Creating a Healthy Workplace Culture

Critical messages from Canadian leaders

Author: Lisa Sansom

There is much talk today about creating a healthy workplace culture, but these leaders have seen it done and recently they shared their wealth of knowledge and insights with delegates at the Your Workplace Conference at the Westin Hotel on May 1, 2009.

Upfront, the panel acknowledged that there is a question of money: how can companies promote organizational health when purse strings are tight, budgets have to be bottom-lined, and management needs convincing by the Return on Investment (ROI) numbers. All panellists agreed: money doesn’t and shouldn’t matter. Buffet commented that there is always an ROI justification: a recent Canadian study, done in part by Hewitt Associates, with analysis by noted pioneer in organizational health Linda Duxbury, Professor of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa, shows a cogent and compelling case for health promotion (promoting healthy habits at work). Her study showed that there is a clear relationship between employee engagement and employee health, resulting in greater productivity, decreased long-term disability and other health-plans costs.

But if your management is still not convinced, all panellists encouraged people to work with what they can: promoting a healthier workplace does not have to be a costly venture. The workplaces of the three panellists each adopted different strategies.
For example, Trillium Health Centre took the NQI (National Quality Institute) model and integrated it into what each employee does and how they deliver services, making every person responsible and accountable. The goal was to transform the organizational philosophy to a different level to ensure long-term organizational sustainability.

At Research In Motion (RIM), there will never be a limitation on employees of their use of technology–there is no “BlackBerry policy” and there probably never will be, according to Melissa Barton, Manager of Global Wellness, Research In Motion. RIM does, however, teach employees how to use their BlackBerry devices in a way to facilitate work/life balance. Employees are taught how to create settings to alert only for urgent incoming emails. They also learn how to save, rather than send, outgoing emails during non-traditional work hours. This allows the employee to complete work, but not impact the load of others during personal time.

Unions for workplace health and wellness
Ed Buffet, President/CEO, Buffett & Company Worksite Wellness Inc., spoke about workplaces that have unions as another aspect to creating workplace health and wellness. Buffet highlighted two different cases: one where the employer waited a long time before involving the union, preferring to have all of the details ironed out first. In this case the wellness initiative “blew up”. In the second case, the unions were involved right from the beginning, and there was critical buy-in to the success of the initiative. His message: bring unions on board early even if trust isn’t there due to prior negotiations or other situations. The wellness initiative can be an independent clean slate.

Getting leadership buy-in
All members of the panel recognized that leadership buy-in is a key success factor, and Caroline Brereton, Vice President, People, Corporate and Clinical Support Services, Trillium Health Centre, posed the wise question that every wellness change leader should ask: What am I trying to get my leadership to buy into? She suggested that you won’t get there starting with physical health initiatives. It is much easier to convince others to change measurable business practices first, and show positive changes and improvements there, ensuring alignment with best practices.

Both Brereton and Buffet acknowledged that there is a positive trend towards acceptance in the past decade and beyond. Despite the current economic climate, companies are figuring out that “survivors” need tremendous support, especially as they are being asked to do more.

Overall, leaders spearheading organizational health initiatives need to begin with the end goal in mind. They need to have clearly defined objectives and share them with employees. They need to make them part of performance management objectives where possible, and make the initiatives fun.

The panel challenged the audience to come up with new ways to measure ROI, and to really consider what ROI means for their organization and for their leaders. It may not be as commonly understood as one might assume.

The panel concluded it is important to understand the philosophy of your leadership teams–and use the beliefs, goals and directives to help you pitch initiatives for better organizational culture. You need to be aligned with your leadership in order for the programs to succeed.

Dr. Pérez hit the final home-run when he commented: “Above all, look at yourself. Be the model of what you wish to create. Be healthy. Be well. Be positive. Be proactive. And be patient.”