1. november 2008 | working well
editorialby Nancy Kuyumcu
Canadians are generally
healthy people. Thanks to a
high standard of living and public
health efforts, such as smoking
cessation, immunization and seat-
belt safety programs, most of us
enjoy good health and we’re living
healthier for longer.
But there are inequalities in health status, due to genetic,
personal and certain socioeconomic factors. A person who
didn’t finish high school, for instance, is more likely to
be obese than someone with a post-secondary education.
Lower-income Canadians are less likely to be physically
active than wealthy individuals. Blue-collar workers
experience over four times the injury rate of white-collar
workers.
A report by the Public Health Agency of Canada says
that there are “many things we can do—both individually
and collectively—to create the conditions that are the
foundation of good health.”
Employers have a significant role to play: The workplace
is an ideal venue for health education and health promotion.
There’s certainly a need for it: This year’s sanofi aventis
Healthcare Survey asked plan members to identify risk
factors for certain diseases, and a surprisingly large number
of them came up short. Only 60% of respondents mentioned
proper diet and nutrition as a preventive measure for obesity,
while only 57% said exercise, and a mere 4% said watching
one’s weight. To prevent cancer, less than half of respondents
(45%) mentioned smoking cessation.
There are several things you can do to promote the
health of your workforce. Educate employees about disease
prevention through posters, internal newsletters and lunch
’n learns. Ensure there are healthy food choices at work
and offer incentives to encourage physical activity and
smoking cessation. Use employee focus groups to find out
what’s causing workplace stress and address those issues.
Also improve work-life balance by aligning HR policies
regarding work hours, workload and personal time-off.
Helping employees achieve better health and life balance
will mean lower benefit costs for you and less time and
money lost to short- and long-term disability leave.
These suggestions are but a few—any significant impact on
employee health requires workplace health to become a part of
your business strategy and corporate culture—but they make
for a healthy start. W
volume 2, number 4 november 2008
www.benefitscanada.com/workingwell
editor ­ Nancy Kuyumcu 416.764.2817
nancy.kuyumcu@rci.rogers.com
senior editor, conferences Kerry Maddocks
(on leave)
assistant editor, conferences Jennifer Hughey 416.764.4144
jennifer.hughey@rci.rogers.com
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editorial advisory board
Wendy Bott ACS Buck Consultants | Edward Buffett Buffett Company Worksite
Wellness | Fanny Karolev Campbell Company of Canada | Garth Lockwood Petro
Canada | Wanda McKenna McMaster University | Suzanne Paiement Towers Perrin |
Dr. David Satok Rogers Communications Inc.
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rogers publishing limited
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professional publishing
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business professional publishing
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Employers, are you
doing your part?
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