FitSense Australia Wellness Forum

Reducing workplace stress and achieving a healthy work/life balance appears to be a priority concern across the board. Interestingly, in the same Polish research, the respondents were asked to list what kinds of healthy living support they would like from an ideal employer. They could choose 3 things from a list of options. Among the results were these interesting statistics: 34.6% said that managers should ensure that work is "not too stressful", 29% said that a high level of safety and comfort in the workplace should be assured, 24.9% said employer supported medical and health check ups and 13.5% said the provision of stress management training. Clearly, the importance of stress management and stress minimisation to employees comes through in this feedback.

Just as interesting, in response to the same question, less than 5% nominated a healthy canteen menu and smoking cessation programs on their list of priorities. The fact that these were rated lowly may not mean they weren't important to the respondents. It may just be a further reflection of how important stress management and associated issues are in comparison. Or it could be that good nutrition and quit smoking messages have already penetrated the thinking of the respondents and don't need further emphasis.

This is definitely interesting research. Thanks FatCat.

Work hours are getting longer (in Australia anyway) and this is an indication that employers are expecting more from employees.

While stress management showed up as a priority for both age groups, what is interesting is that other priorities varied between age group.

What this highlights is that employers, and workplace wellness programs, need to take into account the varying needs of different age groups.

Thanks again FatCat and keep the research coming.

Ben

Fatcat

This looks like an interesting study. Stress seems to be hard to measure in real terms (eg like a cholesterol reading) but it does have a significant effect on people of all age groups.

Why do people think stress is such a problem around the world? Is it because of work (eg longer hours, larger workloads)? or could it be mediated better by individuals increasing their activity levels and awareness of what triggers their stress response?

Pulse

I thought readers of this forum might be interested in some recent research from Poland where they interviewed 1138 employees from 250 different med-large organisations (>100 employees each) and asked them what they wanted from workplace health/wellness programs. The interviewees were divided into two age brackets (25yrs-35yrs and 45yrs-55yrs respectively) with the express purpose of finding out if older employees wanted different types of workplace wellness services to younger people. The reasoning behind this was that Poland like many other countries has an ageing workforce. Interestingly, the older employees rated employer provided/subsidised medical/health services and stress management/reduction strategies highest. The younger employees also rated stress management/reduction strategies highly but rated employer provided/supported work based sporting opportunities more highly than medical/health services. This research illustrates that stress is an issue for both older and younger employees, and that effective wellness programs need to be diverse and cater for the wellness interests of employees of different ages.