Is wellness in work a stretch?

As organisations plan fun activities for National Workplace Wellbeing Day today, we ask how serious is the Government about keeping workers healthy? Helen O’Callaghan reports

WILL you be taking a taster class in Pilates at the office today? Or doing the stationary bike work-out in the staff canteen — or competing with colleagues to see who takes the most steps through the working day? Maybe not, but these are just some examples from the myriad range of activities planned in organisations around Ireland today for National Workplace Wellbeing Day.

From 15-minute massage breaks to juicing demonstrations (including wheatgrass juicing), some companies have set out a quirky menu of wellbeing activities. One workplace is giving employees a chance to enjoy angel card affirmations, as well as take part in a compliment competition — each staff member gets bag of three gems and is challenged to pay compliments to colleagues. For every compliment they receive, they give away a gem. Person with most gems at 4pm gets a prize.

An initiative of Food Drink Ireland (part of Ibec), National Workplace Wellbeing Day saw 500 companies get on board in 2017 – this year over 700 are expected to do so. While Ibec recommends the ‘lunchtime mile’ – run/walk/cycle/swim/row/canoe for a mile during lunch hour with friends – it’s up to companies themselves to decide on a wellbeing activity, anything from yoga classes to smoking cessation talks.

Kevin McPartlan, who leads Ibec’s workplace wellbeing projects, says the aim is to put a spotlight on how employers can impact employee wellbeing. Just recently, Ibec launched the KeepWell Mark — a set of standards organisations can achieve through promotion of wellbeing in the workplace.

This is “all absolutely of the moment”, says McPartlan. “We’re now approaching full employment, so the big challenge is attracting and retaining talent. Ibec research finds millennials in particular put huge emphasis on the level of commitment employers give to workplace wellbeing. They’ll decide to work for a company if that company has a demonstrable interest in employee health and wellbeing.” And we’re getting good at workplace wellbeing, with high-tech and bio pharma industries leading the way. “Some very traditional companies have also signed up to the KeepWell Mark,” says McPartlan. It’s a good idea, when approximately 11 million days are lost annually through absenteeism, costing the Irish economy €1.5bn. And presenteeism — employees turn up for work but are ill or have ongoing health problems — is estimated to result in 7.5 times greater loss of productivity than absenteeism.

Yet, even if companies want to invest really significant sums in workplace wellbeing — and some do — there are no Government supports in the form of tax breaks or other fiscal incentives. “Employees benefit, employers benefit [research finds healthy, engaged workers 30 times more productive] but so does the State. Global research shows investment in workplace wellbeing makes significant impact on public health.”

Earlier this year the Government announced tax breaks for capital investment in workplace wellbeing – but capital investment means building showers or bike-sheds. “What will impact most isn’t building a shower block but workplace wellbeing programmes, like getting employees to wear devices that track fitness or to participate in smoking cessation programmes. There’s nothing for companies who invest in such programmes” McPartlan points to a company where 30% of staff smoked. The employer put a smoking cessation programme in place, freeing employees up to attend classes. “If this company succeeds in stopping 10 to 20 people smoking, what’s the likely impact on the health system? They’re far less likely to need health interventions – but the Government isn’t saying ‘we’ll give you a tax break on the cost of those classes’. It’s all at the employer’s cost, whereas the benefit will be felt by society and the Irish economy.” Richard Wynne, a director of the Work Research Centre, as well as a director of the European Network for Workplace Health Promotion, says the big incentive for healthy workplace initiatives is an ageing population.

Kevin McPartlan, Ibec director of prepared consumer goods.

“And generally as we age we get sicker. That, tied with the fact that people have to retire later, and so stay well longer, is the single biggest motivator.” In Germany there’s a €500 incentive per worker per year for health promotion. Wynne explains this comes from social insurance, which is dedicated to health (and which also operate in countries like Austria, Sweden and Finland).

“Under German law, because these are public insurance funds, each fund must engage in workplace health promotion. The incentive for the employer is that the more active s/he is in providing healthy workplace activities, the more their social insurance premium goes down.” This July, a groundbreaking pilot programme — ‘Thrive, action plan to drive better mental health and wellbeing’ – will begin in the UK West Midlands. As part of the initiative, employers in 140 small-to-medium enterprises across the region will get a grant (‘wellbeing premium’) of £100-£250 per employee to support staff wellbeing.

“We want to test whether a fiscal incentive creates improvement in how employers support their staff. We want to reduce amount of sick days and amount of presenteeism,” says Sean Russell, director of implementation for the West Midlands Mental Health Commission.

With Birmingham having the youngest population in Europe and the West Midlands a growing elderly population, the region has a £3.9b gap between services used and available funding. The annual mental health spend is £12.6n.

“We asked how we could improve the region’s economic viability and started thinking about a strategic economic plan, with focus on mental health a strong component part.”

Russell, a police superintendent and mental health lead for West Midlands Police, has been seconded for two years to implement Thrive. He says many employees don’t turn up for work because of poor mental health. “In some organisations, they won’t disclose it. They’ll say they have a bad back. We’re trying to reduce stigma attached to mental health issues and provide a really strong wellbeing focus. Individuals who keep themselves fit and healthy are less likely to suffer with mental health problems – they have greater resilience and coping mechanisms.”

Employers will receive a wellbeing toolkit to help them institute improvements in employee health. Active travelling to work will be promoted. Employers will be encouraged, for example, to put a table tennis table in the office or get staff to sign up for gym membership. They’ll be recommended to implement a range of measures to help keep staff mentally well, i.e. mindfulness, CBT or line manager training in mental health awareness, able to ask questions like: Are you sleeping ok? What’s your relationship like? How do you keep yourself active? How do you deal with low-level stress and anxiety?

Inviting local banks in to give employees free financial health checks is another possibility — as are healthy eating talks and attention to musculo-skeletal health. To illustrate kinds of possibilities envisaged, Russell explains: “L’Oreal trained hairdressers have an app that prompts them every hour they’ve been on their feet to check how they’re feeling. It shows the whole body. If they feel their back/wrist/elbow a bit sore, there’s a 30-second interactive exercise regime to help fix that.”

Here, McPartlan points out that Ibec represents companies employing more than 70% of everybody employed in the private sector in Ireland. “If we energise our membership on workplace wellbeing and that has a significant impact on overall health and wellbeing of these employees, it will be felt on a societal level.” Today, with fun activities planned for workplaces – ranging from choir recitals to beauty and self-care, from digital detox breakfasts to protein ball desk drops – it’s time our Government got truly, fiscally, serious about their commitment to employee wellbeing.