It will make the job more enjoyable, the company more profitable and the world a better place. And all you have to do is really mean it.

Have a peek inside Amex Canada’s headquarters in Markham, Ontario and you’ll see all the things people normally associate with the term "healthy workplace". There’s a subsidized fitness centre. On-site massage and physiotherapy services. Regular seminars on health, fitness and wellness. A cafeteria that stocks all kinds of healthy foods.

Healthy, right?

Sure, if a healthy workplace was just about wholesome foods and regular exercise. But at a time when high levels of stress and low levels of morale aren’t hard to find, the definition of "healthy" has started to shift. Look more closely around Amex’s offices and you’ll see employee recognition programs dubbed "Shining Stars" and "Bright Ideas". You’ll hear about a stock option program through which employees are encouraged to buy into the company. You’ll find out about the "Let’s Listen" sessions, designed by management to coax feedback out of employees.

Okay, the program names are a little kindergartenish, but the intent is clear: to encourage more communication, provide work recognition and give employees a feeling of inclusion in the company. Collectively these programs are part of Amex Canada’s health and wellness program, one that earned the company the "Canada Award for Excellence in Workplace Health and Wellness" from the National Quality Institute (NQI) and a snug spot on the "Top 50 Companies to Work For" ranking from the Report on Business section of Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

But, even though the company offers employees more than 50 programs, it’s not really about programs, says Stephen Gould, vice-president of human resources. "You can’t just throw programs out there into a workplace," he says, noting the fundamental thinking in the organization has to go along with it. "It’s ultimately about making sure you’re listening and demonstrating to your employees that they’re important, and putting their ideas into practice."

So if a truly healthy workplace isn’t just about fitness programs and fruit in the cafeteria, then what is it about?

The concept of a healthy workplace has evolved over the years. The first wave focused on the basics of creating a safe and not-unhealthy workplace. It then grew to include positive wellness, which led to the introduction of fitness facilities and the availability of healthy foods. And what we’re now into is the third wave, one that addresses work-life balances, stress and levels of morale.

Following a leadership change in the early 1990s at Amex, Gould says, the company wanted to expand its business and it also wanted to transform itself into one of Canada’s top employers. "In order for us to have a successful business on the customer front, our employees have to feel good about coming to work," he says. "If they feel good about what they do, then they’ll serve customers better and that will lead to better business results. In that framework, everything we do is focused around employees, from making them happy in a shallow sense, to providing good development opportunities and leadership. It’s a more substantive contribution for them feeling good about coming to work."

At the end of the day Amex is doing this for business reasons, says Gould, so not only will they get better results (such as doubling their business in the past five years as it has in Canada) but the company will also be able to attract and retain talented people. "We’re not running a camp here. We’re running a business, and we believe if the employees are happy, we’ll end up with a stronger business proposition," he says.

Inspired leadership

In Ottawa, the Canadian Labour and Business Centre (CLBC) reports in its third bi-annual survey of business and labour leaders that good working relations and high morale are the two top measures of a healthy workplace. "I think it’s still larger companies and they may be looking at it from the point of view of trying to make themselves an employer of choice in anticipation of a greater shortage of workers," says Derwyn Sangster, director for business at the CLBC. "There’s going to be a greater likelihood of skill shortages as workers retire over the next five to 10 years. Companies are going to have to attract workers and keep them through something that goes beyond compensation."

Sangster defines a healthy workplace in terms of three basics: health and safety, physical wellness and mental wellness. "That’s in terms of what’s there," he says. "But in addition to that, we’ve also found it’s important to try and get a sense of where wellness fits into the culture or into the priorities of the workplace throughout the company. Is it nice to have but something we can dispense with if the going gets rough? Or is this where senior management says it’s a fundamental aspect of the way we see ourselves doing business?"

The shift to a healthy workplace tends to happen in one of two ways: the installation of inspired leadership or a crisis. "There’s always the carrot and the boot," says Geri McKeown, president of Wellness Matters, an NQI associated firm based in Toronto. "There are inspirational leaders who believe in this and who are moving forward. And then there are crises that happen, and that’s the boot."

For Irving Paper, a Saint John, New Brunswick division of J.D. Irving Ltd., it was definitely the boot. In 1991, a bitter year-long strike hit the pulp and paper mill. Management operated the plant and new technology was installed which, not surprisingly, led to downsizing of employees -- all in all, a dramatic change for employees. "So when we came back in 1992, we knew we had to make changes in the way we managed our people," says Peter McIntyre, human resources manager. "And the union realized they had to make changes in how they dealt with us, so we all came to the conclusion at the same time that if we didn’t work together, we wouldn’t have a place to work at all."

So, together with the union, Irving sat down and brainstormed how things could be better. It started with a three-day training session on how to work with other people and how to resolve issues while still getting the best results. A joint committee of union and salaried employees was struck to deal with the issue, and the committee set off on benchmarking trips in which they visited other plants across North America, including General Electric, Levi Strauss and DuPont.

