HEALTHY WORKPLACES: The price of a stressed workforce

Picture the Canadian workplace as a house you've just had inspected. The evaluator's report holds few surprises. The profit picture is improving, the job market is fairly positive, markets for the country's products and services are relatively strong.

The report includes a worrisome note, however. A hairline crack runs along the base of the structure. The Canadian workforce, the foundation of this particular building, is under considerable stress. Disability claims are escalating. Absenteeism and so-called "presenteeism" are on the rise. Productivity isn't what it could be.

Fixing the problem will be expensive; and yet, not fixing it is expensive, as well. Unhealthy, dysfunctional workplaces cost Canadian employers billions of dollars each year.

The solution, says Joan Burton, manager of health strategy for the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, lies in employers creating "healthy workplaces." This won't fully mend the fault, she acknowledges in her report, Creating Healthy Workplaces, but it will reduce health care costs and improve workers' quality of life.

Three considerations frame any assessment of the relative health of a workplace, Burton says. Is the physical work environment safe? Are employees supported and encouraged to live healthy lifestyles? Is the atmosphere, the culture of the organization, psychologically and socially supportive?

Creating a healthy workplace is hard work, she says, because action is required on each of these three fronts in an integrated way. And it generally takes about three years for the benefits to become obvious.

The concept of workplace health has evolved considerably since the 1970s, when the physical workplace alone was the focus of occupational health and safety initiatives. Although far from perfect, there are now guidelines and legislation to ensure that safety procedures are followed, that air quality is good and noise levels acceptable, that machines and equipment are properly maintained and that workers are properly trained to operate them.

The wellness movement in the mid-1980s added a new element - the promotion of healthy lifestyles among workers. A few large employers took on this challenge with enthusiasm, setting up in-house fitness centres and wellness programs.

"The local health unit comes in to talk about wellness issues," says Steve Holmgren, a human resources manager with a manufacturing firm in eastern Ontario. "They talk about diet, smoking cessation, sleeping for shift workers and so on. ... And our Employment Assistance Program services are strong."

Providing employees with support of this kind "makes good business sense," Holmgren adds. "We have been seeing, as every other company has been seeing, an increase in short-term and long-term disability claim rates and tremendous costs for us in prescription drugs."

Escalating costs such as these have opened the newest frontier in workplace health.

"It's clear that what's driving up the cost of prescription drug plans and disability costs is not physical health problems," says Dr. Graham Lowe, author of The Quality of Work: A People-Centred Agenda. "It's psychological, social or mental health problems."

In the IAPA report, Burton lists the hazards lurking in an unhealthy psychosocial workplace: Work overload and pressure, lack of control over day-to-day work, lack of social support from supervisors or coworkers, lack of training, poor communication, discrimination or harassment, lack of respect, emotional or verbal abuse, bullying, threatening behaviour.

In other words, and this probably won't come as much of a surprise, the intensity of your work, they way you are treated by managers and coworkers, and the way you are trained and supervised can directly affect your health.

Most business leaders have heard the healthy workplace mantra by now and many say they want one, with good reason.

Research indicates that employees in healthy workplaces are more productive and more loyal. And employers who promote workplace health tend to attract and keep good employees and appeal to the so-called "top talent" for which they often compete.

With so much at stake, you'd think Canadian employers would be leaping onto the healthy workplace bandwagon. But few are.

"The business case has been made," says Lowe.

"But it's very complex. It requires strong and clear commitment from leadership to do something about it."

Leaders don't take action for a host of reasons, he adds.

"They don't know about it. They don't have the skills. They don't have the time. They're short-term or bottom-line focused and they can't read the payoff in the investment.

"Plus there's a lot of inertia in organizations," Lowe continues. "They've done things a certain way and it's hard to think about doing it differently. It's also easier to talk about this than to do it."

So the hairline crack - a symptom of a dysfunctional, unhealthy workplace - remains. And yet, the house continues to stand - business continues as usual, profits continue to be made, and short-term concerns continue to take precedence over long-term solutions. Will it ever be repaired?

"There is the potential," Lowe believes.

"The recognition is there. There's a growing awareness. But even organizations that are trying to implement healthy workplace or employee wellness strategies don't do it deeply and broadly enough. It's not really embedded into the overall strategy of the organization. And that's the next step."

Look for more about these strategies in two weeks, on March 12, for our third instalment in our healthy workplace series.