On the Road to Wellness
May 01, 2008 | Various Authors

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Engaging employees in wellness programs

Engaging employees to participate in workplace health programs can be challenging. But engaging employees in 200 locations across Canada was a daunting task. Purolator approached the challenge and succeeded, developing and delivering programs to address the needs of its 12,500 employees.

Using the National Quality Institute’s methodology, Purolator established a national steering committee to conduct an assessment using NQI criteria and an environmental scan of existing programs. The results showed that Purolator had strengths in culture and occupational health and safety, but needed to improve programming in health and lifestyle practices. The committee also conducted 30 employee focus groups, which revealed that employees wanted programming in stress management and work-life balance, fitness, nutrition and weight management and understanding existing EAP offerings.

Purolator has achieved a high level of participation in its employee survey, athletic therapy clinics, health contests, “sweatless” workouts and leadership development programs. One of the company’s biggest successes was its cross-country fitness challenge, where participants were rewarded with incentives and prizes.

Keys to Purolator’s success were committing the right level of financial, human and other resources and leveraging the company’s competitive culture. Incentives in the form of rewards and recognition have helped attract employees to participate. But the single most important factor was creating a supportive culture of trust and respect.

Key lessons learned were that success relies on aligning the initiative with the business strategy, linking it to operating plans, integrating it into HR programs and involving employees. We also recognized the importance of addressing all three elements of a healthy workplace (physical environment and occupational health and safety, health and lifestyle practices, and workplace culture and supportive environment) and ensuring that programs span the continuum of care—from prevention to screening and disease management.

Douglas J. Kube is director, environment, health and safety, Purolator Courier Ltd.