Programs were introduced over the next decade and today the plant has informal meetings, wellness clinics, guest speakers and a new training centre. But employees were also given more responsibilities and empowered to make more and more decisions about the work. "For instance, in our TMP process in which they take wood chips and make pulp out if it, if there’s a quality issue there and the employees manning the control centre see the issue, they can change the process without having to go to their team leader for permission," says McIntyre. "They’re empowered to make that decision. They’ll make the changes and let the supervisor know afterwards, rather than pour the stock and wait for the supervisor to come by here so they can ask "What do you want me to do here?"

Collectively, the programs have worked. McIntyre sees it in the numbers. Serious grievances that can’t be resolved at the floor level average six or seven a year for 320 employees and the company’s insurance costs are down. In 1994, Irving was paying out approximately $500,000 in short-term disability costs, and by 2000, that figure had dropped to $230,000. "We see it in other areas too. Absenteeism is down and when people are on sick leave they would stay out longer," says McIntyre. "Now they come back earlier on a modified work program because we made the job more user-friendly."

Five guidelines

The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) Centre for Professional Nursing Excellence in Toronto is another organization representing workers in a field that has reached a crisis point. In 1999, the Ontario Ministry of Health established a task force to examine issues in nursing. "We just went through that negative period and were feeling the results in health care, and patients were complaining," says Irmajean Bajnok, director of the association. A call for papers was sent to various hospitals and doctors offices, and with 80 submitted, the RNAO had plenty to work from.

Whittled down from that were five broad categories that the association turned into guidelines for hospitals and offices to begin their work around creating their own healthy workplaces.

Sustained structures: Structures need to be in place to allow continuing or long-term workplace issues to be addressed. These are the plans, the programs and even things such as procedures for handling everything from grievances to suggestions. Part of sustaining structures involves scheduling, such as offering flexible hours as an option, as well as the part-time/full-time mix of staff in a workplace and appropriate scheduling of vacation time. In short, when there are problems or opportunities, the system has to have mechanisms that allow them to be addressed. Employees don’t want to hear "We have no procedure for that."

Healthy leadership: Organizations need a model for leadership that identifies and cultivates desirable qualities and practices. A good place to start is to understand the different leadership styles likely to be found in the workplace: dictatorial managers; leaders who empower others; leaders who focus on clinical practice and client issues rather than budget issues; administrators who make quality patient care the leading goal; and leaders who create an organizational synergy that involves front-line staff as well as senior management in workplace decisions and issues.

Professional excellence: In healthy work environments, professional excellence is a critical factor. It is the one thing that all the diverse people in the workplace can have in common -- a desire to do a good job, to be respected as professionals and to make a difference. It involves creating a harmonious organization, and creating a system of consistent beliefs and values that cross over between departments and are shared by all. This helps avoid clashes between departments operating under different philosophies, each believing its own view is the best or its own values the most important.

Human investment: In service organizations such as nursing, the staff have to be up to date and working well. Human resources issues include supplying continuing education and development opportunities; it also includes enabling staff to create their own development goals and opportunities. (In non-nursing fields, this is seen as the opportunity for personal and career growth and for promotion.)

Sound relationships: Staff need to be able to communicate openly and effectively with one another, with their supervisors and even with senior management. A big part of this is empowering staff to feel comfortable to communicate in the first place -- to provide feedback, ask for input or encourage dialogue between colleagues. Conflict resolution must also be addressed -- including how to have healthy conflicts and debate.

"A lot of what we did at this time was really sharing early initiatives and we want to look at results," says Bajnok. "Because our bottom line is two things: First is providing quality patient care and then comes recruitment and retention of staff. We found that what’s good for nurses in a quality work environment is good for patients."

One area that the RNAO identified that’s consistent among all the successful healthy workplaces is the role of leadership. A leader has to say, "‘Part of your job is you’re going to be on the healthy workplace committee and it’s a working committee,’" says the NQI’s McKeown. "It’s not an add-on because the moment it is an add-on, it’s at great risk. A leader’s buy-in says, "This is part of the way we do business and this is part of your job."

Back at Amex, Gould says the buy-in from management was easy because they can easily spot the results. "Our president is a strong sponsor of this and that definitely helps," he says. "So it’s not just a human resources thing. But the business leaders are very supportive of these things because they see the pay-back. Our business has doubled in the last five years, so they can’t argue that this is a waste of time."

Sense of control

As important as management commitment is to the process, the other half of the equation is buy-in from employees. Suzanne Fergusson, manager of health and well-being at MDS Nordion in Kanata, Ontario knows this all too well. In 1991, the company underwent privatization and saw an increasingly competitive market in its field of producing radio-isotopes, radiation and related technologies used in disease prevention.

