HR leaders talk

HR leaders chime in on how employee health is making it onto the corporate agenda


Peter Buddo
Vice-president of HR
Ericsson Canada

Headquartered in Montreal, telecommunications firm Ericsson Canada employs about 2,000 people at facilities in Montreal and Toronto.


Two years ago Ericsson Canada instituted a new policy: all employees must take at least two weeks of holiday every year.

“We have to force them to take their vacations,” says Peter Buddo, vice-president of HR. “We had a policy that you could carry over your vacation if you wanted to. But now we are saying you have to take a minimum of two weeks a year.” And staff must take at least a full week at a time. One day off a week is not going to do anyone any good, he says.

It’s the kind of thing you have to do when you have a very intense, highly committed workforce of mostly engineers with the average age of 35.

“Some of our folks are workaholics,” Buddo says. When deadlines approach, 18-hour days and seven-day workweeks aren’t unusual for the company’s 1,300 engineers. “Despite their youth it obviously still has an effect on their psychological and physiological well-being,” he says.

Concerns about employee health led the company to launch a comprehensive wellness program four years ago. From rappers in the cafeteria at lunch — there simply to take employee’s minds off work for a bit — to a walking group that follows a route through the company’s sprawling complex in Montreal, there are a wide range of opportunities and initiatives to help employees manage stress and lead healthier lifestyles.

A big part of the program is promotion, education and raising awareness. There are regular information sessions on work-life balance, yoga and Pilates, cholesterol, blood pressure and hypertension clinics as well as diabetes screenings. Nutritionists provide advice on healthy diets. Judo classes are offered. And three gyms — one in Toronto and two in Montreal — were created for employees. Wellness consultants are at the Montreal gyms four days a week.

Reducing stress in the workplace and improving employee health requires the HR department to be proactive, because employees are reluctant to voice concerns about their health or workload, Buddo says. “People are not apt to come in and go to the complaint department. They hold it inside, and it’ll come out some other way. So you have to go ask them,” he says.

“We have an annual employee survey, called ‘the dialog survey.’ There are a series of questions that make up an index that focuses on employee stress levels.

“We look at those scores and if there appears to be a problem in a particular group, we put in action plans to try and remedy and improve the work situation that may be causing the stress. We have found a few areas where the level of stress on average was significantly higher in one department. And we went in to investigate and found the reasons why. It was a managerial problem. So we remedied that.”

The difference around the workplace is palpable, he says. He hears regularly from employees happy about the wellness program. And the participation rate has gone up every year. “We have at least, on average, 50 per cent of our employees participating in one form of a program or another. That has gone up significantly every year. Last year our participation rate increased by just over 12 per cent and it has been going up like that every year. So it is good. They are coming back for more.”

An employee wellness committee was the catalyst for the wellness program, but it was up to Buddo to convince the executive team that a significant investment in wellness, now in the low six figures a year, would be worthwhile for the company.

“The first year it was a hard sell. But I am not easily knocked off my perch and I got the approval and the second year there wasn’t an argument at all. The third year, no arguments, because we saw the success. It was obvious that this was a good thing.

“The fourth year I had a new general manager come in, and he came from overseas. He asked, ‘What is this wellness program, and why is it costing this amount of money?’”

Buddo explained the benefits to him, showed him the newspaper articles that extolled the virtues of the wellness program at Ericsson, and the many letters from grateful employees.

“For every buck you are investing in this you may be saving two or three, in absenteeism or sickness or a lack of productivity,” he says.

“These are things that are extremely difficult to measure but in the long run, they can be measurable. There is no question in my mind or the mind of my associates that this is a good investment. We think nothing of going out and spending $1 million on some hardware; that is a no-brainer. But we have to spend money on our people because they are just as, if not more, important.”

In just four years, the wellness program has become a sacred cow at Ericsson, he says.

“Our industry has been going through some tough times. But even through the tough times, we didn’t cut the program. We cut a lot of other things, but we didn’t cut the wellness program.”




Bill Hyde
Vice-president of Human Resources
SaskPower

The Regina-based utility is a Crown corporation employing 2,300 people.


