Healthy people, healthy workplace

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There are a lot of factors to take into account when you're employing people. Health, fitness and wellbeing are three of them.

One slice of the mix is whether the people you are proposing to employ are fit and healthy enough to do the job over a long period of time without breaking down. (One organisation I worked for employed a bus driver who weighed 140Kg. Eight weeks later he slapped a compo claim on them for deep vein thrombosis - and won. After that the company put potential recruits through a fitness test.)

Being fit and healthy and having a commitment to keeping oneself fit and healthy is an important qualification for any job. Unless they're some sort of a sheltered workshop, no organisation can afford to employ people who are going to break down under the strain.

MEDICAL ASSESSMENT

Many organisations require prospective staff to go off for a medical examination, but a medical assessment is not sufficient. In many instances it's about as rigorous as getting people to blow on a mirror. If it fogs up they're in.

Then there are the organisations that require people to complete some sort of medical assessment at the start of their career and never bother to revisit it. Over the years the people become progressively unfitter and unhealthier and sooner or later want to sneak their hand in the workers' comp bucket.

FITNESS ASSESSMENT

What's needed is a fitness assessment, when a person first gets a job and then every year thereafter. This way small problems can be detected before they become big problems.

It's pretty simple to administer and could include a range of profiles

• Metabolic Dysfunction Profile

• Fitness Profile

• Musculo-skeletal Risk Factor Profile

ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL

You can build a fitness factor into the selection process. Having the health, fitness and wellbeing package in good shape is a qualification for the job, like academic qualifications and experience. You're not just employing a head!

Of course you'll need an equal opportunity, anti-discrimination and disability clause, but for the majority of appointments that's not a big issue. Your overriding philosophy is that you want to employ fit and healthy people - and assist them to stay fit and healthy while they are working for you.

All things being equal, you'll employ the fitter person.

The word will soon get around that the VWA employs fit and healthy people. If you want a job there, make sure you tart up your health and fitness CV before you go for an interview!

In a few short years the word will get around. The VWA is serious about the health, fitness and wellbeing of their staff.