Healthy bodies, healthy company

By VICKI JAYNE

AMP Banking has had a corporate health programme in place for four years and believes it has added "significant value" to its workplace.

Operations manager Noel Kirkwood sees the need for healthy, well-balanced employees as vital to today's business environment.

"Work is only one element of our employees' lives, so we want to ensure it is balanced with health, family and leisure time," he says.

Payoffs include increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and, importantly, says Kirkwood, "it increases the level of employee engagement and satisfaction with the company".

Its programme is administered by The Body Corporate, which organises a range of on-site traditional and holistic health services for employees during work hours.

While participation is voluntary, most employees take advantage of what's on offer.

There's a fair amount of choice. Services range from the pragmatic, such as flu shots, to the more esoteric - iridology checks - and a bundle of stuff in between.

Every employee has access to biannual health assessments that address such issues as fitness, diet, weight, and stress. Educational seminars are run on a range of health-related subjects, there's a personal trainer for the on-site gym, massage therapy, even a self-defence course.

The programme's worth is subject to continual measurement through quarterly reports on both tangible and intangible benefits.

Getting to grips with the gains will be part of a more coordinated, organisation-wide health and wellness programme at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

What had previously been handled in various ways by the company's various divisions is now being centralised and put on a more formal footing, says human resources manager Jenny Tudhope.

"We've been offering health and wellness seminars through our graduate induction programme for probably three to four years, but in terms of opening the whole thing up to all staff, that happened only last year."

Its health seminars, run by Corporate Wellness Systems, cover issues from general nutrition to sessions focusing specifically on women's health and men's health. Flu jabs and self-defence training have also been offered.

Other recent initiatives include the introduction of a programme called Heartsmart, which tests things like blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

"That's been received very well and we've also run fitness testing for the first time this year," says Tudhope.

Because the programme is relatively new, its value to the company has not been formally measured.

"Our plan is to look at it against such tangibles as sick leave and, ultimately, level of staff turnover, which is affected by a number of things. Looking over exit interviews, there has been some really positive feedback about these initiatives, but we want to track their worth on a regular basis."

Staff are to be surveyed shortly on what health initiatives or seminar subjects most interest them, to ensure the company is on the right track in terms of what it is offering. From the company's viewpoint, it is a case of providing busy people with access to the sort of information they need to manage their own health, says Tudhope.

"It's treating people as professionals.

"We know they put in long hours here at times, so we give them the health tools on site and they take from it what they will."

Recognition that employees don't always find the time between busy work days and full-on family lives to cater for their own health needs is a fairly common rationale for providing more services on site.

Auckland City sees its health programme as part of a broader focus on employee wellbeing that encompasses work-life balance strategies as well as workplace safety.

The latter has to be a primary focus when you are running facilities such as a zoo, says Auckland City's human resources director, Mike Richardson.

"Worker safety is key to our operations, so we are well focused on such things as regular safety audits and hazard identification training through our Accident Compensation-accredited employer programme."

Beyond meeting its obligations as a good employer, the organisation would like to be viewed as a preferred employer, says Richardson. That involves offering the sort of benefits that are going to help attract and retain good staff.

This might involve looking at options around flexible work hours, job sharing or working from home. It also includes 12 weeks' paid parental leave, support for study, support networks among specific employee groups, and in-house access to various health services.

"We have things like daily aerobics classes and twice-weekly yoga classes. We run health seminars, weight watchers' programmes, and get involved with fielding corporate sports teams around specific events such as the dragon boat racing. But the primary focus would be the work-life balance thing."

Richardson says feedback is positive.

"People do recognise Auckland City as a good employer - because of such things as flexibility around work hours, study leave, the help provided with upskilling, training and development."

Most organisations suffer from capacity not capability, he says.

"They have good people who do a good job but have big workloads - that's why our focus is clearly on helping employees get the balance right."

It's not a matter of telling them how to run their lives or their health.

"People need to be accountable for their own health, but you can set up an environment in which they can take advantage of various services."

* vjayne@iconz.co.nz