Healthy Workplace Month: How Healthy Is Your Workplace?

Welcome to Healthy Workplace Month

Healthy Workplace Month is designed to introduce workplace health to organizations, and support those that are already promoting healthy workplaces.

Why Healthy Workplace Month? Healthcare Isn’t Cheap

NQI reports that healthcare costs are increasing at twice the rate of inflation. In Canada, more than 50,000 strokes and 75,000 heart attacks occur every year. Eight percent of workers are taking medication to treat depression, and mental illness costs the Canadian economy over $50 billion each year.

Why do we talk about Healthy Workplace Month? Because mental illness costs the Canadian economy over $50 billion each year. Beverly Beuermann-King Click to tweet

So What Can Employers Do To Promote Healthy Workplace Month?

A healthy workplace is one in which the organization cares about the physical and psychological health and safety of its employees, and establishes systems and programs, because they want to achieve and maintain exemplary health.

Workplace Health programs not only positively impact the employee, but they positively impact the company, the employee’s family and their communities as a whole. These programs are the right thing to do for the employer, because they are the right thing to do for the employee.

Beverly’s Hot Tip For Celebrating Healthy Workplace Month:

Start a conversation. What are the sources of stress and the symptoms that you are seeing in your employees and in the company, as this will determine what programs may be beneficial?
Benchmark this information. How much are these costing in absenteeism, turnover, lowered productivity, healthcare costs, because what can be measured can be improved.
Decide what programs would help reduce this impact on the individual and the company, because the programs need to be relevant.
Get support. Bring together management and employees to talk about strategies, as these programs can not be just top-down programs.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use the resources that are available to you like looking for on-line resources, and talking to others who have tried similar things before, as someone else may have novel ideas you can try.
Get involved in all of the programs that your company has to offer, as you may never know what you will learn or how it could positively impact your life.

Not Sure What You Can Focus On This Healthy Workplace Month?

Try These Themes:

First Week – Taking Action on Our Mental Health
Second Week – Improving Our Workplace Culture
Third Week – Making Our Workplace Resilient
Fourth Week – Keeping Our Workplace Safe

If you have some strategies to share – comment on this posting!