http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/The FitSense Australia Wellness Forum(c) 2007 FitSense Australia Pty LtdITCN.COM Enterprise Forum Software5Pulse, Sorry about the delayed reply, I have been a bit sluggish after the holidays. :) I cannot answer why we are always sluggish after our break; maybe it is because we wish we were still on holidays. I would definitely not be recommended a health program start straight after a break. Firstly, many people are still away throughout January, but mostly because January is often a time to settle in and plan for the year. My recommendation would be not to start a program until late Jan/ early Feb. As a service provider, the first few weeks of January are generally pretty quite for us for this reason. In regards to keeping New Years resolutions, I think the key is similar to most goal setting. It needs to be a realistic and achievable goal, and it needs to be something you are actually dedicated to working at. This means setting out an action plan and actually working towards it. This article might be of interest: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-big-questions/201001/5-ways-achieve-your-new-years-resolutions Hope this helps. Ben http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread66.aspx1/19/2010 4:18:24 PMFew ideas here. Firstly, why do so many people fail to follow through with their new year resolutions? Secondly, people seem to come back to work after the break sluggish when you would think they should feel refreshed. Do wellness programs work over this period when people are so sidetracked or is it best cutting it off over this period?http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread65.aspx1/12/2010 4:42:16 PMCongratulations to FitSense Australia on the highly effective corporate wellness services that FitSense has delivered to ActewAGL over the last few years, and which made up a significant part of the ActewAGL program which just won the [bold]Best Workplace Health and Wellbeing Program[/bold]at the Safe Work ACT Awards (22 October 2009). http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread64.aspx11/4/2009 10:05:17 AMThere were two different articles in [italic][bold]The Canberra Times[/bold][/italic] today which made me think again about how corporate wellness programs can help to improve the health of society. One of the articles was about the large number of overweight people who think they are a healthy weight - in other words, being overweight has become the norm. And the other article highlighted that 1 in 5 people in Australia are affected by chronic pain and that this costs the economy $34.4 billion per year. Corporate wellness programs that provide factual information about good health benchmarks (eg, healthy weight ranges and healthy BMI ranges) and the benefits of physical activity (eg, for achieving/maintaining a healthy body weight and the circumstances under which it can be used as a chronic pain management strategy) can facilitate people taking steps to improve their own health, and help individuals, workplaces and the country as a whole to reap the benefit of widespread health improvement.http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread63.aspx10/19/2009 10:58:05 AMWhat are some good goal setting principals and what has been shown to work? I feel the program we are currently running has some excellent health measures and reporting back to the employee and employer but I am really keen to develop staffs ability to set goals. I understand that goal setting is a vital part of achieving change long term but writing down "I will lose 15kg in 6 months" and actually achieving it is very difficult. I have read a little about SMART goals, any info would be greatly appreciated. Another area I get a lot of feedback in is individuals lacking in motivation to change. What is the link (if any) between setting a goal and that leading/driving motivation to change? Any other motivation tips others have would be greatly appreciated. Pulsehttp://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread62.aspx9/21/2009 10:22:25 AMInterestingly, on this topic, a recent report has identified a direct link between staff health and organisational performance. Right Management's Wellness & Productivity Management Study looked at 28,000 employees across 15 countries; the results shows that organisations that managed health well, increased performance by 2.5 times. Those organisations that managed staff health poorly were 3.5 times less profitable. Now that is a big difference and directly highlights the financial impact of staff health. Of concern, was that only 51% of Australian workers felt that their employers promoted good staff health. This means almost half of all employers can improved initiatives to improve staff health and ultimately improve company profits. http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread61.aspx6/30/2009 11:04:57 AMWe've had some discussion on this forum about the known relationship between poor employee health conditions - eg, overweight and obesity - and the impact they have on absenteeism and reduced productivity. And several contributors have noted how knowing that this relationship exists doesn't necessarily drive employers to invest in corporate wellness programs and questioning why this is so. Limited budgets and the benefits of such programs being medium-longer term rather than short term have been cited