Brisbane and Gold Coast Corporate Health and Employee Wellness

We all have internal alarm systems that ring at varying degrees of loudness depending on our needs at the time. At work however, because of group or peer pressure, company norms, fear of judgment or lack of advancement, we can ignore our internal alarms that tell us when to stop. This article by Arthur Rosenfeld speaks about how being forced or encouraged to conform can damage our health.

The October 9 issue of The Week reports that during this month’s gigantic celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, more than 1000 Chinese soldiers sought mental health counseling after drilling for the event. http://www.theweek.com/article/index/101110/The_world_at_a_glance____International

Why? Because the training sessions required microscopic levels of coordination between the soldiers (limited blinking, holding their rifles at precisely the same level etc.) for a satisfying visual effect.

Readers may remember the same sort of painstaking choreography during the opening ceremonies of last year’s Beijing Olympic games, especially during the martial arts segment, when thousands of practitioners in flowing robes moved in unison across the world’s stage to demonstrate tai chi, the crown jewel of Chinese martial arts and culture.

Supporters of communist ideology may lionize the subjugation of the individual to the greater good (usually, unfortunately, for the benefit of the ruling few) but it turns out that such a high level of conformity in public performances isn’t very good for one’s health. In addition to the physical rigors of simultaneously monitoring one’s one movements, the mental effort of trying to maintain awareness of what everyone else is doing–at least at the level required of the soldiers in the anniversary celebration–can be a source of debilitating stress.

Every dancer or performer knows this kind of work has its challenges, and every soldier knows the far worse consequences combat can bring, but marrying this kind of external focus to the practice of tai chi flies in the face of the very purpose of the art, which is to bring our focus inward. Tai chi practice is a laboratory for the exploration of our internal world, a place where we can test the relationship between mind and body in the context of exercises that follow the Daoist principles underlying the art. We know these principles as “don’t meet force with force” and “go with the flow,” but a principle that is lesser known, despite tai chi’s much vaunted balance benefits, is the notion of keeping one’s wuji, or personal equilibrium.

As our world grows speedier, greedier and more crowded, the pressure to conform increases. Wittingly or not, intentionally or not, each and every one of us is caught up in a web of external circumstances. We look around for cues for everything from what to eat and how to dress to what opinions to hold and how to prioritize our lives. Some of this learning is constructive, but much of it is not, primarily because the external noise of conformity drowns out the voice of our own intuition – the subconscious guide to our own true north.

For many of us, simply going to work can be stressful enough if the environment isn’t understanding or sympathetic to our needs. Add that to pressure to conform with company standards and we have many, many potentially damaging effects on employee health and wellness and workplace health.

Here Ellen Galinsky speaks of other ways of interpreting and defining employee wellness – expanding our definitions. Wellness really is a whole person concern – work life plus life plus everything outside of work added all together create and destroy wellness. Ellen adds some practical ideas on how employers can promote wellness at work by looking at communication and team work too.

Raizel Robin’s article continues…

As the evidence mounts in support of wellness programs, they will become more a social movement than a trend, say industry watchers. Martin Rutte is author of Chicken Soup for the Soul At Work, a 1998 book that has sold more than a million copies and made him a popular lecturer on the North American wellness circuit. “Twenty years ago, the only thing I could talk to you about in the workplace was the financial health of the company and maybe my career,” says the Canadian writer, now based in Santa Fe, N.M. Today, the workplace is starting to acknowledge what he calls “the fuller human being”–the interconnectedness of mental, physical and even spiritual health. But for all the good intentions, if a company can’t follow through with a culture that encourages employees to make time for wellness programs, they simply won’t take advantage of them.

That’s what happened to one senior human-resources director, Linda (her name has been changed at her request), who spent six years with a major chartered bank working 10-hour days on top of a two-hour commute. “My marriage suffered,” she says. “We had to go to counselling because we were never there for each other.”

