Healthy Workplace Month: Round-up

Healthy Workplace Month is coming to an end, and we hope you’ve taken this opportunity to turn increased awareness into action. This month, we’ve shared some great tips and information to support starting a wellness initiative at your workplace.

To make everything available in one place, here is a round-up of our Healthy Workplace Month posts:

• Get Active!
  A recent study found that sitting for long periods of time is a risk factor for early death – even if you exercise regularly! As a result, experts recommend taking a “movement break” every 30 minutes. We share some tips for how to add some movement to your work day and get active with your coworkers.
• Eat Better!
  The positive outcomes of healthy eating include reduced anxiety and stress, elevated mood and energy, and reduced risk of disease and illness. Research has also shown that employees are more likely to stay with an employer that values their health and well-being. That’s a great reason to promote a healthy diet at work!
• Support Mental Health
  Did you know that 47% of working Canadians consider their work to be the most stressful part of daily life? Supporting mental health at work can help improve employee creativity, cooperation, engagement, retention, loyalty, morale, productivity and recruitment. In this post, we share ideas for prioritizing mental health in the workplace
• Get Involved!
  People who volunteer report higher levels of self-confidence, happiness, and psychological well-being. Volunteering can also help you manage and lower your stress levels. We have some great tips for encouraging employees to give back – both at the office and outside of work.

Why should we make the effort to promote health and well-being at work? According to a 2015 working paper from Harvard and Stanford Business Schools, health problems caused by job-related stress can lead to fatal conditions that wind up killing about 120,000 people each year. That makes work-related stress potentially more deadly than Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, or influenza!

If that’s not enough, a 2008 survey conducted by Gallup and Healthways found that poor health behaviours are strongly associated with high levels of presenteeism. Presenteeism is defined as physically being at work (i.e. present) but not working (i.e. poor productivity).

This certainly supports the argument for creating workplace initiatives to promote wellness. But if you’re not quite convinced, we encourage you to read this blog post. It contains even more data in support of the creation of a healthy workplace!

We hope these ideas help you get started on your own workplace wellness initiatives. With the right approach, you can support your employees’ well-being in celebration of Healthy Workplace Month, and all year round.

For more information about Healthy Workplace Month, please visit healthyworkplacemonth.ca.