GM Canada
One company that is seeking to change the unhealthy lifestyle habits of its workforce is automotive giant General Motors of Canada (GM). With a large percentage of employees over the age of 50, GM is facing a looming wave of retirees whom it will have to support with health benefits through old age. So the healthier they remain, the better it will be for the company’s bottom line.
In response, GM has launched an employee cardiovascular screening program in its Oshawa, Woodstock, Windsor and St. Catharines plants, all in Ontario. Developed by Buffett and Company in collaboration with Shoppers Drug Mart, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and GM, the Break for Health program allows employees to step away from their jobs for a few minutes to have their blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels checked by an onsite registered nurse. During a confidential and voluntary 10-minute appointment — during which a pharmacist is also present to provide supplementary health information — employees are encouraged to set personal health goals and take charge of their cardiovascular health. If they smoke, they’re encouraged to cut down or quit; if they’re overweight, they’re encouraged to exercise and improve their diet. Before the appointment’s end, employees are given personal wallet cards outlining the results of their health-risk assessments.
Three months later, a nurse follows up with at-risk employees via mail or phone to provide further health counselling and encouragement. After six months, employees who still report high-risk behaviours (such as smoking and not exercising) are presented with an opportunity to meet one-on-one with a Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacist on their own time to develop an action plan geared at improving their health. And at 12 months, employees have the option to be reassessed and receive further guidance and support from a nurse or pharmacist.
Seeing results
At GM’s Oshawa and Woodstock automotive plants, more than 1,300 employees (out of a total of 11,000) have taken part — voluntarily — in the Break for Health program. What’s more, the health assessments revealed that 37% of them had high blood pressure and 18% had high cholesterol. According to Jim Beaudry, national health and wellness coordinator, GM, CAW, the program has heightened employees’ awareness of their personal heart disease risks. He says nearly 42% of the employees at the Oshawa plant report one or more lifestyle changes. As much as 30% say they have improved their diet, 29% say they have started to exercise and 16% report cutting down on or quitting smoking. At the Woodstock plant, all program participants report an improvement in their exercise habits, and a whopping 86% say they are making healthier food choices, according to Beaudry.
“It’s not always a convenient lifestyle — working at a plant,” says Beaudry. “A lot of workers may not have a doctor or be able to see one regularly. They may smoke and have high cholesterol, and pay it no mind. GM employees are now becoming more active. People are doing everything they can to make lifestyle changes that enable them to have a better quality of life.”
The Break for Health program at GM is like taking the doctor’s offi ce and putting it into the plant, says Dean Miller, Shoppers Drug Mart’s director of pharmacy in Ontario. He says that “in an increasingly aging population, a big part of improving health incomes is educating and raising awareness.”
Buffett and Company’s Janet Young, associate vice-president of wellness consulting, echoes Miller’s comments. She says the workplace is an ideal setting for health promotion. “But modifying unhealthy behaviours can’t be an off-the-shelf approach,” she says. “It has to be tailored to each organization specifi cally … GM and the CAW deserve a lot of credit in this sense — in realizing the importance of their employees’ health. They are taking a risk by letting people [go] off the [production] line in such a production-driven environment.”
So far, GM considers the program a success. “When people see their co-workers getting fi t in the workplace and changing their lives, they realize they can do it too,” Beaudry says. “It has a ripple effect [and gets] people thinking and talking about their overall health, not only in the workplace, but at home [too].”
Kevin Spurgaitis is a freelance writer in Toronto.
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