The responsibility of delivering electricity to every corner of Saskatchewan, particularly during these months when the temperature can drop to -40 C, is not always an easy one for utility workers to bear.

Bill Hyde, vice-president of HR at SaskPower for the last seven years, says it’s likely one of the reasons tension is so high at the Saskatchewan utility.

“There’s a fair bit of pressure especially if the equipment breaks down and you’re trying to get it back on. And if the lines go out in the middle of a storm these people are out there trying to repair them.”

Workforce stress has been a growing problem for Hyde, and it’s not just the nature of the work that’s to blame. Organizational culture plays a part. SaskPower has traditionally been run along the management style of the 1960s or 1970s, says Hyde, adding that it has only been in the last five years that the shift away from that style has been taking place. Changing the organization’s culture is a goal of the HR department’s stress reduction plan.

Performance management was brou-ght in just last year and has yet to be expanded to all employee groups. Discipline, up until two or three years ago, was seen more as a means of punishing people and less as a tool for changing behaviour, says Hyde.

“There was no discipline used until there was some major incident. And then often it would go from zero to termination or zero to a major disciplinary incident, which needless to say was difficult to sustain in an arbitration process,” says Hyde.

That’s why the organization brought in a new performance policy, initially called a discipline policy.

“It’s an approach based on the view that discipline is there to change behaviour, not to punish people,” says Hyde. “If someone has an attendance problem, they’re talked to twice, and they’re coached around it. If the problem persists, they are given a reminder. If it continues they’re sent home with pay for one to three days to think about the issue and come back, hopefully, with the commitment to resolve the problem.” If the problem remains, the employee may be terminated.

“It’s quite a change from our historical approach to discipline. And it’s starting to have an impact. It’s starting to change the perspective of the worker, the perspective of the supervisor, and quite frankly, the stress level — by dealing with issues upfront.”

An analysis of the organizational culture of SaskPower a few years back showed the organization functioned with an “aggressive-defensive” approach, with what’s called “avoidance” and “oppositional” being the two most dominant traits. Hyde sees a symptom of this in the stress level, which he observes to be more elevated among white-collar workers than among employees at the power plants or on the lines.

“My own theory is in the blue-collar environment, there’s a lot less close supervision. In the office environment, there’s more supervision. I think we tend to see more stress where workers are less in control and have less input into what they do and how they do their jobs.”

As a response, Hyde and the HR team have been working on a new leadership program. “We’re trying to inject a new theory of management, trying to get our supervisory folks to be more open to listening to people, giving them a little more authority in how they go about their jobs, and providing more coaching.”

A new emphasis on work-life balance has also been added to the leadership development program. A week-long training session for leaders would typically include two or three hours to address “the need for supervisors to be supportive and understanding when their people are struggling with family issues,” says Hyde. “And as a result of that, I think, we’ve seen some reduction in the amount of stress-related leave.”

And when it comes to recruiting for management positions, Hyde is seeing a shift in emphasis, away from an individual’s technical expertise and toward an individual’s ability to deal with and manage people. In all, he’s seeing “a whole new awareness of leadership, a view of its importance in the organization.”

So if an analysis of stress and the causes of short-term and long-term disability leads to questions of leadership development, it’s a testament to HR playing a strategic role in the organization.

“Our focus is more on what are the sorts of activities and programs that will facilitate the organization changing its culture,” says Hyde. The answer lies in programs that address “the whole notion of leadership, the importance of supervisors being leaders, taking some risks and enhancing the ability of employees to manage in today’s complex world.”




Brian Mullen
Director of Human Resources
Dofasco

Steel manufacturer Dofasco has about 7,300 full-time employees at its Hamilton site.


Over the past decade, Dofasco has increased its emphasis on health and wellness initiatives. At the same time, it has experienced reduced absenteeism, short-term disability claims, workplace compensation injuries and workers’ compensation costs, says 32-year company veteran Brian Mullen, director of HR.

