed stress can lead to errors at work, injury, fatigue, illness and disease.
Other than injury or illness, there are other reasons people may be absent from work; problems at home, bullying at work, the need to care for a sick family member, mental fatigue, or burnout for example.
Loss of work time due to health reasons can also put a strain on remaining staff or resources, often creating heavier workloads, emotional strain, delays and disruptions, as well as the loss of corporate knowledge and continuity.
In addition, the working population is ageing, emigration figures are high, and there is a very tight labour market at the moment.
Some numbers&
- Over half of New Zealanders are overweight or obese, and 1 in 4 over 15 years old smoke
- Chronic Disease is almost at epidemic proportions, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity, cancers, osteoporosis, diabetes, depression, often resulting in premature death
- Every 90 minutes a New Zealander dies from a heart attack (17 deaths a day)
- More than 14% of people regularly use marijuana, with the likes of P and party pills becoming more and more prevalent
- Alcohol costs workplaces approximately $1.17 billion/yr in lost productivity
- The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of health impairment worldwide
At what price to the workplace...?
- In NZ, injury, illness and absenteeism cost business big money: ~$940m on absences from work, plus $395m on ACC, $240m on private health care schemes, and $140m on other health care measures.
- Between 3 & 5% of the workforce may be away from work through illness on any one day meaning costs to the employer, plus a further 25% may be performing sub-optimally while at work because of physical or mental strain (presenteeism3). Costs for the latter will be significantly higher than those for the absent workers – yet are rarely the subject of management scrutiny or action
The following businesses are showing a commitment to the health and wellbeing of their employees by registering as a Workfit Business.
So for more information, or to arrange a meeting, get in touch with:
Caroline Uttley
Active Living Coordinator – Workfit
Sport Hawke’s Bay
06 845 9336 x 775
0274 111 324
carolineu@sporthb.net.nz
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