Linda’s health declined, as well; too busy to take a sick day, she developed pneumonia from a neglected cold. One Friday afternoon, as she was getting ready to enjoy a well-deserved weekend with her kids, her boss told her to come to work to finish a project–the following Sunday. Linda refused, but her superior kept pushing, and suggested they bring in both their daughters and plunk them in front of a TV while the women got their work done. Burned out, Linda later resigned–with no pay package and no other job to go to.

The funny thing about the bank Linda left, she remembers, is that it had a top-notch wellness program in place. “We had so many stress-management programs and work-life balance programs,” she says. “There were counselling services and hotlines for day care and parent care.” But the managerial culture, she says, prevented people from taking advantage of the services. It’s a prime example of what Dr. Len Sperry, a professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, has called “a dysfunctional culture.”

Just as people can be Type A’s, so, too, can organizations. That can take its toll in many ways–but in Linda’s case, the bank lost a key executive. “Having subsidized food in the caf and a free gym doesn’t cut it these days,” says Graham Lowe, a sociologist and president of the Graham Lowe Group, a consulting firm based in Kelowna, B.C. “It’s relatively easy for an employer to invest in wellness,” he emphasizes, but the program can be completely ineffective if its use isn’t encouraged.

Linda’s experience is all too familiar to Malcolm Weinstein, an executive coach and president of Weinstein Management Ltd. in Vancouver. Recent media attention to the plight of the under-appreciated, overworked, lonely-at-the-top CEO has had a positive effect on upper management, he says, but it’s frequently middle managers who end up bearing the brunt of work-related stress–and they might be less inclined to take advantage of wellness programs. “I work with a lot of CEOs,” says Weinstein. “They’re more aware of achieving work-life balance now and are downloading their responsibilities.” The pressure is worst among second- and third-tier managers who feel they must satisfy the most senior people and carry out orders they don’t always want to, such as firing people. “There’s a fear of admitting an inability to cope,” says Weinstein. “There’s pressure to be heroic that often extends beyond people’s limits.”

That’s precisely why more companies are getting serious about their wellness programs. “HR people are asking us not just to put in wellness programs, but to think strategically about which programs will work best for them,” says Seward of Warren Shepell. The attitude just a few years ago, she says, when companies would typically call up and ask for a catalogue of topics, then order a few sessions, was, “‘We’ll send out an e-mail and hopefully people will come.’ Now, companies are really making a clear link between their business objectives and mental health issues.”

Linda, the former bank exec, found one organization that does just that. She’s now happily employed at a large pharmaceutical firm and has no regrets about leaving her former job. Her new company’s culture is entirely different, she says, because the president’s corporate philosophy encourages wellness. If she works extra hours, she takes time in lieu. She feels encouraged to leave at a reasonable hour and has cut down her commute. And no more working weekends. “Life is a privilege,” she says. “It’s important to have a life outside work.”

Here Raizel Robin explores the changing trend of employer driven workplace wellness programs. It seems more and more employers are fully understanding that by investing in their staff now they are saving masses of money long term – $4-$6 dollars per $1 invested!

The nature of work has changed dramatically over the last half century. “Knowledge workers,” a term first coined by business philosopher Peter Drucker in the 1950s, have replaced industrial labourers as the backbone of most corporations. In his seminal book, Landmarks of Tomorrow, Drucker used the term mostly to describe IT personnel, such as programmers, systems analysts, technical writers and researchers. Today, it can refer to just about anyone using a university degree at work, including financial analysts, lawyers and scientists. Knowledge workers now permeate every industry. No company is without them. They give businesses a competitive edge and are key to a healthy, productive economy.

Yet the changing nature of work is making many of them sick. While the corporate world spent 50 years developing exercise, benefit and insurance programs geared to the occupational health and safety of industrial employees–programs that are still in place today–experts say the well-being of knowledge workers is suffering. Sure, their jobs are different from factory work–but they can be just as physically strenuous, contributing to illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes, and nervous disorders like anxiety and depression. The symptoms are not as obvious, say, as a broken leg, but they can be just as costly. Mental illness in Canada alone costs $8 billion annually in lost productivity, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association. Heart disease costs about $5 billion a year in lost productivity and disability. Recent research shows that knowledge workers are more stressed out than any other type of employee–and if their minds and bodies aren’t working properly, neither do they.

