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 Workplace Health: The Next Generation Vol 1 Issue 1 - Sept 2005 By Erin Quinn
Workplace health has grown to become the top concern of many Canadian companies. Everyone from corporate directors and senior management to front-line supervisors and employees are looking for answers on what can be done to create and sustain a healthy workplace. "Soaring employer health costs are a major issue facing today's employers," stated Deborah Jones, president of Well-Advised Consulting and chair of the 2005 Health, Work and Wellness Conference. "The Canadian Mental Health Association reports that depression alone is estimated to cost Canadian employers $30 billion in lost productivity, and amounts to up to 17% of all disability claims. Unmanaged, this can add up to 40 work days lost for a single case." The simple truth is that when employees "feel good", they are more energetic, creative, innovative and productive qualities that are essential to an organization's competitive advantage. The key for organizations then becomes how to create this healthy environment for employees. The mistake that many companies make is taking a "program approach" to workplace health instead of focusing on the fundamentals, like workplace culture. For example, implementing a stress management program might seem easier and less expensive than conducting a culture audit and going through a process to improve the company's culture. However, if the work environment has a toxic culture, the program will have little impact when the employees return to work. Jones explained, "Creating a healthy organization involves first understanding the culture of the organization and creating an environment built on trust and respect, where recognition, flexibility, control, good communication, purpose and balance are valued. When organizational health is approached from a cultural perspective rather than a program approach, there is a much greater likelihood of affecting all aspects of employee well-being mental, physical, spiritual, emotional and social." Addressing wellness at a strategic level is a key focus of the 2005 Health, Work and Wellness Conference in Montreal, October 20-22. The theme of this year's event, Health, Work and Wellness: The Next Generation, specifically covers what it takes to drive workplace health organizationally and nationally to make it a mainstream part of the strategic vision of Canadian companies. "The conference will focus on moving beyond the status quo to the Next Generation of organizational health. To achieve this, the roles played by each stakeholder within the workplace human resources, organizational development, upper management, middle management and every individual employee will be explored," reported Jones. Creating a Healthy Workplace A growing body of companies are taking to heart Jones' message that "a clearly defined purpose or mission that leaves no mistake as to the importance of employee well-being and how valued employees are to the organization is a starting point in creating a healthier culture". For example, the corporate vision at Merck & Company, a global pharmaceutical firm, states, "We are in the business of preserving and improving human life. All of our actions must be measured by our success in achieving this goal." This clearly identifies the company and senior management's belief that all decisions need to be made in line with the goal of workplace wellness, as opposed to companies that pay lip service to something like work/life balance, all the while promoting people who work 14 hours a day. Merck & Company's clear vision and the culture they have created have contributed to their inclusion as a "visionary company" in a six-year research study out of Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Based on the study findings, researchers concluded companies that truly value employees see a tremendous pay-back in terms of profitability. Closing the effort/reward gap is another way to improve your workplace culture. "This means making sure that employees are recognized and rewarded appropriately for the effort that they put in. And the best way to make sure this happens is to simply ask employees what would make them feel recognized. You'd be surprised at the answers. Many will be as simple as saying 'thank you'," said Jones. Creating a culture of high control is also important in improving employee and organizational well-being. In reviewing dozens of studies on the subject, Dr. Martin Shain, senior scientist at Torontošs Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, concluded that work environments of high demand/low control coupled with high effort/low reward have significantly higher health problems. When compared with workplaces that did not face these situations, the low control/low reward workplaces showed some startling results, most notably that the amount of back problems was tripled, there was twice as much substance abuse and even a greater amount of certain types of cancer. How do you foster more control in your workplace? In a report published by Dr. Linda Duxbury and Dr. Chris Higgens, the authors provided insights into steps companies can take. These include:
The Next Generation One of the biggest issues facing most employers today is the ability to attract and retain employees amidst the forecasted labour shortage. According to Statistics Canada, 225,000 Canadians retired in each of the past five years, and an estimated 320,000 will retire annually over the next five. Couple this with less people entering the workforce (in 1950, 46.7% of the workforce was under 25; in 2026, only 25% will be in this age category), and we will be in an employee's market for the first time in decades. While many organizations may not see this as a wellness issue, Jones believes creating a healthier culture is the best solution to the problem. "Integrating workplace wellness into an organization's vision and overall strategy is essential in terms of creating the type of culture that will attract and retain energetic, talented people," she suggested. Some important questions companies need to address include:
For further information on the Health, Work and Wellness Conference, visit www.healthworkandwellness.com. |
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Š 2005-2007 by Corporate Training Magazine Inc.
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