An international survey has found that 32 percent of responding workers feel that their workplace hinders their ability to lead a healthy lifestyle, a statistic that Canadian observers believe is equally applicable here at home.
According to the Canadian OH&S News, there is plenty of data showing that employees in Canada are increasingly working more hours and are laboring evenings and weekends, suggests Kevin Kelloway, director of the CN Centre for Occupational Health and Safety at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. Under these circumstances, it is much more difficult to fit in a trip to the gym or other physical activity, he suggests. (WCxKit)
Sedentary workplaces can exacerbate already sedentary lifestyles, adds Joshua Pollack, sales and marketing director for The Health Team, a Toronto-based provider of employee wellness services to organizations nation-wide.
"You move from your bed to your car, to your seat at work, back to the car, and back to in front of the TV," Pollack says, adding that, on the bright side, employers are becoming more aware of the benefits attached to promoting employee wellness, such as reduced absenteeism/pre-senteeism and disability claim costs, and an upswing in productivity.
The international study was commissioned by the World Heart Federation in Geneva, Switzerland and surveyed 4,000 workers in Portugal, Poland, India and Mexico, countries that were chosen because of their varied gross national income per capita, the federation notes in a statement.
Released in advance of World Heart Day, the results also indicate that 91 per cent of respondents believe it is their employer's responsibility to create a healthy working environment. Eleven percent feel their employers do not support a healthy workplace.
"As many of us spend over half of our waking hours at work, the workplace is the ideal setting to encourage behavior changes to minimize a person's risk of cardiovascular disease," Dr Kathryn Taubert, the federation's senior science officer, says in the statement.
Over 17 million lives are lost globally every year to heart disease and stroke, despite the illnesses being largely preventable, the federation notes. In particular, the study found that workers in the agriculture and manual labor sectors were more likely than other sectors to state that they do not take steps to ensure a healthy lifestyle, with nearly a quarter (22 percent) having taken 11 or more sick days in the past year.
By contrast, employees such as lawyers and accountants were "significantly more likely" to say their employer offers five or six workplace wellness programs, such as smoking cessation programs or walk-to-work days.
The federation encourages companies and workers to promote heart-healthy workplaces by adopting programs that encourage employees to change behavior by promoting "activity via gym memberships or cycle-to-work schemes, or encouraging employees to stop smoking via the adoption of smoke-free workplaces or the provision of smoking-cessation programs." (WCxKit)
Implementing a program can come with challenges, including up-front costs for exercise equipment and, particularly in the public sector, scrutiny of those expenses, Kelloway says. But program features need not be costly; organizing a lunch-hour walking club is just one example of a free option.
Seminars where companies speak about program outcomes are helpful to get others off the fence, Kelloway suggests. "What seems to be the most compelling case is when they hear the experiences of other employers."
This topic is a U.S. issue also. I had a friend start at an insurance company recently to find "Ice Cream Sundae Wednesdays" every week and candy dishes on many desks. He was trying to become more fit and was battling the bulge, and this made it more difficult to have tasty tempations at every corner of the workplace.
Author Rebecca Shafer, JD, President of Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. is a national expert in the field of workers compensation. She is a writer, speaker and website publisher. Her expertise is working with employers to reduce workers compensation costs, and her clients include airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. Contact: RShafer@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com.
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