The average Canadian spends more than half of his or her waking hours at work–and half say they frequently toil on evenings and weekends. Days lost to illness or disability, meanwhile, have climbed each year since 2000, when a wave of downsizing began and those who still had jobs were forced to work longer hours with fewer resources. More than half of the Fortune 500 firms that downsized in the 1990s (there were about 1,468 of them) reported that productivity deteriorated as a result. If companies value their employees as key assets, say human-resources specialists, it’s essential they encourage them to stay mentally and physically healthy.

Just like keeping manufacturing equipment in top working order, employee health has a tremendous impact on the bottom line. B.C. Hydro, for instance, reports that the return on investment of its employee wellness program is $3 to $4 for every dollar invested. That’s a common result for many wellness programs, which have been expanding significantly in recent years. But some, such as Canada Life’s, get up to $6 back. The savings come from reduced absenteeism and fewer extended health benefits and disability payouts.

Keeping workers happy and healthy is not a new concept. In the 1940s and ’50s, companies encouraged social clubs and organized outings and picnics. By the ’70s and ’80s, however, the strategy had shifted to individual fitness and smoking-cessation programs. In the ’90s, the likes of workplace spirituality, motivational speakers and on-site yoga became the rage. Today, you could say the hottest trend is capitalizing on a little bit of them all under the banner of “workplace wellness.” Non-smoking support groups, company gyms, family-friendly workplaces, counselling, meditation, workshops in stress management and effective communication techniques, even personal coaches for CEOs–all of them fall under the catch-all phrase. Most programs focus on physical fitness and nutrition, though that, too, is changing. “There is a shift happening,” says Karen Seward, vice-president of marketing, business development and research at Warren Shepell, a Toronto-based national employee-assistance program provider and consulting firm. “People have made the link between mental health and productivity and absenteeism–and the whole notion that people who are happy at home and happy at work are more productive in the workplace.”

There’s no shortage of companies catching on. MDS Nordion, Steelcase, Canada Life, Royal Bank, Enbridge Inc., Rogers Communications (which owns Canadian Business)–most big corporations have wellness initiatives of some sort. “Business today is a stressful environment,” says George Cope, president and CEO of Toronto-based Telus Mobility. “I think healthy employees become part of a good overall business strategy.” A few programs, such as Dofasco’s (see “Taking care of business,” p. 133), have even won awards.

Most forward-thinking executives probably see the benefits, but the quality of wellness programs, and how often employees use them, are crucial to their effectiveness. In a national wellness survey of Canadian companies released in September by workplace wellness consulting firm Buffett Taylor & Associates of Whitby, Ont., 83.4% of respondents said their company offered at least one “wellness initiative,” such as stress management techniques, weight-control programs, fitness incentives or nutrition awareness. That’s a huge increase from 64% back in 2000, when economic times were much better.

The jump shows companies are taking wellness seriously enough to ensure they provide assistance even when times are tough. But the majority are not currently offering comprehensive programs. Feeling the pressure to implement wellness initiatives, but often constrained by tight budgets, some even count extended health-care benefits as wellness, according to Warren Shepell’s Seward. Though comprehensive programs are catching on, the numbers show there are barriers to their effectiveness. Despite corporate efforts, one in three workers reports being stressed out due to excessive work demands and long hours, according to Statistics Canada. A survey by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada reported in 2000 that 43% of Canadians feel overwhelmed by their job, finances or family. Beverly Beuermann-King is a wellness consultant in Little Britain, Ont., with 13 years’ experience. “Pessimism, dissatisfaction, lowered concentration, decreased motivation, accidents, absenteeism and poor health are all symptoms of job stress,” she says.

