Health And Wellness In The Workplace

Workplace wellness is evolving.
Early efforts to create healthy workplaces focused on safety at the worksite and injury prevention for workers.
More recently, programs are designed to assist employees to choose healthier behaviours like being more physically active or quitting smoking. Campaigns to raise awareness, educational sessions to increase knowledge, opportunities to learn new skills, and changes to policies to make it easier for employees to make healthy choices are often included. This approach is taken because the workplace is a good way to reach people, since most adult Canadians spend a large part of their day at work.
While safety and lifestyle programs are two aspects that contribute to the health of employees, workplace wellness is more effective when a third factor is brought into the equation—the environment at work.
How the workplace affects health.
Increasingly, it is recognized that the workplace itself has a powerful affect on people’s health. When people are satisfied with their job, they are more productive and tend to be healthier. When employees feel that the environment at work is negative, they feel stressed. Stress has a large impact on employee mental and physical health, and in turn, on productivity.
Consultant Graham Lowe has identified five components of workplace culture that directly affect employees’ health and the health of the organization overall—credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. The underlying idea is that companies must genuinely care about the well-being of their employees.
Companies today who want to attract and keep good workers have leaders who understand the connection between employee satisfaction and employee health and believe that workplace wellness is a business strategy.  Their management practices include making reasonable demands on time and energy, involving employees in decision making, rewarding work well done, openly communicating, and providing support to balance work and home life.
Employers know that workers are looking for jobs that pay well, have good benefits, are interesting, and include excellent health and safety programs. So in today’s competitive hiring market, it’s become more important than ever for companies to enhance job satisfaction and ensure that workers enjoy being on the job. Workplace wellness benefits both employers and employees.
How does workplace wellness benefit the employer?
A workplace wellness initiative can help a company to:

• Attract and keep employees;
• Reduce the costs of disability, drugs, and absenteeism;
• Reduce the effects of a stressful workplace;
• Reduce health costs or keep them contained; and
• Improve morale by creating a happy, supportive environment.

How does workplace wellness benefit employees?
Employees of companies that have a workplace wellness program are likely to have:

• Increased awareness and knowledge of ways to improve their health;
• A better (less stressful) workplace;
• Increased protection from injury;
• Improved health and well-being;
• Higher morale and greater job satisfaction;
• Increased productivity and effectiveness at work;
• Reduced personal health care costs; and
• A more relaxed/flexible approach to health issues.

Both employers and employees have a responsibility for creating a healthy workplace. Employees are expected to arrive at work in good health, and the employer is expected to provide an environment that allows employees to maintain good health, enjoy their work, and contribute to the company’s success.
Workplace wellness is more than a “lunch and learn” program. It’s about developing a “people first” approach to doing business. It’s about taking care of employees, establishing a positive work environment, and paying attention to the factors that keep employees healthy and happy at work. A good workplace wellness program has an impact on employees’ mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being.

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