Wellness Programmes

Historically, the health focus within the health and safety specialty has mainly focused on occupational health and diseases. Employers now recognise that the wellbeing of their employees is just as important. As a third of your day is spent at work, I believe the workplace is the perfect environment to support wellbeing initiatives. Aligning wellbeing initiatives to company values and business plans ensures that wellbeing is a sustainable benefit for companies and employees alike.

Savvy employers are realising wellness programmes present a great opportunity to provide something their people value at a personal level that potentially benefits the organisation as well. For example, they may help address persistently high levels of employee absence which is costly to organisations, affecting efficiency, productivity, morale and ultimately profit. We know from research conducted by Conversa Global in 2005 that in New Zealand, absence from work due to absenteeism, illness and injury cost businesses close to $1 billion.

While many workplaces are keen to implement wellness programmes, the challenge is to successfully implement them. If an organisation is going to invest in wellness programmes they should be aiming to get the maximum return on investment and a key objective should be based on getting as many staff actively involved and supporting the programme as possible. The more staff become involved, the greater the impetus to encourage and support lifestyle change.

This section was taken from Jo Broadhead article titled "Implementing a Wellness Programme from the Human Resources Magazine. For more information, please see the article listed below:

HR Tool Kit:

• Flexible Working Rights
• Worklife Balance Case Studies
  

Relevant Related Websites:

ACC
Department of Labour - Managing Stress and Fatigue in the Workplace