A worn-out, unhealthy workforce is a costly one. The Conference Board of Canada estimates difficulties employees have in balancing work with family life cost employers in this country $2.7 billion annually. Meanwhile, workplace stress and stress-related illnesses cost the economy about $5 billion a year, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Psychiatrist Edgardo Perez, CEO of Homewood Health Centre, an employee assistance provider in Guelph, Ont., studies the effects of depression in the workplace and has found that up to 10% of employees at any given time will have moderate symptoms of depression or anxiety. Depressed workers may feel constant fatigue and worthlessness, he says. They may feel like failures, exhibit a loss of interest in their usual activities and withdraw from social situations. As well, they may be reluctant to work collaboratively. Anxious employees may also be irritable, have irrational fears of death and feel cut off from reality. “All of this interferes with their ability to concentrate and be productive,” says Perez, who has found the problem can diminish an employee’s productive work time by 20%.

According to Perez, depression costs the Canadian economy $12 billion a year. About $6.6 billion of that is due to productivity issues, and the rest is eaten up through the cost of medication and care. It’s enough of a problem that several prominent Canadian business leaders decided to form the Business and Economic Roundtable on Mental Health, which calls depression an “unheralded business crisis in Canada.”

But some companies are trying to turn the tide. Take B.C. Hydro, for instance. Its Lifestyle Program (see “Healthy idea,” page 131) awards points to employees for doing any wellness activity, which can include working out at the on-site gym, spending time with family or even keeping a journal or meditating. Points can be redeemed for T-shirts, water bottles, baseball caps and other fitness gear, but are mainly a way to monitor the program’s effectiveness. The employees who participate in the Lifestyle Program take, on average, two fewer sick days a year than employees who don’t.

MDS Nordion, a company in Kanata, Ont., that provides most of the world’s supply of radioisotopes used in nuclear medicine, implemented a wellness program that goes beyond health. It also studies how work is done and the amount of control given to employees. Since 1993, absenteeism has declined to four days per person a year from an average of five and a half.

Although not directly related to corporate health, in this article about company green policies and sustainability, Stephen Frey asks some great questions. He also brings in some health benefits that not only employees but people in general can experience with greener practices in the workplace.

Clients, Contractors and Business Partners often ask if becoming a more sustainable or green oriented organization is truly beneficial or just another buzzword which will fade in a year or so? It’s a terrific question not be shied away from asking or answering. Based upon working with a lot of public, private, for profit and non-profit customers, I know the answer is evolving and relative to the situation of the business or organization asking. There is not one answer.

First, do you have a set of core company values, a mission statement encompassing more than financial profits and success? If not, examine some Vermont examples where I live. Working and growing up in Vermont, I have luckily been exposed to some extraordinary companies with truly remarkable sustainable visions who have been models for others to follow over the last generation and mentors now for those following in their footsteps. Companies such as Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, King Arthur Flour, Seventh Generation, NRG Systems, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, National Life of Vermont, Small Dog Electronics, Efficiency Vermont…the list goes on an on. Year after year they show remarkable performance and a large part of their success lies in the different way they run their businesses. Their success is driven by their focus on a triple bottom lined approach to seeing the world, of focusing on “People, Profits and Planet”. They are active members of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, a non-profit focusing on how businesses can accumulate social and environmental capital along with economic prosperity in Vermont.

Each one of these companies believes strongly in a socially responsible vision, and they are leaders in their industries. As successful as they are as businesses, they also are often voted best places to work in Vermont, with a lot of economic data supporting or reinforcing why it’s beneficial to embrace sustainability. They have extremely dynamic and vibrant work cultures or communities with a strong sense of corporate identity and shared goals. In the cases where these companies publish Corporate Responsibility Reports, they measure, among many factors, worker productivity, quality and types of benefits, workplace comfort, relative health and wellness, absenteeism and community volunteerism. These measures go beyond the ordinary business performance factors often measured in traditional end-of-the-year financial reports.

Second, to support the organizational aspects of the high performance workplace, a critical, physical step is to provide to employees a green, sustainably oriented building or office fit-out. To be a sustainable business, I feel, also means embracing green building fundamentals which directly impact worker comfort and well-being and indirectly help the environment by lowering organizational exposure to fluctuating energy costs. Many companies and organizations over the last five or ten years have dramatically embraced the Green Movement and are no longer beginners but rather moving on to the second or third generation of integrating green building ideas into their workplaces – seeing what works and what does not. In the process many have facilities which are LEED certified and are walking their talk in a very open and visible way.

