WorkHealth, Fitness and Wellbeing	Healthy people, healthy workplace
X

RATIONALE

We believe there are compelling reasons for our organisation to focus on employee health, fitness and wellbeing. Principal among those reasons is our belief that

¡	when staff are fit and healthy, they experience feelings of wellbeing, are pain free, have more energy, vitality and enthusiasm, are happy in this jobs, are more productive and have less absences.

¡	our organisation benefits from the workplace atmosphere generated by fit and healthy people, from increased productivity, and from less absenteeism and presenteeism.

We believe that in a sedentary society any emphasis on health needs to include an emphasis on fitness. Lack of fitness is a key driver in the causation of the metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological dysfunctions. It's a big ask expecting to stay healthy without keeping fit.

Contrary to popular opinion, it is not unsafe workplaces that are the major contributors to absenteeism, presentism and worker's compensation claims; on the contrary, it is body system dysfunction caused in large part by motion starvation and lack of personal and career development.

Recent history suggests that at the same time as workplaces have become safer, the people working in them have become unhealthier – a trend reflective of community health standards generally.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN HEALTH AND SAFETY

We believe we have a responsibility to lead the way and set an example to Victorian commercial and public sector organisations in establishing a new and vigorous focus on staff health, fitness and wellbeing.

Accidents happen to people; they fall off things, things fall on them, they cut off parts of their body, take in noxious fumes, trip over cords and down steps. Some are due to carelessness, others to ignorance or stupidity. Some are just accidents beyond anyone's control.

However, we believe that unless we make a clear distinction between health and safety, between accidents and incidents, dysfunctions and injuries, medicine and health, under current modes of operation our OH&S costs will continue to escalate.

Whilst we believe that body system dysfunctions are caused, in large part, by lifestyle circumstances, as an organisation we've put in train a strategy, programs and assessments to improve health, fitness, wellbeing and psychological resilience.

SYMPTOMS OF PERSONALLY GENERATED

BODY SYSTEM DYSFUNCTIONS

Metabolic

Musculo-skeletal

Psychological

- aerobically unfit

- over-weight

- high blood pressure

- depression

- sleeplessness

- snoring

- sleep apnoea

- headache

- tired, lacking energy

- low libido

- diabetes

- elevated blood fats

- elevated cholesterol

- cardiac insufficiency

- irritable bowel

- cancer

- ...

- musculo-skeletal pain

- bones out of alignment

- arthritis - bone inflammation

- lack of strength

- lack of flexibility

- lack of mobility

- torn ligaments

- torn tendons

- torn muscles

- bulging discs

- sciatica

- ...

- stress

- anxiety

- irritability

- difficulty coping

- depression

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN 'HEALTH' AND MEDICAL'

The safety and worker's compensation industries have long relied on the medical industry to sort out and deal with health problems. Many of these problems don't require a medical intervention; they are not medical problems they are health problems and fitness problems - people are in poor physical condition.

Getting them into a medical loop can lead to expensive and drawn out procedures. It's reactive, tends to focus responsibility away from the employee. But it's a big ask expecting to get better by having someone do something to you, sooner or later you have to do something to yourself.

Like the Medicare system, the workers' compensation system has created a dependence mentality and fuelled an epidemic of poor health, with the ultimate prize being a payout. The incentives go to the losers.

From this ...

To this ...

MEDICAL

• Rehab

• Symptom masking

• Dependence generating

• Fragmenting

• Drawn out

• Expensive

• Dualist and reductionist

• Complicated

• Passive

• Some-one else's responsibility

• White coat therapy

• Manipulation, drugs, surgery

• Payout

• A cost

HEALTH

• Prehab

• Health restoring

• Recuperation generating

• Defragmenting

• Quick

• Cheap

• Holistic

• Simple

• Active

• Personal responsibility

• Tracksuit therapy

• Exercise, diet, stress management

• Recovery

• An investment

From this ...

To this ...

REACTIVE

• Chairs, desks, gell pads

• Doctors

• Case managers

• Rehab providers

• Physiotherapists

• Insurers

• Lawyers

PROACTIVE

• Health monitoring
• Health and fitness development
• Personal development
• Career development
• Management development

Not many people ever ended up fitter and healthier in a surgery or a pharmacy.

We are committed to keeping health and fitness problems out of the medical loop. If the health and fitness industry is unable to deal with a problem, then it becomes a medical problem.

As distinct from primary medical care, primary health care is looking after yourself. Secondary health care is the advice you get from people that gets you focused on looking after yourself better, doing the things that stimulate the body's recuperative power.

If all else fails, see a doctor.

