Health Literate Organisation
To achieve the goal of living healthier, longer, better lives, these days people take better care of their health than ever before. On average, people in the workforce spend over one-third of their weekday time at work. Hence, organisations play an important role in promoting their employees’ health. The Ministry of Public Health’s major policies focus on the promotion of every organisation to become health literate. Indeed, the Ministry’s support for health literacy is integral with an individual organisation’s policies, missions, organisational structures and environment management. Besides, health literate organisations must provide tools and communications that make it easy for their employees to understand and use information to improve their health and wellness more efficiently. This is also aligned with AIA’s commitment to help other organisations across Thailand improve their workplace health as per AIA’s brand promise to help Thai people live “Healthier, Longer, Better Lives”. To become health literate, organisations must include workplace health as one of their main policies. They must also allocate budget for health and wellbeing facilities and services. Examples of relevant health activities are annual employee health check-ups, sports clubs, exercise activities, and nutrition classes. In some cases, organisations will also provide training to enhance employees’ knowledge and skills and equip them with a more deeply-ingrained health literacy. Additionally, organisations must create health awareness for their employees, with effective media, channels of communication and simple language that is easy to understand. For example, the organisation can place stickers with calorie-burning information on staircases to encourage employees to take the stairs rather than the elevators. Also, organisations should consider creating an appropriate and supportive working environment for health promotion, such as providing a fitness center, sporting grounds, aerobic areas or a recreation zone. Thailand’s Healthiest Workplace by AIA Vitality profile will help organisations to understand their employees’ health and wellbeing profile, in terms of physical health, mental health, nutrition, physical activity, sleep and lifestyle, while understanding how effective each organisation’s wellness program is and how they can be improved. Both employers and employees should not only get the results of organisational health, but also learn how important this data is in order to encourage behavioural change and attain their health goals. This will finally lead Thai people to their healthier, longer, better lives.