WHAT ARE ‘ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORTS’?

Both the physical and social environments at a workplace can have an effect on an employee’s health. Considering that many employees spend almost 60% of their waking hours at work, the factors and conditions of an employee’s work life have a great impact upon their overall health and well-being. Increasing knowledge and helping employees build skills are necessary steps in promoting health.  Supportive environments that facilitate and encourage living well at work help employees sustain or keep those healthy behaviours.  

Physical Environment

There are obvious ways that the physical environment can affect health. For instance, noise level, lighting, air quality and workstation design. The physical environment can also include tangible services that are made available to employees such as healthy food choices in vending machines or the cafeteria. The presence or absence of these types of tangible services may have a positive or negative effect on an employee’s health and well-being.

Social Environment

There are many ways that the social environment may impact employees health: work schedules, balancing work and home responsibilities, work organization, the quality of interpersonal relationships at work and the availability of training and support. Also, how an employee perceives the quality of their social environment at work can have either a positive or negative effect on their health.

Benefits of Environmental Supports

Having Environmental Supports help to:

• Motivate employees to start or continue with positive health behaviours.
• Stimulate employees who have not been involved in changing their health to consider adopting positive health behaviours.
• Reduce employee health risk at the workplace by providing a safe working environment.

Having environmental supports demonstrate, in a very tangible way, that the employer is committed to improving employee health and well-being. A supportive workplace environment provides employees with the encouragement, reinforcement and support necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle at work, in addition to a healthy lifestyle at home with family and friends.

WHAT DOES ‘WORK-LIFE BALANCE’ MEAN?

Work-life balance is a state of well-being that we each define in our own way. It involves setting priorities and developing a plan to effectively manage parallel responsibilities at home, work and at play. It involves communicating with all parties and realizing that we can’t be everything to everyone all the time.

When this balance gets upset, we experience work-life ‘conflict’ that can be associated with time crunches at work or at home, scheduling conflicts, and a feeling of being overwhelmed, overworked, or stressed by the pressures of having multiple roles. (e.g. employee, parent, friend). In turn, work-life conflict can lead to unhealthy outcomes such as poor eating habits, less time for physical activity, lack of sleep, working longer hours, unstable relationships, etc.

WHAT CAN WORKPLACES DO TO HELP SUPPORT WORK-LIFE BALANCE ISSUES?

More and more, employers are recognizing the negative effects and costs associated with work-life conflict. Workplaces that provide support for employees to achieve better work-life balance provide a competitive advantage for organizations. These types of workplaces meet business goals and improve job satisfaction and retention by helping employees to balance their work and family lives. Such workplaces also reduce absenteeism, improve accountability, as well as increase productivity.

When an organization acknowledges the person as a whole, the employee is more likely to feel supported.  Workplaces and employers can play a significant role in helping employees achieve work-life balance by creating more supportive work environments, providing more flexibility, and increasing an employee’s sense of control in their work.

WHAT ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR PROVIDING SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS FOR WORK-LIFE BALANCE ISSUES?

The following suggestions of Environmental Supports show several ways that workplaces can encourage and support employees. Developing policies and guidelines related to the environmental supports that exist in your workplace will provide added, ongoing support for employees in their efforts to develop and maintain healthy relationships at work and at home and to develop healthy lifestyle behaviour.

We recognize that all workplaces are unique; therefore not all suggestions will apply to every workplace. Consider these suggestions and investigate those that may be suitable for your workplace environment.
Or, explore others that we have not listed that might be relevant to your employees.

 Note:  You may notice that many of the suggestions have been included in previous initiatives. 
The suggestions have been repeated due to their relevance to the current topic, “Work-Life Balance”

Supporting Healthy Relationships at Work and at Home

Subsidies

Consider subsidizing daycare or providing daycare services at your facility.

Breastfeeding Support

Facilitate breastfeeding or breast milk expression in the workplace by providing private rooms, milk storage arrangements, adequate breaks during the day, flexible work schedules, and on-site child care facilities. For more information contact the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.  

Family Benefits

Consider providing flexible, family-oriented benefit packages that can be reassessed based upon family life situations. For example, parents could select different options based on the age of their child(ren), such as opting for orthodontic coverage for braces or day care coverage if children are young. 

Work Schedules

Consider offering alternative work arrangements or flexible work schedules such as compressed work weeks, working from home, modified or reduced work weeks, part-time, or job sharing. This may allow individuals to schedule their work time around family commitments to young children or aging parents. 

Retirement Options

Consider negotiating “phased retirement”, a program that allows older employees to retire gradually by reducing their full-time commitment over a set number of years.

