Health and wellness in the workplace: Passing fad or here to stay?
Professor Gary Martin FAIM
Chief Executive Officer, AIM WA | Emeritus Professor | Social Trends | Workplace Strategist | Workplace Trend Spotter | Columnist | Director| LinkedIn Top Voice 2018 | Speaker | Content Creator
It would be fair to say that a considerable amount of attention has been focused on workplace health and wellness programs in recent years but like many workplace initiatives - the question must be asked as to whether these programs are here to stay or a passing fad.
Types and Rationale
Health and wellness programs in the workplace can take a variety of forms.
They can range from the provision of in-company gyms, to periodic health screenings to smoking cessations programs to fully structured programs where staff can plot their own performance against their own goals.
The rationale for such programs seems both sensible and pragmatic.
Some advocates for health and wellness programs claim that healthy workers are more likely to be engaged and personally fulfilled.
Other advocates argue that healthy workers are more likely to have fewer absences from the workplace and are likely to be work harder and be more productive.
Challenges and Issues
Like any workplace initiatives there are challenges and issues.
For example, the question does need to be asked:
Do organisations need to look at the amount of stress they are generating in the first place.
Never have we seen in the workplace the colliding conditions that we are experiencing today with resultant stressful conditions for workers – in some organisations - that follow.
Management of stress levels in organizations is a necessary pre-requisite to establishing health and wellness programs.
And then there is the issue of the cost of programs. Without breaching an employees’ privacy is it possible to measure the benefits of such programs?
Without reliable data and justification on their effectiveness - health and wellness programs could easily become a fad as organisations seek to reduce costs in tight economic times.
Then there is the case of double standards in programs where managers and leaders implement the programs but avoid participation themselves because they are simply “too busyâ€.
This sends a sharp message to employees that health and wellness programs are “nice to have†- but health and wellness is not taken seriously across the entire organization.
There is also an issue with the focus on some programs.
Many are geared to physical fitness yet the looming and often unspoken issue in many workplaces relates to the mental health of workers – particularly in some sectors, for example, the FIFO or DIDO sectors.
In order to embed programs in our organisations - perhaps programs need to be more wholistic workplace wellbeing programs which take into account both physical and mental health.
Final Thoughts
Despite these challenges and issues, I do believe that health and wellness programs are here to stay.
It is very easy to criticise attempts made by organisations to date – as fads which are not sustainable - but the fact remains that some form of program is better than no program at all.
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8yI'd like to work in an organisation that has a culture of health and well-being. Whether or not my employer pays for any particular program I would like my choices in health and well-being to be respected.
Safety Advisor at Sunshine Coast Council
8yGary, there need to be considerably more discussion about wellbeing programs. I've worked in OHS for 30 years and witnessed the emergence and evolution of wellbeing as it became a STANDARD element of many management and reporting systems. At the beginning it was a trending concept quickly picked up by HR executives (most OHS sits under a HR umbrella), rapidly peddled out at management seminars and its alleged benefits quickly accepted by government and private sector enterprises. I've watched while organisations generated dodgy KPI's to publish along with the rest of their OHS reports. I've even seen 1 year KPI's that seem fantastic until you realise they wont dare trend over a longer period because it will evidence no actual improvement. If you want a career change Gary this is a good and lucrative field to move into. You can say pretty much anything that pops into your head, produce outlandish claims and show amazing graphs-the HR people you are lecturing will believe it all without the slightest scepticism. Then you send them your consulting bill.
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8yThanks Gary for the article. Employee mental health and wellbeing sits firmly within duty of care requirements for organisations. Therefore efforts must be made to monitor mental health and provide assistance for those in need. The real question is, how effective are the programs that are in use and do they have any real benefit in return for their costs. How aware are organisations of their workforce's current mental health state?
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8yGreat article Gary. I too share the opinion that wholistic health and wellbeing programs need to be part of how organisations operate. We need to get better at communicating the benefits in both health and commercial terms. These programs are not just a 'touchy feely' fad or initiative and we need to shift this stereotype mindset.