THE OH&S FIREWALL

In particular we believe it's time to put up a firewall between non-work-related, privately-generated body system dysfunctions and work-related injuries. In doing so we believe there will be a two-fold spin-off

1. Staff will be fitter and healthier, they’ll feel better.

2. There will be savings to our OH&S budget.

We believe that we create that firewall by being concerned and vigilant about the status of the health, fitness and wellbeing of our staff.

THE WHFW MODEL

We've reached the point in workplace history where the costs associated with poor health are exceeding the costs associated with poor safety. It's time to focus on the health side of the OH&S equation and to establish a separate and distinct focus on WorkHealth, Fitness and Wellness (WHFW) within our workplaces.

We're committed to providing our staff with information about

¡ health

¡ fitness

▪ aerobic fitness

▪ strength

▪ flexibility

¡ diet

¡ personal development

¡ career development

ABSENTEEISM, PRESENTEEISM AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION

We believe that absenteeism, presenteeism and elevated numbers of workers’ compensation claims are reflective of the health, fitness and wellbeing of our staff. These costs can be measured in terms of absenteeism, presenteeism and workers compensation premiums.

THE CHOICE

We believe that as an organisations we can make a choice - either to make a modest investment in encouraging people to keep themselves fit and healthy or face the high costs associated with presenteeism, absenteeism and workers' compensation

MEASURING THE RISK

¡	We have established appropriate tools to regularly assess and monitor the health, fitness and wellbeing of our staff.

¡	We insist that our staff be involved in health, fitness and wellbeing programs as part of our corporate responsibility to them and our organisation.

¡	We support people at risk to become fitter and healthier.

¡	In particular we run prehab and rehab programs for people at risk of ▪ metabolic dysfunction ▪ musculo-skeletal dysfunction ▪ psychological dysfunction

¡	We are committed to assisting our staff to improve low levels of health, fitness and wellbeing which are impacting on their work and their lives generally - people who are not physically and/or mentally strong enough to perform the routine tasks in the jobs for which they volunteered.

¡	We are committed to assisting people who come to work tired, haven't slept well, get frequent headaches and migraines, are anxious and depressed, put up with excruciating musculo-skeletal pain, have abdominal pain ...

¡	Whilst we are not a soft, slow-moving target for privately generated body system dysfunctions, we are committed to assisting people to turn poor health into good health.

¡	We support our staff in their quest to become fitter and healthier.

¡	We support staff who seek to improve their career status.

¡	We support and uphold the values of family life. We support and assist people living through family turmoil.

¡	Whilst we are critical of therapists who incorrectly ascribe the cause of a personally generated dysfunction to 'work' rather than lifestyle, we will work with staff and a wide range of health, fitness and well-being advisors in the quest for better health.

¡	We monitor levels of unplanned absenteeism and, to the best of our ability, assist those staff with health problems to restore poor health to good health.

¡	We are an employer of choice.

GOALS

We have established targets and aim to reduce the costs to our organisation of

▪ absenteeism

▪ presenteeism

▪ workers’ compensation

▪ staff turnover.

We believe these costs can be contained by the implementation of a systematic occupational health and fitness strategy.

We conduct occupational health and fitness audits and health climate surveys.

We recognise that large numbers of people are not keeping themselves fit and healthy enough to do their jobs without breaking down. They are exposed to the risk of all manner of body system dysfunctions, metabolic, musculo-skeletal and psychological. It affects our business and makes it imperative for us to do something about it.

THE BIG RISKS

We recognise that the two big health risks are

1.	musculo-skeletal dysfunction - bones out of alignment.

2.	stress - the inability to successfully manage one's internal and external environments - the difference between what you're getting and what you want - the rebellion of the Self from lack of time, attention, affection and thought

MUSCULO-SKELETAL DYSFUNCTION

We recognise that there is an epidemic of musculo-skeletal dysfunction within our organisation. Our target is zero incidents of musculo-skeletal dysfunction.

We require our staff to be strong and flexible enough to do their work tasks with ease and we accept our share of the responsibility for seeing that minimum standards of strength and flexibility are attained by all staff.

We are committed to our staff having sound ergonomic work stations and sitting at them in a posture that supports healthy musculo-skeletal function. Our managers and supervisors are trained to advise staff about their posture.

We are committed to assisting staff to improve their levels of strength, flexibility and mobility.

We are committed to track-suit therapy in our provision of in-house prehab and rehab strength and flexibility training programs.

