When Schiphol Airport had a hygiene problem in the male toilets, it came up with a simple but ingenious solution.
An image of a fly was included on every urinal to encourage men to aim in its direction and the problem was solved almost overnight. Rory Murphy, from health and wellbeing company Wellbeing People, used the story to illustrate nudge theory — a method the firm employs to help people change their behaviour in a subtle, non-invasive way, instead of preaching to them, which can be ineffective.
Speaking in the Health and Wellbeing educational theatre today (16 May), Rory explained that his company carries out in excess of 32,000 workplace health checks a year and conducts one of the biggest ongoing surveys of the health of the workforce UK-wide.
The company’s health checks consider a number of factors, including weight, body mass index, fat content, blood pressure, heart rate, hydration, and life balance.
While individuals receive their own personal reports, the firm also provides anonymised statistics to employers to help them understand any broad health problems that might be impacting on their workforce. This information can then be used by the employer to implement necessary health interventions, such as improving the quality of the food in the staff canteen.
Looking specifically at the issue of hydration, Murphy recalled how one company conducted all its meetings standing up and no meeting could go on longer than 10 minutes. Employees are encouraged to each drink half a cup of water whenever they have a meeting, which has helped improved employee productivity by improving their hydration levels.
Murphy stressed the importance of employee engagement on health issues, as well as the importance of confidentiality, as individuals might have concerns that their personal health issues might somehow get referred back to their employer. It is also important that once employees are checked out and a health problem is identified, they are then quickly referred so they can receive the necessary support and advice they need to address it.
He concluded by highlighting the main benefits of carrying out such health checks, which include increased productivity, reduced sickness absence and fewer accidents, as well as increased employee retention, and company reputation.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
