Health Facts - Workplace Wellness

Balanced Workplace Health

Balanced workplace health (also known as Comprehensive Workplace Health) is much more than a focus on health and safety. It is the interrelationship of healthy lifestyle choices and organizational culture along with health and safety that needs to be addressed.

Categories of Employee Health

The Organizational Culture of a workplace can be defined as factors that affect the interaction between people, their work and the organization and may include:

Communication
Social support
Beliefs, values and norms
Management practices
Worker attitudes and perceptions
How work is organized

Job satisfaction
Job control and decision making
Leadership style
Work-life balance
Benefits plans/programs

Healthy Lifestyle Choices are defined here as reducing the risk and incidence of worker illness by addressing individual lifestyle behaviours such as:

Physical activity
Healthy eating
Healthy weights
Tobacco product cessation

Drug and alcohol use
Immunization
Preconception health
Sun safety

Occupational Health and Safety is defined as reducing work-related injury, illness and disability by addressing ergonomics, air quality, as well as environmental and chemical hazards in the workplace such as:

Ergonomics
Physical and chemical hazards
Disability case management

Protection from environmental tobacco smoke
Violence

Stress, one of the most common workplace ailments, is best addressed through a Balanced Workplace Health approach using all categories of employee health.

Healthy lifestyle choices may include providing physical activity opportunities and nutrition education.
Occupational Health and safety may involve dealing with a hazardous work environment or noise levels.
Organizational Culture may mean identifying and creating solutions for unwieldy workloads, lack of control, and poor communication. In fact, the psychosocial work environment, the organization of work and the management culture of the workplace have the most dramatic impact on employee stress and health outcomes.¹

Strategies for a Balanced Healthy Workplace

Providing educational opportunities, developing policies, and creating supportive environments are key strategies used to address a Balanced Workplace Health program. The following chart demonstrates the strategies using stress as an example:

Educational Opportunities

Policy Development

Environmental Supports

Organizational Culture

Time management training

Benefits, leave, reduce the amount of time employees spend at work, working from home, flexible work arrangement

Encouraging staff input for how work is organized

Healthy Lifestyle Choices

“Lunch & Learns” about stress relievers (i.e. physical activity, healthy eating)

Workplace policy to subsidize memberships for physical activity opportunities

Healthy food options in vending machines/cafeteria

Health & Safety

Adequate employee training regarding workplace hazards

Documentation and training policies

Provide ear plugs in a noisy environment

1. The Health Communication Unit, (July 9, 2004). Info Pack, An Introduction to Comprehensive Workplace Health Promotion. Version 1.1.