Is It Real Enough? - Work Smart. Live Smart.

“No one shows up”. “They come, but they don’t make any changes”. “They don’t stick with it”.

One of the issues around workplace wellness is a lack of employee participation and/or engagement.
Many employees still believe that willpower and motivation are the keys to success and when willpower and motivation are not strong enough, participation and engagement wane.

Willpower and motivation can only take you so far. Research from the Institute for Wellness Education demonstrates that many different factors, including psychological, social, physiological and environmental contribute to success. However, 73% of men and 68% of women believe that willpower was the most important step to losing weight.

In a recent survey by Towers and Watson, Canadian employees were asked what was the main reason they had not participated in a wellness activity. Their #1 answer: “I manage my health on my own”. Other reasons were “It’s not a priority right now”, “I’m too busy”, and “I’m healthy and don’t need to participate”. From their answers we see that motivation to make the health changes necessary is offset by other, more immediate priorities. In order to increase participation and engagement in workplace wellness our goal is to make these health changes come alive for the employee and make the future as much of a priority as the present.

We have all seen the commercial. It is hard to forget the image of the older man living two very different lives. One life is active and the other, is spent in a hospital bed.

According to Statistics Canada, on average, there’s a 10-year gap between how long we live, and how long we live in health.

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This commercial brings alive the impact that poor choices now have on our future. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, more than a quarter of Canadian baby boomers are not concerned about how healthy they will be later in life, yet 9 in 10 Canadians already have at least one risk factor for heart disease and stroke and nearly 4 in 10 have three or more risk factors. The reality is that poor choices now will most certainly impact how they live out their ‘golden’ years.

I am looking forward to my “golden” years and hope that I am still gardening in my flower beds, fishing on the lake, showing the youngsters that I can still do my karate katas, and playing hide and seek with my future grandkids. In order to do this, I will need to be mobile, strong and energetic. I will need to be at optimal health. We need to help employees develop a clear picture of what they want their future to look like. It is only then that the health risk assessments and the changes that are necessary to offset those risks become a current priority.

Make it real.

Do you need someone to work with your leaders on developing a supportive culture?
If so, Beverly Can Provide This Training. Please feel free to call and discuss the details at: 705-786-0437

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A More Psychologically Healthy Workplace - Training for Leaders

understand and identify mental health and mental illness issues and risks in your team
develop an understanding and strategies for supporting those experiencing a mental health issue

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