The Comprehensive Workplace Wellness Model

A healthy workplace is an environment where both the staff, and the organization they work in, is healthy. Today, more than ever, we know that employee health is strongly connected to organizational productivity and effectiveness, and employee satisfaction and retention.

To be effective workplace wellness programming must go far beyond putting up topical health posters. An increasing number of employers are recognizing that for a workplace health promotion strategy to work, that is, to have an impact, it needs to be comprehensive.

Comprehensive workplace wellness addresses all of the following:

• The Social and Organizational Culture of a workplace,
• The Healthy Lifestyle Choices of staff, and,
• The Occupational Health and Safety needs of both.





Workplace occupational health and safety needs are traditionally managed by designated workplace specialists and/or committees guided by Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

A workplace’s social/organizational culture is influenced by management priorities, expectations and style, and interpersonal relationships amongst staff. Healthy lifestyle choices are behaviours related to physical activity, nutrition, substance use and abuse, stress management and work-life balance of staff. Both of these workplace influencers are best addressed by a wellness committee made up of individuals fully representing the makeup of the workplace. The wellness committee coordinates activities addressing employee interests, needs and concerns as determined by surveying – formally or informally – the employees themselves.

All three of the comprehensive workplace wellness themes must be addressed to plan for the activities that will improve the health of your workplace. Although these categories are separated in theory, they overlap in practice. (For example, employee stress is primarily caused by organizational issues in the working environment, but healthy lifestyle habits will increase an individual's ability to cope with stressful situations.) In addition, a comprehensive workplace wellness approach includes activities from a number of strategies. These are:

1. AWARENESS RAISING/EDUCATION

Activities that increase employee awareness and understanding of a health and wellness topic. For example:
• The creation of a wellness bulletin board to feature resources related to healthy lifestyles,
• The inclusion of short articles in internal newsletters or staff e-mails,
• Regularly updated Intranet pages dedicated to wellness topics. Comprehensive workplace wellness critically recognizes that education alone does not increase behaviour change; therefore, it is must complemented by the following promotional strategies:

2. SKILLS BUILDING

Activities that provide staff with the skills needed to switch to and support positive health and wellness behaviour. For example:

• Delivering interactive presentations or workshops through "lunch and learn" sessions on health and wellness topics,
• Setting up and promoting inclusive healthy lifestyle contests,
• Offering incentive programs to encourage employees to try new activities.

3. CREATING A SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENT

The definition of a supportive environment is broad. It can range from: having sustainable activities that encourage ongoing participation; to ensuring the tools required for employees to participate in health and wellness behaviours are in place; to having a workplace culture that supports healthy living. For example:

• Offering appropriate healthy foods in workplace cafeterias, vending machines and at workplace functions,
• Promoting manager role modeling and leadership that supports healthy activities taken up by staff (i.e., taking time to eat healthy lunches, discouraging gossip, supporting employees to walk to meetings),
• Providing on-going smoking cessation support groups or regularly scheduled physical activity classes,
• Placing secure bike racks on the property to encourage active commuting.

4. HEALTHY WORKPLACE POLICY

Workplace policies are designed to define and support healthy lifestyle choices. They are a very important goal for wellness committees. They show dedication on behalf of the employer and help to clarify roles and expectations between employees and employers. For example:

• Establishing policies stating healthy food choices must be available when catering for meetings and other workplace events,
• Establishing policies on flexible working hours that allow employees to balance work-life activities (i.e. to participate in physical activity, to support breastfeeding mothers, to attend medical appointments, etc.).