Through hours spent writing, speaking and collaborating, Allan Smofsky has helped define workplace health in Canada

In order to improve workplace health, you have to know what it is. And this, of course, is easier said than done. Allan Smofsky has played a vital role—much of it as a volunteer—in defining workplace health in this country.

“What I feel I’ve been able to contribute is a broader discussion of what is health in the workplace,” says Smofsky, who is a senior health and welfare consultant at Towers Perrin in Toronto. “I’ve tried to elevate awareness on the need to be more comprehensive, and raise consciousness in employers across the country on the things they can do in their own workplace and the places they can improve.”

The foundation of workplace health, says Smofsky, has three components: occupational health and safety; personal health practices and wellness, and a supportive work culture. “You need all three elements to make a genuinely healthy workplace,” he says. “You may have quality air and lighting, but if it is not a healthy culture, it is not a genuinely healthy workplace. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Nowadays, it is known that the physical health and engagement of employees is tied to corporate social responsibility. “We’re looking at the total employee wellbeing perspective,” says Smofsky. “Employees who are most engaged will give that extra effort. We’re now incorporating that into consulting.”

But it was not always thus. It has taken decades of research, interpretation of that research, public debate, collaboration and raising awareness to get stakeholders to “sing from the same song sheet.” Smofsky has spent 25 years in the benefits business and the last dozen dedicated to the cause of improving workplace health. He has been an active and passionate advocate at the local, provincial and national level. Through countless hours spent speaking, writing, and collaborating behind the scenes, Smofsky has been a vital link in bringing that research to light. He has been an active member of the Ontario Healthy Workforce Coalition and chair of the Canadian Healthy Workplace Council since 2002.

“I’ve been out there beating the bushes—devoting more hours than I would care to think about, many of them volunteer hours.”

Smofsky has been witness to and instigator of great change in workplace health. Two decades ago, he recalls, many organizations were managing disability and had health and safety plans. “A lot of companies did wellness— they had smoking-cessation programs and gyms. They were seen as ‘nice to haves’ not ‘must haves.’ Employers were doing this at the grassroots level, one by one, but there wasn’t a national awareness of workplace health. They may have been effective but they didn’t measure outcomes.”

More and more research over the years showed that organizations in isolation can only do so much. “The research said, group them together and be more strategic. The research was there. The thought leadership needed to be there in order to elevate the discussion.”

Not one to stand still, Smofsky is now working towards more publicprivate collaboration. “Should there be government incentives for workplace health? We need to measure that.” He envisages a rating system for workplace health much like the system in place for workers’ compensation. “Healthy organizations pay less and unhealthy ones pay more in payroll tax.”

Smofsky thinks big and makes improvements happen. “It’s all about intelligent rationalizing of resources. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

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© Copyright 2008 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the November 2008 edition of WORKING WELL magazine.