Health and appiness find oxygen at work
Rob Stock looks at a hi-tech Kiwi wellness scheme that gets results.
New Zealand’s workers could be healthier and happier, and make more money for their bosses, if they had access to wellness schemes at work.
Giant non-profit health insurer Southern Cross Health Society has begun marketing BeingWell, a worker wellness programme based on its own long-running
Switch2Well programme.
It hopes companies around the country will sign up, at a cost of
$60 a year per employee. Double Olympic gold medallist and New Zealand sportswoman of the year Lisa Carrington is the face of the scheme, which utilises wearable technology to help staff track their progress towards their wellness goals.
Massey University academics studied the impact of Switch2Well on Southern Cross, and estimated the insurer saved about $1070 a year per employee through reduced absenteeism and another
$270 per employee a year in productivity savings.
Chris Watney from Southern Cross said: ‘‘The study also suggests that the monetary value of improvements in retention are enormous and could run into the millions.’’
Employees who get the chance to join a BeingWell programme with their employer complete a health questionnaire through the BeingWell app, and are given a score from one to 100.
The programme focuses on four areas of health: eating, sleeping, mental health, and exercise. People set goals, and work towards them, with their progress tracked through wearable gadgets such as Fitbits.
Employers get to see aggregate data for their employees to track their workforce, but they cannot see an individual worker’s personal data.
Southern Cross hopes employers will also see absenteeism drop, and workers become more productive and engaged.
Watney recently completed his first ever half-marathon in Auckland as a result of Switch2Well.
‘‘In 2015 we had a 19 per cent reduction in turnover; in 2016 that figure was 8.5 per cent and we’ve had a 25 per cent reduction in absenteeism over five years, results we attribute at least in part to the success of our Switch2Well programme,’’ he said.
‘‘Given that the turnover cost for top employees can reach as much as 150 per cent of annual salary, that’s a significant saving.’’
There’s another number Southern Cross hopes employers will take notice of. A survey of workers last year showed 56 per cent didn’t think their employer was doing enough to support their health and wellbeing.
At a launch conference last week in Auckland, employers watched presentations on the positive impact wellness programmes could have on employees, with moving testimony coming from law firm Simpson Grierson.
Jo Copeland, a human resources director at Simpson Grierson, says the law firm had a particular focus on mental health in its workplace wellness programme.
Depression, anxiety and suicide were all recognised problems in the legal profession, Copeland said.
‘‘One of the key things is the number of people coming out of university suffering from depression and anxiety.
‘‘These young lawyers are suffering expectation overload. They are doing more than previous generations, and all of it in the spotlight of social media.
‘‘The firm has worked hard to build a supportive, non-abusive work culture, where anxiety and depression are not permitted to take root.’’
Copeland said the focus on mental wellness was triggered some years ago by the personal crisis of a young lawyer who had become convinced he would be committing ‘‘career suicide’’ unless he pretended to be heterosexual. ‘‘He was suicidal, and cried himself to sleep at night,’’ Copeland said.
When the partners found out, they were determined no young lawyer would ever face such a crisis again in their firm, and in 2014 Simpson Grierson became the first organisation in the country to get a ‘‘Rainbow Tick’’ recognising its commitment to diversity and equality for everyone regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation.
Another transformative moment for Simpson Grierson came when one young lawyer took the brave decision to reveal violence she had suffered at the hands of her ex-partner.
‘‘It was a harrowing story,’’ Copeland said, but it led to the firm implementing a domestic violence policy.