MDS Nordion went first to the employees and did a needs assessment to begin designing its healthier workplace. As a result, almost 10 years later, its workplace is also recognized for its health and wellness efforts by the NQI and its headquarters features things like an ergonomically sound environment, programs such as leadership training, effective communication and creative problem-solving skills.

Fergusson is adamant that as much as top-level support is needed, employee buy-in is critical. "When you look at stress in an organization, if you have high demand and high control, then people are still okay," she says. "A lot of companies tend to focus on the behaviours of individuals, but in our environment, there’s been tremendous work looking at the systems within the organization, the work itself and giving people control over how it’s done."

Fourth wave

If there’s one thing -- other than solid results -- that Amex, Irving and Nordion all have in common, it’s that they have all have taken time to get to where they are today. Ten years for both Irving and MDS, and roughly eight for Amex. And if there’s one bit of advice that they all three offer, it is to have patience.

"It takes years to develop a healthy workplace because we’re looking at organizational development here," says the NQI’s McKeown. You have to start with leadership buy-in, he says, move to planning, then implementation and then sustaining programs."

In other words, it’s not just about slapping programs into place, it about turning the way things are done completely upside-down.

"The biggest thing organizations want with this is that it’s quick and you can see results right now," says Fergusson. "But it’s a process and you’re always shifting and changing to meet the business needs in different ways."

And that next shift is moving in to even further refine the definition of just what constitutes a healthy workplace.

At Amex, that definition is broadening beyond the workplace. This spring, it moves into its ninth annual Amex Cares Day in which employees contribute to non-profit organizations. Last year, it put employees to work with charities such as the Salvation Army. It also offers a paid sabbatical program for employees to want to volunteer full-time at a community agency, and its offices house the Toronto Children’s Breakfast Club as well.

Now a cynical mind might suggest that, since Amex is in a service-based industry, sending its employees out to volunteer might make a nice bit of social marketing to brag about via press releases.

"Giving employees time off to contribute to charitable organizations, yes, that could be social marketing, but they don’t have to do it," says McKeown. "It’s helping the community and I think organizations know that they need to help communities."

"It’s a huge value to the employees if they believe the company’s doing it from a sincere standpoint, not just the public relations aspect," says Gould. "I think this is one of the things about our culture that employees really value and see it as part of having a good employer."

Perhaps this is the "fourth wave" of wellness -- a community or the civic model in which it’s about improving the wellness of the entire community. It takes on an almost spiritual aspect of doing the right thing for its own sake, of a company and its people deciding that that is the kind of environment they want to work and live in.

"We know that people come to work as whole people who they have lives outside their workplaces," says McKeown. "The stresses of the workplace impact on their personal lives, and their personal lives impact their work lives. So the healthier our communities are, the healthier people are."

Astrid Van Den Broek is a freelance writer based in Toronto.



The National Quality Institute

The National Quality Institute, or NQI, was founded as a non-profit organization in 1992 with funding from Industry Canada. It’s mission is fairly simple: to promote the concept of the "healthy workplace" and to help Canadian workplaces to become healthy.

The NQI is governed by a 25-member board and has a staff of approximately 15 employees. When it was founded, most of its funding was from Industry Canada. Today, it’s self-sufficient, receiving its funding through membership fees, the sales of its products and from the projects it carries out with individual companies and organizations.

Approximately 60 organizations are members of the NQI. They include big name firms such as Canada Life, IBM Canada Ltd., AT&T; Canada Corp., Celestica Inc. and Manulife Financial. However, non-profit organizations such as the B.C. Transplant Society and the Industrial Accident Prevention Association are also members, as are government departments such as Human Resources Development Canada and Health Canada.

Along with offering workbooks such as "Canadian Quality Criteria for Public Sector Excellence" and "Assessment Workbook for Private Sector", the NQI offers step-by-step programs for creating a better workplace called the "Progressive Excellence Program " and produces "Excellence Magazine".

The NQI also offers direct educational services. "We go in and we help people around our products and services," says Adam Stoehr, NQI’s manager of educational services. "So if an organization is trying to implement the Canadian Framework for Business Excellence, we’ll teach then the intent of the criteria and introduce tools like PEP to help them along the journey."

The NQI is perhaps best known for the Canada Awards for Excellence. (While the awards have been offered since 1983, the NQI took over administering them in 1992.) "It’s a recognition piece," says Stoehr. "It’s really to recognize the good work that organizations are doing in Canada and give them a way to show how well they’re doing against our criteria."

The NQI "Quality Award" recognized companies that show continuous achievement in seven areas: leadership, planning for improvement, customer focus, people focus, process optimization, supplier focus and organizational performance. The "Healthy Workplace Awards" recognize firms that promote, encourage and support healthy-workplace programs in the work environment.