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

…cont’d

The leader’s role in health and productivity

There are five health and productivity issues affecting people and organizations:

• changing demographics are impacting employee health and increasing health costs

• health costs are rising by 15% annually

• “lifestyle” diseases (e.g. heart disease, type two diabetes) are increasingly prevalent

• accessing the healthcare system is increasingly difficult

• organizations are pressured to improve productivity, while workers struggle with balancing home and work.

Understanding the factors that lead to absenteeism, presenteeism and disability begins with outlining why people are less productive at work or involuntarily absent.

People leaders and human resources professionals have a pivotal role to play in workplace health and productivity. Managers must be able to understand key issues and recognize warning signs. For example, marital conflict can lead to stress and anxiety and often increasing financial pressures, which, in turn, can lead to or worsen existing health issues. Ultimately, a combination of factors drives disability.

There are several ways organizations can address absenteeism, presenteeism and disability. They include prevention, early intervention and recovery methods.

Taking a phased approach to program implementation begins with an understanding of the issues, followed by a thorough assessment of an organization’s readiness to address those issues. To build their own wellness strategies, organizations can follow these steps:

1) determine readiness for health and wellness using proper assessment tools

2) understand organizational demographics and social and economic variables using internal and external data

3) train managers and supervisors on disease states, early identification and disability management

4) develop an integrated plan to promote health and wellness and define initiatives to be implemented

5) communicate and promote program initiatives using various methods to reach multiple audiences

6) evaluate program effectiveness by developing metrics and methods to obtain feedback

7) build flexibility and scalability into the wellness strategy.

Karen Seward is senior vice-president, business development and marketing, and Rod Phillips is president and chief executive officer, Shepell•fgi.