Only 5% of the Australian workforce gets the recommended daily levels of fruit, veggies and exercise, according to an ongoing Monash University study. While the other 95% aren’t necessarily ticking time bombs of disease and illness, the statistic does highlight the fact that we’re not doing enough to look after ourselves, or each other, which could have disturbing consequences for our long term health.

So who’s responsible?

Dr Anna Peeters, a researcher who has studied the long term effects of workplace health interventions, believes that the people who influence our environments – governments as well as high level managers in charge of workplaces – have a lot of responsibility in terms of encouraging Australians to be more active and eat better.

“I think that gets missed in the debate. Governments and employers don’t have all the responsibility, I wouldn’t take it away from the individual, but I think that until the people who control the environments which we live in take a lot of responsibility, then the individual can’t change.”

Dr Peeters believes that there are some simple questions responsible employers should ask about the workplace environment, to help them gauge how their organisation is performing in terms of health. 

 “How can you make a more enabling environment? The catch phrase I use is that you need to make the healthy choices the easy choices.”
 

Ask:

• Are the stairs accessible and is there appropriate signage?
• Are the stairs clean and attractive?
• Are healthy snacks – for example fruit and nuts – readily available in the office?
• Is drinking water available on tap?
• Are there vending machines on every floor? (There shouldn’t be!)
• Does the cafeteria have an emphasis on healthy eating?
• Is the building design focused on open communication and increased physical activity?

Dr Peeters is full of enthusiasm for her project assessing the short and long term effects of participation in Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), a pedometer based health intervention.
 

Now the results are in...

At the start of the program 75% of participants reported positive well-being (as it was measured in this study).

Over the entire group, well-being improved immediately after the health program and was sustained eight-months later.  The improvement was clincially meaningful.

In the 25% with poor well-being at baseline, 5% moved into the positive well-being category immediately after program completion, and this was sustained eight-months later.

These results found that participation in workplace programs, such as the one evaluated here, also has the potential to improve well-being. 

Participants also reported they were more productive, less stressed, and were more satisfied with their job.  

Read more about the results here and here.