Step 1 - Obtain Management Support

A workplace health program needs endorsement from business owners, senior, and middle management. This requires a willingness to dedicate time, energy, and resources to the program.

Strategies

Meet with key individuals of influence and decision-makers within the organization. Find those people (managers, business owners, union representatives, employees, occupational health, health and safety staff, etc.) who will champion workplace health in the workplace.

Conduct formal and informal presentations to management, unions, etc.  Presentations should include information on the importance of developing programs and your plan for promoting workplace health within the organization.  For presentation ideas see Business case power point.

Obtain management support. The program must be supported with appropriate resources such as people, material and money. This time and resource allowance will not only help boost program participation rates, but will illustrate management’s commitment to the program (Polanyi, Eakin, Frank, Shannon and Sullivan, 1998)

Create a letter of understanding. Once all parties have agreed on the need and process for the workplace health program, it is important to have them sign a formal letter of understanding. It may be signed by management, employee representatives, unions and other key stakeholders. See the sample Letter of Committment (MS Word / PDF) you may wish to use as a template.

Checklist

• Is your organization prepared to establish a workplace health program?
• Is your organization willing to learn about employee wellness, needs and interests?
• Is your organization prepared to respond to the wellness needs and interests of employees?
• Is senior management committed to playing a visible, ongoing and participatory role in the program?
• Is the union/employee association supportive of the workplace health program?
• Has a letter of understanding been signed by all of the key parties?

Links and Resources

1. Social Development Canada – Voices of Canadians:  Seeking Work Life Balance
   A compilation of the comments of Canadian workers regarding how they feel about the stress they are facing in their daily lives as they seek to balance work and family.
   
   
2. Public Health Agency of Canada - Business Case Template
   This template has been provided to help people prepare documentation for their own organization. It is for reference only and will have to be expanded and adapted to suit the needs of each organization.
   Detailed data related to current benefit costs, age of workforce, absenteeism, injury costs, etc. can be collected from your own organization. This type of information is needed to demonstrate the financial incentive for your organization to invest in active lifestyle strategies.
   
   
3. The Health Communication Unit
   The Health Communication Unit at the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, is one of 22 members of the Ontario Health Promotion Resource System funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. The Health Communication Unit was developed to provide training and support in health communication and includes health promotion planning, evaluation, and policy change.
   
   
4. Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week
   Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week is a yearly celebration of workplace health in Canadian organizations and is intended to promote a comprehensive and integrated approach to workplace health. A specific week is set aside each year to increase awareness about the importance of workplace health to personal and organizational performance.
   
   
5. Canadian Council on Integrated Healthcare (CCIH)
   The Canadian Council on Integrated Healthcare (CCIH) is a national, multi-stakeholder health education group with a mission to help Canadians understand emerging healthcare changes. This paper on workplace health arose from several fundamental questions: Given the presence and impact of the workplace in most Canadians’ lives, where does workplace health fit into the wider Canadian healthcare landscape? Should workplace health become more or less of a priority for Canada, and why?
   
   
6. Health Canada Study -Predictors of Work-Life Conflict
   Work-life balance is important to individual employees, the organizations that they work for, the families that support and rely on them, and the society in which they live. The proportion of the Canadian workforce reporting high levels of work-life conflict increased substantively between 1991 and 2001.