The 2006 Canada's Healthy Workplace Week runs from October 23 to 29, and is overseen by the Canadian Healthy Workplace Council. The Council includes representatives from leading organizations and practitioners in the field of workplace health, and is dedicated to increasing awareness of the positive connection between employee health and organizational productivity, profitability and long-term success.

A healthy workplace is one that focuses on healthy lifestyles, occupational health and safety, and organizational culture. A healthy workplace is also a place where individuals and the organization both thrive and take responsibility for improving their own health, as well as creating a healthy workplace environment – healthy people in healthy organizations.

The theme for Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week 2006 is Make a Difference in Your Workplace! Whether you are the CEO or on the front lines, you can make a difference!

Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week is about celebrating what is going right in your organization and learning about what can be done to make things better. What is working well in YOUR organization? Experience from workplaces across Canada has shown that a healthy workplace has the following characteristics:
• Continually integrates health into business planning;
• Goes beyond health and safety;
• Fosters organizational effectiveness;
• Maintains a positive work atmosphere that is safe, supportive, and satisfying;
• Creates an environment that makes it easier for employees to take responsibility for their own health.

Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week is a web-based initiative that highlights both events and resources. The website www.healthyworkplaceweek.ca has ideas for any type of organization seeking to enhance its success through promoting the wellbeing of employees and a healthy workplace environment.
• If your organization is new to workplace wellness, this week could be an opportunity to get started (there is a section on the website with some helpful tips) and to learn from other workplaces.
• If your organization has already started a workplace health initiative, then this week could be the ideal time to expand on your initiative and celebrate what you have accomplished.
• If you are a workplace health professional, the website has lots of strategies that you can use with the organizations you work with.

The Canada’s Healthy Workplace Week website is available as your one-stop, year-round resource for workplace health.