Here is some information from the USGBC.

Benefits of Green Building & Sustainability in Business (adapted from the US Green Building Council [USGBC] website – See below.

Environmental benefits
1. Enhance and protect ecosystems and biodiversity
2. Improve air and water quality
3. Reduce solid waste
4. Conserve natural resources

Economic benefits
1. Reduce operating costs
2. Enhance asset value and profits
3. Improve employee productivity and satisfaction
4. Optimize life-cycle economic performance

Health and community benefits
1. Improve air, thermal, and acoustic environments
2. Enhance occupant comfort and health
3. Minimize strain on local infrastructure
4. Contribute to overall quality of life

Clearly health in general and employee wellbeing in particular have no simple and straightforward solutions. By embracing every possible aspect of a company from human resources to sustainability, to workplace environment and practices is one way we can ensure better health for our employees, our community and our planet.

This article by Henry Engleka speaks directly to the point of employee wellbeing and gives some fascinating statistics of corporate health and how employers are viewing it.

In the world of business, well-being has garnered special attention, as employers and other key stakeholders strive to improve productivity, cut costs, and drive employee participation and results. Despite recent economic turmoil in fact, one element of business that has not suffered is wellness programs (Faircloth, Inc 2009). Consider the following facts:

• 89 percent of employees expect their workplace culture to promote healthy lifestyle concepts (Faircloth, Inc 2009)
• 91 percent of employers believe they can reduce their health care costs by promoting healthier living among employees (Mello, NEJM 2008)
• Health plans and employers now provide access and incentives for employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle and promote well-being.  This amazingly has now extended to penalties for not adhering to these same requirements (Mello, NEJM 2008)
• From 2004 to 2006, there was almost a three-fold increase in employers with more than 500 or more employees offering workers incentives to complete a health-risk appraisal, demonstrate good health behavior, or participate in a risk-reduction program (Mello, NEJM 2008)
• The use of premium differentials as incentives increased among large employers (Mello, NEJM 2008)
• Total annual health care costs reached $2.4 trillion in 2008 and are projected to reach $3.1 trillion in 2012 (Rosen)
• In 2008, 77 percent of employers offered health and wellness programs, and more than half of those currently without programs plan to add them, many within the next six to 12 months (Rosen)
• Research shows that 50 percent of a person’s health status is a result of behavior, and 75 percent of health care costs can be prevented, delayed, or curtailed through lifestyle modifications (Rosen)
• Nearly two out of three individuals are interested in participating in wellness programs, and 20 percent even are willing to pay extra for a wellness program (Rosen)
• 46 percent of those who have participated in a wellness program felt that it positively impacted their behavior choices (Rosen)

Aligning existing and new programs that contribute to the well-being of a companies employees or beneficiaries can create a greater impact on a company’s business objectives– well-being therefore is imperative. Well-being efforts and how they relate to improving a company’s image, reputation, and return on investment are becoming paramount in this discussion.

Obstacles to implementing effective wellness programs and addressing well-being of employees or beneficiaries are multifold. Most importantly, there is no standard definition of well-being and the system surrounding this issue remains clouded and fragmented. In the United States, notions of well-being center on the absence of disease, prevention, and access to treatment. On the other hand, in Europe, well-being includes happiness, work-life balance, and value in life. How to balance these characteristics, and more, is the trick. Additionally, companies are implementing programs as short-term remedies rather than focusing on long-term goals and objectives. By fomenting an interchange of information and cohesion of program infrastructure and corporate culture with health, work, and life improvement, companies may improve their approach and their desired results.

We all know that when we get tired, our attention wanders and the quality of our work decreases. This however, is only one consequence of working long hours. Certain industries even have extended work hours so ingrained into their culture that peer pressure on the employee to do the same is huge. Consider the following effects on employee health long hours on the job can have.

