Last updated 15:54, Wednesday, 26 March 2008

WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE: Occupational health nurse Jan Woloszyn in the works surgery at Iggesund

THE importance of health and fitness has proved a big talking point over the last few years, with high-profile, celebrity-endorsed health campaigns from the likes of Jamie Oliver and new fitness measures being rolled out across schools.

Now businesses and companies are realising the importance of health and fitness in the workplace, and are beginning to introduce initiatives to support employees and ultimately their wellbeing within the organisation.

The rationale for employers to provide their staff with an exercise and health package has never been stronger. Work-related stress has been a major concern for employees and employers over recent years.

Long hours, work/life balance, work-related pressures, and a perception of not being appreciated by employers are keys issues for employees. Many professions are predominantly sedentary and require high levels of focus and mental input.

Without a sufficient and regular physical stimulus, we all suffer from a huge array of problems which will certainly be a distraction from our work responsibilities.

Poor posture, backache, neck tension, poor concentration, physical symptoms of stress (heart disease, headaches, physical and mental fatigue, anxiety, reduced levels of confidence, low self-esteem), are just a few examples from a long list of commonly experienced problems.

Further down the line, businesses suffer due to increased sickness absence, high staff turnover, low morale, and suboptimal levels of productivity, all of which have a negative impact on profits.

There is, of course, no one magical solution to these problems. However, an effective corporate fitness service, tailored to individual company needs, can have an enormously positive effect on all the problems mentioned.

In today’s competitive work arena, every effort needs to be made to maximise the motivation and effectiveness of the key people in a workforce.

A regular, structured, personally- designed exercise programme is the most effective method of catering for the unique set of needs, constraints, and objectives that we all have as individuals.

One company which has a sustained track record in employee investment through health and fitness is Iggesund Paperboard.

Based at Siddick, near Workington, Iggesund Paperboard has a long-standing history in governing and developing initiatives geared towards employee health and welfare.

The site has its own occupational health nurse Jan Woloszyn, who explained: “We continually work to develop and expand the services we offer to our employees.

“Occupational health has changed to a proactive service with the emphasis placed on prevention. It’s something which has been a continual aspect to this company for a long time but we have collectively worked to further develop and expand on the services we offer to employees in recent years.

“The workplace is ideal for promoting health and wellbeing and to promote our expanding services we are doing a series of presentations to our workforce through team briefs.

“A questionnaire is also being presented to gather feedback regarding possible future developments such as the feasibility of assisted gym membership and the cycle-to-work scheme.

“The approach is to support active living, promote physical and mental health, smoking cessation, and the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders. The focus will be on approaches that encourage self-management and personal responsibility providing support to enable employees to make healthy choices.

“We invite all our employees to attend a confidential Periodic Health Review/MOT – the tests are simple and it takes an hour to complete.

“The results collated from the tests allow the employee to make informed choices about their health and lifestyle in which they can begin to take preventative measures.

“In turn these measures may significantly improve their health and help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

“An important aspect to our services is the fact that they are very much made easily accessible to those who wouldn’t usually use services such as these.”

Iggesund’s occupational health initiatives play only a small part in ensuring everyone leaves work fit and healthy, but this responsibility is shared with all employees.

One initiative to take effect at the company is the smoking advice service, set up to coincide with the new legislation which came into effect in July 2007, in which employees access advice and provisions to help them stop smoking.

This follows the same protocol as the NHS, the advantage being it is easier to access the service while at work, with employees avoiding lengthy waiting lists.

The most recent initiative and well- received service at Iggesund has been the introduction of an on-site physiotherapy service. Jan began a three-month trial in October last year and was amazed to find the amount of employees who showed interest.

George Collins, from Egremont Physiofirst, visits the site on a regular basis to run the physiotherapy service.

Jan continued: “The uptake was brilliant; it was really well received. The amount of employees who came to us to utilise the programme meant we were able to establish it permanently after the pilot period had ended.

“The benefits of having this in-house is that access to treatment is quick and easy, George will also be able to develop a detailed knowledge of the site and the work our people do, enabling him to educate and advise on back care and manual handling operations.

“It’s important we provide access to a range of information and advice services for our workforce, especially as a large majority of injuries and ailments are found in personnel from manufacturing industries.

“But all of our methods and services are very much run in conjunction with our employees’ GPs. And I and other colleagues are working to promote and raise awareness, outside Iggesund, on the rewards of having such services within other organisations.

“Not only are our services highly beneficial for our workers, they are highly beneficial for the company.

“We’ve seen huge benefits with the likes of identifying health issue trends; from the information we’ve collated we have been able to identify similar problems in employees who work in a certain area on site due to the nature of work they have to encounter.

“From that we can adapt or devise programmes to deal with those trends.”

Michael Hunter, human resources manager for Iggesund Paperboard, said Iggesund was commiteed to the promotion of health and wellbeing in the workplace: “Health promotion is high on the agenda for this company,” he said. “Jan has been instrumental in both pushing existing occupational health programmes and establishing new ones.

“We have noticed a reduction in sickness absence and are working in partnership with outside agencies, unions and most importantly our employees, to develop and deliver sustainable programs which have the ultimate aim of making us all healthier.

“It’s not always easy to quantify but the benefits of this approach will be more visible in the longer term.

“As a company we have a broad range of services but we must continue to work at raising the profile to our colleagues on site.”