Risk management

We recognise the risk we shoulder of personally generated body system dysfunctions becoming a corporate responsibility. To this end we are committed to:

¡	auditing the risk

¡	educating staff about what they need to do to protect themselves from musculo-skeletal dysfunction

¡	assisting staff to improve their strength and flexibility

¡	monitoring progress

¡	rewarding staff who keep themselves fit and healthy and staff who are working toward their health, fitness and wellbeing goals

¡	not accepting responsibility for workers’ compensation claims that cannot be attributed to work-related injuries – this only encourages poor workplace health and fitness performance

¡	training our managers and supervisors to better manage the health, fitness and wellbeing of their staff

¡	employing OHFW staff who are fit and healthy themselves and qualified in the field of health, fitness and wellbeing and who have the commitment and ability to manage 'at risk' staff and run in-house health, fitness and wellbeing programs.

STRESS

BODY SYSTEM STRESS

Principles

¡	The body is an eco-system and the major body systems are inter-related. When one system becomes dysfunctional, the symptoms of that dysfunction may be registered elsewhere in the body.

¡	The mind is just another body system.

Western medicine is not as well acquainted with these inter-relationships as Chinese, Ayurvedic and traditional medical systems are. Those systems are more likely to make a diagnosis on the premise that the cause of the dysfunction is rarely at the site where the symptom is manifest. Western medicine on the other hand, reaches for the pad and writes out a prescription to mask the symptom!

To illustrate the concept of the cause not being at the site of the symptom, we're familiar with the psycho-somatic relationship - ie, when the mind becomes stressed other parts of the body may register symptoms of the stress as well - blood pressure goes up, cholesterol levels go up, people feel tired, they can't sleep, headaches increase, skin becomes itchy ...

When people get those symptoms - particularly headaches, poor sleep and lack of energy, they immediately think there's something wrong with their mind - they're stressed, or depressed, when, in fact the fault may lie somewhere else. The whole ecosystem is unhealthy, it's starved of adequate nutrition and exercise, as much as it is having difficulty coping with the external and internal environments.

It would be an inadequate treatment that prescribed a pill to mask a symptom instead of treating the cause of the problem; for instance, prescribing a cortisone cream to calm down a rash, when the rash was stimulated by the extra cortisol produced by a stressed out mind!

But there's another side of the coin. What is generally less well known is that when other body systems are in poor health, one of the symptoms may appear in the mind - as stress, or depression - it's known as the somato-psychic relationship.

It's important then not to be too hasty in diagnosing stress and mind dysfunction as a solely mental condition - on the contrary, the mind is just another body system and when all body systems are working well, it is highly likely that the mind too will be also working well.

The case for keeping one's self fit and healthy is compelling. The case for organisations focusing attention on health, fitness and wellbeing is likewise compelling.

LIFE STRESS

We monitor the risk of stress and other psychological dysfunctions using a range of tools including

▪ Mind and Body Profile

▪ Stress Risk Profile

▪ Metabolic Dysfunction Profile

▪ Fitness Profile.

Poor scores on these profiles suggest that something is going on inside the mind or the body, or both, which needs some attention.

Because we believe that a big problem could have been solved easily when it was a small problem, we believe it’s good business to assist people to deal with small problems before they become big problems.

We encourage our staff to lead balanced lives. We insist that our senior managers provide leadership in this respect and not wear long hours as a badge of honour. Because we’re fitter and healthier we get our work done Quicker!

We insist people take breaks, that they take their holidays and their long service leave.

WORK STRESS

Because we refuse to make work an easy target for all manner of psychological complaints, we are diligent and vigilant in our attention to workplace stress.

Work satisfaction

We recognise that being in the right job contributes to the health, fitness and wellbeing of our employees.

We recognise that staff health, fitness and wellbeing suffers if

¡	people not in the right job, are miles away from the job they'd really love to be doing and/or don't know what they want to do when they grow up!

¡	people lack of autonomy

¡	there is poor front line management - particularly lack of interest, lack of regular feedback, an inadequate appraisal system, and managers wanting to get on with their work.

¡	people have to put up with poor workplace design

¡	jobs are of a demanding and/or repetitive nature

¡	jobs require people to sit down all the time

¡	jobs dull and boring work

¡	there is a lack of personal development training

¡	there is a lack of career development training

¡	there is a lack of physical training

¡	family lives are disrupted

¡	people lack personal resilience

¡	there is a Monday-itis and Friday-itis and mid-week-races-itis culture

We are committed to the establishment of a dynamic and happy workplace.

Added to this there is an increased level of work stress when people are in jobs that

▪ don't suit their personality

▪ don’t suit their intelligence strengths

▪ they’re not passionate about

▪ they’re not good at and for which they lack aptitude