Strong and committed leadership can make things happen in the world of corporate health and wellness. They commit resources, and remove barriers and obstacles.
A good example to illustrate this is the creation of the 2012 Olympic Park in east London. The Park was built over 200 hectares of highly contaminated land, by 40,000 workers, who spent 70 million hours on this huge project. No accident happened during more than half of these hours, which is a record for the Olympic Park organisation, which puts this record down to very strong leadership. They stated that their commitment to their employees was to:
• Manage risks to their health and safety;
• Provide safe workplaces and systems of work;
• Provide information, instructions, training and supervision;
• Engage enthusiastically with staff, partners, and suppliers over these arrangements.
As reported in the Campaign Guide Healthy Workplaces: Working together for risk prevention published by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and Healthy Workplaces.
In addition to these commitments, the CEO and the Chairman of the project agreed to join their forces and report on any major health and safety issues to the Olympic Delivery Authority board. Clear communication and strong leadership can definitely make a difference in the success of workplace health.
