Wellness Works

by Caroline Dolan

A number of Canadian companies have made significant strides in employee health and wellness. The challenge now is to convince the critics that wellness is more than just a nice thing to do, it's a business imperative.

Dogs are supposed to be our best friends, but in the case of a small group of employees working at Clearnet Communication's corporate head office in Toronto, it appears to be the other way around. Each month, about 50 employees take a brisk 10-minute walk down the street to a nearby Scarborough Animal Shelter to stroke a stray cat or walk an abandoned dog.

"The animals love the human interaction and the team is given a leash and a scoopy bag," jokes Linda Lewis, Clearnet's manager of corporate wellness, about the company's program. "As they return to the office, they benefit from another 10-minute walk for exercise."

The program, conceived and administered by a volunteer Clearnet employee, promotes physical and social well-being in the workplace. And while it may seem (literally) fluffy on the surface, scratch deeper and you'll discover it has roots in a deeper corporate philosophy.

"At Clearnet, we take a holistic approach to personal and organizational wellness," says Lewis, echoing the company's wellness mission statement. "We encourage positive movement toward optimal wellbeing through opportunities for, education and growth."

Many of Clearnet's 2,700 employees also have access to one of the company's two onsite wellness clinics (located in Scarborough, Ont., and Burnaby, B.C.) to have a massage, speak with a naturopath or, at cost, an aromatherapist. The dedicated wellness clinic—an old meeting room now painted in a soft yellow—is also available to employees' family members.

The company supports several other more traditional two-footed wellness initiatives including a monthly wellness newsletter, a page devoted to wellness on the company's intranet, quarterly healthy eating workshops, fitness classes including tai-chi, yoga and self-defence courses.

To date, Lewis says she hasn't been required to do a cost-benefit analysis showing how sick days declined in response to a rising number of wellness initiatives. In fact, she says, there's been an internal debate within the corporation whether or not it's even necessary.

Measuring the indirect and direct cost savings of wellness plans is a challenge. The issue gets to the heart of the challenge for employers when it comes to investing in corporate wellness programs. After all, it makes intuitive sense that employees who are fit and healthy are happier and more productive-and that's got to be good for the corporation's bottom line. Still, critics say that operations and organizations aren't doing enough and with the global marketplace at their doorstep, Canadian companies without effective, comprehensive worksite wellness and health promotion strategies could find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

"My sense is that we're only nibbling around the edges," says Ed Buffet, president and chief executive officer of Buffet Taylor, a Whitby, Ont.-based benefits consultant, of the state of employee wellness programs in Canada. Canadian companies, like Clearnet, have made significant strides in the implementation of comprehensive wellness programs, but by and large, he says, they're not doing enough. "With a few exceptions, Canadian organizations are being dragged kicking and screaming into wellness programs," says Buffet. "They have a great degree of difficulty in seeing something that is warm and fuzzy as a business imperative."

Buffet says Canadian employers need to look further than a ground-breaking 20-year wellness study conducted by the University of Michigan of more than two million employees working at more than 1,000 worksites across the United States. The resulting report, entitled "The Ultimate 20th Century Cost Benefit Analysis and Report 1979 to 200," provides much-needed evidence to prove that high-risk employees (those that are overweight or don't follow healthy lifestyle practices) have greater healthcare costs, are absent more often than low-risk employees and are less productive than low or medium-risk employees.

Here in Canada, Buffet has further evidence that while Canadian employers are moving the area of wellness and health promotion forward, they haven't reached their full potential. In 1996, his company undertook one of the first comprehensive wellness surveys in Canada, and has just published another, the Buffet Taylor National Wellness Survey Report 2000, showing that just 17% of 414 employers are providing comprehensive wellness programs.

Too often, says Buffet, an employer will implement a single wellness initiative and expect it to produce an immediate reduction in group healthcare costs. "If you are going to have a program that's cost viable and creates opportunities for significant behavioral change, you need a comprehensive wellness strategy," explains Buffett.

Ross Flood, wellness employee assistance program co-ordinator for Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) in St. John's, Nfld., has already converted to the notion that employee wellness programs are essential in today's fast-paced world.

