A fundamental shift in corporate culture happened in the last few years, moving away from the old motto”people are our greatest assets” to a new and punchier slogan: “Healthy people make healthy and profitable companies” was presented at the 10th annual conference of the International Employee Benefits Association in March 2010. As such, corporate health and wellness management solutions have rapidly become one of OH&S and HR managers’ main focuses.
The recent recession, instead of negatively impacting on corporate health and wellness programs, has reinforced the need for organisations to invest in their employees’ health and wellbeing. Most employers recognise that they not only have moral reasons to be proactive in encouraging their staff to change their behaviours towards health and wellness, but they also have money-making reasons.
In the last decade, corporate health management has changed and expanded. CEOs and senior managers used to be the only target audience to benefit from it, and it used to be called executive health management. Corporate health and wellness solutions are now offered to organisations as a whole, including every layers of the hierarchy. Hence the new trends in corporate wellness Australia that is now involving changes in communication and technology, health initiatives and health promotion, corporate healthcare, and company policy.
Communication & New Technology
Corporate Wellness Managers use the new technologies to offer corporate health solution and advertise their benefits to their staff. The communication goes via branded web portals, online health and wellbeing programs, online Health Risk Appraisal, telephone health coaching sessions, e-health library, online health newsletter, podcasts, webinars, and other e-seminars.
Health and Wellness Initiatives
Corporate wellness programs are becoming more targeted to specific health improvements rather than general fitness initiatives. Corporate health and wellness programs include services such as Health Risk Appraisals, Wellness Annual Programs, Health Seminars, Health Expos including stands on corporate fitness, corporate wellbeing, corporate massage and corporate nutrition, Health Checks, Corporate Gyms and Center for Corporate Health, Health Consultations, Flu Vaccination Campaign, and Health and Wellness Coaching.
Corporate Healthcare
A study conducted byVicHealth in Victoria reported that the direct cost of workplace injury and disease in Australia is over seven billion per year nationally. With this figure in mind, stimulating and empowering employees to adopt a self-management and pro-active approach to their health and wellbeing should be on the top of most Corporate Health and Wellness Managers’ list of priorities.
Company Policy
Organisations are now rewriting their company policies to include a culture of optimal employee health, and reinforce the message using management commitment. They are even going as far as extending incentives to required goals in performance reviews.
By including corporate wellness in your company culture using performance reviews, you ensure that the evaluation of the results is built in to the heart of the business.
For more information on Corporate Health and Wellness, or Corporate Health Management , contact Healthworks on 1300 90 10 90 (International: IDD 61-2-9954-1888) or contact us.