Employees can:

• become exhausted, demotivated and dissatisfied
• produce less work and/or lower quality work
• develop an array of minor ailments and become more prone to illness increasing the likelihood of sick leave which can become a major drain on the business
• feel guilty if they don’t work long hours and so become distracted and dissillusioned
• develop symptoms of workplace stress, possibly leading to serious ill-health down the track
• not have enough time to spend with partners and children so their personal relationships and wellbeing can suffer
• feel forced into making unfair and unrealistic choices between demonstrating dedication to the job and giving to their families
• believe they will be perceived as lacking commitment if they ask for time off or will forfeit any possibility for advancement at work if they speak up and ask for a reasonable balance
• are unlikely to feel respect for their employer over the long term
• eventually give up and resign which can represent a loss of valuable talent for the employer and create more staff replacement costs.

Having a good look at all of these points makes us realise that having employees work more and longer hours does not necessarily result in more work or higher quality work. In fact, the opposite is likely to occur and employee health and wellness and the health and wellness of the organisation suffer accordingly.

What’s the best way around this? We have so ingrained into our culture and conditioning that working harder, faster and longer is better that bucking this belief may prove challenging. A way one local company has found it to give each employee a 15 minute “nap time” each day and a half hour “reflective time” each week. Employees are encouraged to simply do nothing, rest their minds and come back to work refreshed and focused.

We’ve all heard about work-life balance – the perfect point between job commitments, money-making activities, family and personal responsibility, health and wellness and enjoyment of life. No small task for anyone these days it seems. Below are some advantages an employer will gain by promoting work-life balance for employees in an organisation:

• employees are likely to demonstrate more loyalty and commitment to the employer if the boss is showing consideration for their needs
• this increased loyalty and commitment leads to better performance at an individual level and so increased productivity at an organisational level
• there will be a decrease in sickness absence and its associated costs
• there’ll be lower staff turnover substantially reducing the employer’s recruitment, induction and staff training costs
• a more relaxed and flexible workplace culture will be created which encourages employees to come forward with ideas and suggestions for improvement which can vastly benefit the organisation
• the employer will become an employer of choice and will be better able to attract and retain the best people.

These benefits may appear intangible at first but consider the effect of not allowing employees to create and maintain work-life balance. One thing’s for sure, if even one of the outcomes mentioned is developed in your company, staff health and wellness at work will grow inevitably.

What can we learn from big employers in India and how they look after the health and wellness of their staff? OK, yes they have over 1 billion people and we have just over 21 million so perhaps programs that impact employee wellness are easier to measure and give more impressive numbers to organisations over there. They may also have a greater sense of urgency and can perhaps see more clearly how poor health in staff directly impacts the bottom line of business. We have the same issues here just on a smaller scale and employers in Australia can certainly benefit from looking at India’s initiatives. Below are what a few of the big companies in India are doing to promote employee health.

Pepsi provides free seasonal fruit to its employees across its nine offices around the country to keep them away from junk food, as part of efforts to check obesity and other lifestyle diseases among its staff. Pepsi has also brought out a healthcare plan for 2009, which includes a scheme, ‘Weight Matters’, to reward employees as they loose flab. Another scheme, informs executives about myths and facts related to diabetes and an additional scheme is for heart check-ups and workshops.

Genpact conducts regular Doppler tests on employees to detect possible health problems on account of sitting for long hours in one position. The test helps doctors to assess blood circulation through major arteries and veins in the arms, legs, and neck.

Hewlett-Packard has signed up to a wellness program which allows H-P’s 15,000 employees to create their online health profile and assess obesity and stress-related risks. They get personal guidance based on their health profile through phone, e-mails or in person.

Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest car maker, encourages employees to perform a small drill everyday before starting work.

LG Electronics also does this and has raised its employee healthcare budget by 20% this year.

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software firm, recently launched a ‘serenity’ initiative to improve the overall health and well-being of employees. Today, every one of their centres in India has a certified counselor to help employees deal with stress. Also, the company is providing free training in life-skill programs including yoga and meditation.

What struck me most about what’s happening overseas is the recognition that health and wellness for staff can be delivered in so many ways – via email, in-house initiatives, face to face consultations and fitness and exercise. We are multi-dimensional and there is no one solution to employee wellness, rather an insight into what works for your people and your company is needed – a solution that promotes health and lowers staff costs.