as two of the reasons. But I think another factor may be that knowing about this cause and effect relationship in theory is different to having specific statistics that speak for themselves in front of you. Consequently, I think the value of corporate wellness programs may be heightened in the minds of employers if they are regularly presented with a flow of specific statistics that show what this cause and effect relationship between poor employee health and absenteeism and reduced productivity may mean to them in real, specific terms. A good example of this is a recent Finnish study of Government employees which showed a strong link between higher relative weight and more short (1-3 days) and long (>3 days) sickness absences from work. The study involved 5386 females and 1452 males who were surveyed between 2000-2002, and whose sickness absence records were then followed up until the end of 2004 (mean follow up 2.9 years). A third of the women and nearly half of the men were overweight, and one in seven (both women and men) were obese. The study found that the risk of short term sickness absence for obese women was 48% higher than for women of normal weight and the risk of long term sickness absence was 77% higher than for women of normal weight. Among obsese men, the risk of short term sickness absence was about a third higher than for men of normal weight and the risk of long term sickness absence was more than double that of men of normal weight. These findings are highly relevant and should be confronting to most employers because the profile of the study group was quite representative of the general population and many large employee groups in terms of percentage overweight/obese, and the relationship between their overweight/obsese status and increased absenteeism was so marked. Perhaps the message about poor employee health and the negative impact it has on the workplace will speak more pertinently to employers if it is presented via summaries of specific studies like this. http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread60.aspx6/29/2009 11:30:36 AMFatCat, This is a really interesting point and one that probably given enough focus when constructing health programs; be it for a corporate or community environment. I am by no means an expert in this area but the development of appropriate social networks is important for any walk of life. A really interesting take on this is 'The Tipping Point' philosophy that little things can make a big difference. It is a book of the same title by Malcolm Gladwell. This philosophy indicates that most individuals have ~150 people in their life that are close enough to influence them. There is then a point where the key members of this network start influencing others. So, as you pointed out, your social network impacts your health. Thanks for your comments. Ben http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread59.aspx5/20/2009 5:27:55 PMA recent U.S. computer modelling study has shown that people's social networks cause them to become overweight and stay that way. It showed that most people follow the bodyweight trend of the social network they are most connected with. Not only that, it showed that even if an individual who is part of an overweight social network loses weight, he/she will put the weight back on because of the influence and workings of the overweight network. And even if a couple of individuals from the same or simliar overweight social network(s) try to lose weight together they will still fail because of the "majority rules" nature of the social networks. This study, along with a range of others that have looked at the group dynamics of overweight populations, adds to the body of evidence that shows that many weight loss programs are likely to fail. On the positive side though, this computer modelling study did show that sustainable weight loss is more likely to be achieved if an individual who is attempting to lose weight becomes part of a social network which has a group BMI lower than that of the individual concerned and lower than that of the individual's normal social network. I wonder if this research could be used in the development of corporate wellness programs which have a sustainable weight loss focus. More specifically, I wonder if lower BMI mentor or support groups could be used to facilitate and foster the weight loss efforts of particular individuals in a workplace setting. It seems to me that such groups could work but only if they were small and met regularly, as the study showed that the key to weight loss success via lower group BMI interactions was "high connectivity" which I take to mean strong, regular links and a sense of group attachment. FATCAT http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread58.aspx5/15/2009 4:13:18 PMFatCat, I agree. It is very encouraging to see some government actions. This highlights the importance of maximising staff health. Not only is it beneficial to the employer, but it is beneficial to the government as it will assist in reduced healthcare costs. You may be interested in the following blog posts: - WorkHealth - http://www.fitsense.com.au/fitsense_blog/index.php/2009/04/06/workhealth-workplace-health-in-victoria/ - National Government - http://www.fitsense.com.au/fitsense_blog/index.php/2009/03/06/the-government-encourages-corporate-health-programs/http://www.fitsense.com.au/wellnessforum/thread57.aspx5/11/2009 4:05:03 PM