The wellness imperative

The public consultation on the new national Healthy Workplace Framework was launched jointly by Minister for Health Promotion Marcella Corcoran Kennedy and Minister for Employment and Small Business Pat Breen at the end of March. It is hoped the new framework will provide guidance on creating and sustaining healthy workplaces, which can be adapted to any workplace setting,

The new initiative acknowledges the changing nature of workplace health issues, according to Breen. “Significant progress has been made in recent years in relation to safety in the workplace through legislation and enforcement, which is evident with the reduction in workplace accidents. However, the two main causes of workplace ill-health now are musculoskeletal disorders and stress, which present new challenges.”

It also recognises the growing importance of wellness in the workplace, according to Biddy O'Neill of the Department of Health, who is national project lead for the framework. "The concept of a healthy workplace is coming up more and more in the corporate social responsibility and health and safety areas and it is an emerging issue on the policy landscape as well," she says. "We want to look at the culture of organisations. It is a question of trust and ethics – where on the agenda is health and well-being? There are benefits for both employees and employers but the challenge is to get it embedded. We find that in US multinationals it's the norm and part of their culture. This is probably driven in part by insurance considerations."

Prospective employees are starting to take the whole issue of wellness more seriously too. “We have been talking to employers and they tell us that younger people are asking about health and wellness policies,” O’Neill adds. “These companies now see this from a recruitment and retention perspective and the evidence shows that retention is improved when good health and well-being policies are in place.”

Great Place to Work chief executive John Ryan agrees it is important today but foresees a time when companies will replace the State as providers of healthcare. "In the past, kids were far more numerous than old people," he points out. "This is changing rapidly and we are going to have a situation where governments can't afford to pay pensions quite so soon. They are pushing the pension age out as far as they can. Before too long, most of us will be working well into our 70s. That means it will be essential to keep fit and healthy if we want to fund our continued existence. The inability of governments to deal with this will be a feature of society. It will be like the US, with people reliant on private health insurance. Only people who can afford healthcare will get it."

And this is where employers will step in. “The organisations that step up and take an active role in supporting health and well-being will be the ones to win out and will be the most sought-after places to work,” Ryan says. “Exceptional organisations are already getting this right but many others are not. You have things like Workplace Wellness Day on one day of the year. That’s useless. What about the other 364 days? One of the biggest issues coming up in employee assistance programmes is relationships. Organisations are having to step in to help their employees manage their relationships.”

Emotional well-being

Assisting with emotional well-being is increasingly important. He cites the example of an individual who is stressed because of changes in their job. “Being forced to do something you don’t like in order to pay the bills will usually have a poor outcome,” says Ryan. “What do we do to deal with it? We drink, we eat too much, we self-medicate, we don’t sleep well, and we become obese with a drink problem as a result. Really brilliant organisations will know the people that work for them and set targets for the wellness of the whole organisation.”

The new framework should provide assistance for those organisations which do wish to get this right, according to Biddy O’Neill. A website and other resources will be put in place to support organisations in adopting the framework. In addition, work has already begun on the development of an accreditation model for healthy workplaces. “This will be a robust accreditation model which will be independently audited,” she says.

Finally, a new post-graduate programme on Workplace Well-being is being developed with NUI Galway while a National Network for Healthy Workplaces will be established once the framework is in place.