In addition to counseling individual employees, Flood oversees the wellness programs for the 900 or so employees who administer the HRDC programs and services such as Employment Insurance and federal income security programs at 20 service points in 15 cities across Newfoundland and Labrador.

This is the second time Flood has been in this position (he left in the late 1980's to pursue a master's degree) and says he's seen a marked difference in the types of that employees are bringing forward in counseling sessions. There are more issued surrounding failed or flailing relationships, family and balancing of home and work, and addictions, in particular gambling. Flood says e also hears more about issues surrounding low morale and conflict, especially in the workplace, "People don't have enough time for themselves," he says, "Workplace wellness programs are a good reminder to individuals to take care of themselves."

But not all organizations are able to afford the cost of a full-blown wellness program. Linda Kezima, director of human resources for the Assiniboine Valley Health District in Kamsack, Sask., attended the Health, Work and Wellness Conference 2000 in Toronto this past October, and while she was inspired by what she learned about what other companies are doing, she said it would be difficult to implement many of the initiatives in her district, which employs nearly 700 people working in various hospitals and long-term care facilities in her rural district.

"We know that money isn't the ultimate driver in having a healthy and satisfied workforce," says Kezima, adding that the cash strapped health district is focusing on creative initiatives such as flextime, preferential shifting when necessary (When an employee becomes pregnant, for instance) and graduated return-to-work programs. "We can do a lot with a little," she says.

Another area where wellness is making inroads is within organized labour. The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union has put wellness programs on the bargaining table for it's 260,000 members working coast-to-coast in the country's airlines, railroads, boat building, fisheries and auto manufacturing plants.

"Were negotiating some [wellness] initiatives now," says Lyle Hargrove, director of Health, Training and Safety Fund, in Toronto. "We have an obligation to look after our members at work, as well as at home."

Speaking of walking the talk, Hargrove says they're convinced that wellness programs are beneficial, especially after having tried a few in a recent pilot initiative with union management and support staff.

Getting the buy-in of the union is critical to the success of the wellness programs in the workplace, says Hargrove. Workers are suspect of new programs introduced by the companies they work for, fearful that they may have a hidden agenda to erode or even eliminate workers' rights. The unions can help "sell" beneficial wellness programs and services to their members: if they save the company money in healthcare costs down the road, then everyone wins.

Canadian companies can't afford not to make workplace wellness and health promotion a business priority. "We have a lot of work to do," says Hargrove, adding that stress in the workplace is the No. 1 issue and the speed of change is only going to accelerate.

"I think we have a lot of disillusioned people out there who have achieved success but have found that it wasn't the panacea they thought it was-tough days are ahead and Canadian companies have to decide if they are going to be among the winners," says Buffett.

Robert Timberg couldn't agree more. "I personally think wellness programs are particularly valuable in attracting and retaining talent," says Timberg, who sets policies, strategy and programs for Nortel Networks' Global Environmental Safety and wok Life division from his office in Brampton, Ont.

Timberg stresses the need for employers to be smart consumers of wellness initiatives. "They can't be mere fluff and frills," he says, "You always have to be able to tie them into business."

Nortel's 23,000 Canadian employees enjoy access to on-site health and fitness centers in Calgary, Brampton, Ottawa and Montreal. The company will facilitate other programs, at cost, is enough employees want them. In Brampton, for example, employees have had access to lessons in judo, karate, ballroom dancing, even the guitar.

Is there a return on investment (ROI) for Nortel? "I'm positive we're getting an ROI," says Timberg, "but I can't prove it scientifically."

Nortels' philosophy is simple: give employees what they want because if you don't, some other company will and increasingly, that company is likely to be foreign.

The bottom line, says Buffet, is that Canadian corporations cannot afford to ignore this issue any longer. All the evidence points to the fact that healthy employees are more productive and cost less in the long term. It's simply smart business.

"We're now competing in a global marketplace-we can't just be the best nationally, we have to be the best globally," says Buffet. "My sense is that we still have some waking up to do."

Caroline Nolan is a Toronto-based writer and editor.