Mr. Sim Beng Khoon, Director, Workplace Health and Outreach Division, Health Promotion Board (HPB), talked about how changing behaviours can lead to a healthier workforce at the recent AIA Vitality Summit 2017.

1. Changing Behaviours for a
Healthier Workforce in Singapore

2. Workplace is a key setting to influence Health
Behaviours, Engage Employees & Improve
ProductivityResident Population
Nearly 7
in 10 are
in the
workforce
Local workers spend most of their waking hours at the
workplace, with as many as 80% working longer than their
official hours
Source:
MOM, 2016
Workplaces are high-potential touchpoints
Source: Morgan McKinley Working Hours Survey, 2014, Singapore
Source: Ministry of Health (2010), National Health Survey 2010, Singapore.
Diabetes
Hypertensio
n
High
Cholesterol
Obesity
Daily
Smoking
Physical
Activity
Working Population 9.9% 23.5% 18.1% 11.0% 15.7% 15.7%
General Population 11.3% 23.5% 17.4% 10.8% 14.3% 19.0%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
Key Health Statistics among Working Population
Indicators where working population is
worse off than gen. pop
Need to enable and
support local workforce to
stay healthy to remain
employable
WHP can increase workers’
productivity
Workers with access to
comprehensive WHP
programmes have lower on-
the-job productivity loss
than those with weaker
WHP programmes*.
Source: HPB Study, conducted among SHA2014
applicants
2

3. The 3 Ks to an impactful Workplace Health
Promotion (WHP) Programme
Know the
People
Know the
Business
Know the
Programme

4. Right Siting
Right Timing
Relevance
Know the People
Where is the best place to
reach out to the target
audience?
When is the right time to
hold the programme?
What is important and specific
to them?

5. Know the
People
Cracking the code to impact the hard-to-reach sectors through the 3Rs
Right Siting Right Timing Relevant
Bringing healthcare to
non-conventional sites
E.g. Taxi service centres,
bus interchanges, office containers
Case Study: Bringing health programmes to
Drivers

6. Cracking the code to impact the hard-to-reach sectors through the 3Rs
Right Siting Right Timing Relevant
Window of opportunity during
monthly taxi servicing downtime of
3-5 hours
Conducting Health Screening for
Bus Captains at 4am to match
operational schedules
Know the
People
Case Study: Bringing health programmes to
Drivers

7. Right Siting Right Timing Relevant
Cutting up of taxi for ergonomics
training
Using relevant teaching tools to help
them understand better
Work-related
E.g. Ergonomics, Fatigue Management
Age-related
E.g. Chronic Disease Mgmt, Vision, Hearing
Establish a health check centre at major
taxi service centres
Personalised one-to-one coaching during
next taxi servicing
Case Study: Bringing health programmes to
DriversKnow the
People

8. Benefits achieved…
Know
the
People
Pre-post results show significant improvements in health
Of those with abnormal screening results
 More than 50% were newly detected cases which would otherwise have gone
undetected.

9. What makes an impactful Workplace
Health Promotion (WHP) Programme
Know the
People
Know the
Business
Know the
Programme

10. Know the Business
What is important to the stakeholders?
What are the value proposition??
How do we quantify and measure impact that are meaningful to
them?
How do we align our deliverables with the stakeholders’ goals?

11. Case Study: Creating a Win-Win
partnership through Healthy Workplace
Ecosystem
Know the
Business
The Healthy Workplace Ecosystem (HWE)
leverages shared facilities and amenities
managed by developers to create a
supportive environment that makes healthy
living accessible for all workers in the vicinity
Through HWE, HPB aims to:

12. Know
the
Busine
ss
Measuring and building the Value
Proposition for Developers
What is important to the land developers?
• Providing value-add to their tenants through health programmes
• Increasing tenant satisfaction (strengthens tenant retention)
Ecosystem increases tenant engagement and satisfaction
TENANT SATISFACTION
TENANT ENGAGEMENT
AWARENESS OF LANDLORD
*survey findings from Science Park and Techplace

13. Showcasing the health benefitsKnow the
Business
BEHAVIORAL IMPACT
HEALTH IMPACT

14. Know the
Business
Since its launch in 2014, we have
grown from
1 to 32 ecosystemsWorking with over 16 landlords to create 32 Healthy Workplace Ecosystems at their properties
CLUSTERS
International Business Park
Changi Business Park
Aperia
Techlink
Science Park
TechPoint
TechPlace
e.g.
Reaching out to > 35,000
unique participants through
Healthy Workplace Ecocsystems

15. What makes an impactful Workplace
Health Promotion (WHP) Programme
Know the
People
Know the
Business
Know the
Programme

16. Know the
Programme
- How do we design our
programme to be
easy and attractive for
workers to participate?
- How do we support
our participants in
sustaining their
behaviour change?
- How do we measure
the impact of our
programme?
- How do we articulate
the value
proposition?
Planning Implementation Evaluation

17. Know the
Programm
e
6 Health Topics
Food Physical Activity Mental Well-Being
Chronic Disease
Management
Communicable
Diseases Smoking

18. Two important sources of help:
1) HealthHub
www.healthhub.com
Information on healthier living that
can be shared with your colleagues
Workplace programmes that are
offered by HPB
Know the
Programm
e
2) HPB Online
www.hpb.gov.sg/workplace

19. Know the
Programm
e
Examples of offerings on
HealthHub
Food
Physical Activity
Buying healthier ingredients
Increasing access to healthier meals
Tapping on National
Steps Challenge
Regular Exercise Classes

20. Know the
Programm
e
Examples of offerings on HPB
Online
To be eligible for this scheme, your
company must have either:
• a group annual sales turnover of not
more than S$100 million or
• a group employment of not more than
200 employees.
The SME Workplace Health Package will
cover the following topics:
• Chronic Disease Management
• Mental Well-being
• Active Living
• Healthy Eating
• Capacity building for
managers/supervisors

21. One last thing…
Support for your Business Excellence
Framework
- Fulfil Employees’ Health &
Satisfaction criterion in the BE
Framework
Get recognised for your efforts
in health promotion
- Gain competitive edge in
attracting and retaining your
people
- Seize the opportunity to
benchmark your health
promotion efforts with other
companies

22. The End