Seminars

Offer employees a 30-minute break from their workday to attend a presentation on parenting provided by a community agency or parenting expert. Call the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit for a list of presentations or presenters on parent-child health presentations.

Counselling Services

Provide counselling services to employees and their families.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Provide an Employee Assistance Program designed to assist employees with drug abuse, or other problems, by means of counselling, treatment or referral to more specific concerns. For more information contact the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.

Meetings with More Informality

Consider making some meetings more fun and informal for relationships building purposes. Open the meeting by showing a comic strip on a related topic (Dilbert comics are a fun option), or share a humourous quote or poem. A simple game of “catch around the table” involving a soft, small ball will not only help your group generate more ideas, but will also emphasize the importance of engaging in active participating during a discussion. Begin by throwing the ball to one employee who shares their thoughts/inputs and then passes the ball to someone else. This game is particularly effective with brainstorming and encourages everyone to take part.

Education and Training

Provide and support education and training for new job duties, requirements or technology to all employees, or employees who change jobs responsibilities.

Scent-free Policy

Implement a scent-free policy in the workplace. Those affected by strong scents can experience physical symptoms that can range from being distracting to making them physically ill. For more information, visit www.ccohs.ca.

Work-Life Balance Survey

Implement a work-life balance survey/focus group with employees to determine what their specific needs are and how you can address them. Call the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit at 258-2146 ext. 3100 for sample ideas/tools.

Employee Recognition

Develop an employee recognition policy. Consider awards like “employee of the month” and recognize these individuals at team meetings.

Time-off and Financial Incentives

Consider providing paid time off to a limit of  “x” hours per year, or $“x” per year for additional educational opportunities.

Humuorous ‘Support’

Try encouraging humour in the workplace to help reduce stress. Provide comedy tapes for employees to view, or listen to, on breaks or lunch. Post comics on bulletin boards, or have a contest for the cleanest joke of the week or month.

Financial Counselling Support’Provide discounted rates for financial counselling from a local organization.
Educational SubsidiesExplore having subsidies for educational programs or other training programs.

Supporting Healthy Lifestyles

Take-home Options

Work with the cafeteria staff to implement a take-home dinner option from the food that did not sell during the lunch hour. Recognizing that families are stressed for time, healthy pre-packaged meals (refrigerated if required) that are quick to grab could be sold to employees to take home to their families. Or, prepare bagged lunch options for employees that want to leave at lunch and go for a walk, or to a fitness facility.
Walking GroupsEncourage the development of walking groups by obtaining copies of the “Windsor-Essex Walks at Work” resource, available from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit by calling 258-2146 ext. 3100.

Vending Machine Choices

Ensure vending machines offer a variety of healthy food choices such as pretzels, trail mix, baked chips, crackers and low-fat buttered popcorn. If the vending machine is refrigerated, include sandwiches, fresh fruit, low-fat yogurt and milk, and cheese in single servings. Ensure that nightshift employees have a supply of healthy food choices in the vending machines, especially if there is no cafeteria or the cafeteria is closed.

Healthy Food Policy

Develop a healthy eating policy for your workplace that identifies healthy foods to include in the cafeteria, in vending machines, and for catered meetings and events. Consider how criteria for healthy food choices can be incorporated into the tendering process for choosing cafeteria operators and caterers for business events. Sample policies and information is available from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.

Equipment and Facilities

Look for ways to make it easier for employees to be active travelling to and from work; install safe and secure bicycle parking and consider making shower/changing facilities available.

Cafeteria Choices

Offer nutritious food items, such as sandwiches made with lean meats, a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, cooked vegetables, whole grain breads and other healthy options in the cafeteria.

Workplace Teams

Form workplace teams or hold family events to support increased levels of physical activity as well as the development of healthy relationships between employees and between family members. Try bowling, golf or softball. Also, consider forming groups for activities like bicycling, Tai Chi, regular daily stretching or aerobics. Encourage walking groups, dancing groups or recreational teams for volleyball, softball or hockey. Show workplace support by providing sponsorship, prizes/incentives or the facilities to hold a class.

Weekly Features

Consider offering a weekly feature in the cafeteria to highlight nutritious food choices that are low in calories.

Food Storage & Preparation Equipment

Ensure that staff has access to refrigeration as well as a microwave and a toaster in break areas to allow employees to bring a greater variety of their own nutritious meals and snacks.

Employee Benefits

When renewing employee health benefit packages, ask for an option that supports nutrition counselling by a Registered Dietitian for the employee and their family. A Registered Dietitian is a qualified and reliable health professional that has completed a University Bachelor’s degree specializing in food and nutrition and has completed an accredited internship or graduate degree.

For more information about Environmental Supports and Policies and Guidelines
phone 258-2146 x 3104.