“It’s the whole approach to wellness, lifestyles, safety and the work environment. We have seen what we consider positive impacts,” despite the challenge of linking outcomes to specific programs or initiatives, Mullen says.

Evidence of Dofasco’s longstanding commitment to employee health and well-being can be seen in the 25-year-old F.H. Sherman Recreation and Learning Centre, which includes a twin-pad arena, double gymnasium and playing fields, located a 15-minute drive from the plant. In 2003, the company added its third fitness centre located on the plant site itself, and Mullen says the three gyms combined see a total of 4,000 visits a month.

“It’s a case of healthy bodies, healthy minds,” he says. “It’s an investment in our employees” that reflects the company’s values.

Dofasco’s medical services department works closely with the lifestyle resources group, an active grassroots volunteer committee with about 35 members. The volunteers organize an annual two-day health and safety fair with a broad choice of speakers and exhibits. Groups like St. John’s Ambulance, the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Diabetes Association have booths, and about 4,000 people attend the fair, although the event wasn’t held in 2003 due to SARS, Mullen says.

The medical services group provides free screening for cholesterol, blood pressure and other health threats like unhealthy blood sugar levels. It gives people a heads-up on their overall health status, flagging issues that can be discussed with a company doctor or family physician, says Mullen. Individual departments also hold their own health and safety days, he adds.

Tai Chi classes and yoga, aerobics and smoking cessation programs are just some of the offerings. Some plant areas where there has been a high incidence of muscle strains have implemented stretching programs at the beginning of a shift.

The concept of a lean workforce has a unique twist at Dofasco. Through the Weight Watchers at Work program subsidized by the company, a group consisting of almost 3,000 employees, spouses and retirees has lost a total of 32,000 pounds since 1997.

Issues like stress, depression and mental health may be news to some companies, “but they’re across the community, they’re across the country, they’re things that need to be addressed,” says Mullen.

Stress is a little like water for sponges, says Mullen. Not all stress is work-related, but “people can only absorb so much, so if the stress they’re encountering externally is high, then perhaps what they can tolerate work-wise is low.” And if external stress is low, “maybe the stress level that they can absorb at work is higher.”

Dofasco has just completed a company-wide survey based on one-on-one interviews of employees by medical professionals working with the Institute for Work and Health in Toronto. The data will be analyzed for factors that might impact stress levels, allowing the company to compare its staff to the institute’s Canadian normative data. Findings are expected towards the end of this quarter or early in the second quarter, says Mullen.

“It will allow us to look at our organization on almost any sort of breakdown that we want — age, gender, responsibility,” or plant area, looking at factors individually or in combination, says Mullen. This may help Dofasco target things like stress reduction programs to where they’re needed most, he says.

“If people are happier, they’re going to be more productive. If they are more fit and capable of doing work, they’re more productive. At the end of the day, we all benefit.”




John Cross
Vice-president of Human Resources
Hewlett Packard (Canada) Co.

Technology firm Hewlett Packard set up its Canadian offices in Montreal in 1961. In 2002, it merged with Compaq and now has 5,300 employees in Canada.


John Cross, Hewlett-Packard vice-president of human resources, is an ergonomics expert. But that doesn’t exactly make him unique in the halls of HP. The mailroom clerks, the receptionists, the programmers — just about every staff member at HP — knows more than the average person about the proper way to sit and where to place the computer keyboard.

That’s because ergonomics training is mandatory for employees at the high-tech firm.

“We’ve got folks who spend just an awful lot of time sitting at a computer,” says Cross. “So we insist that everybody takes the training.”

HP has set up a virtual training program and employees take a self test to learn the ins and outs of how to work in a manner that prevents injury. About 81 per cent of staff have taken the training, a number Cross says fluctuates as new employees are brought in.

To help ensure employees don’t forget ergonomic training, HP has an environmental health and safety team that, among other duties, sporadically checks up on people.

“They try and catch them sitting at their desk,” says Cross. “Are they slumped over? Do they have the keyboard at the right height? Are their chairs set properly?”

It’s part of a three-pronged attack HP is waging to improve health and wellness for employees and to cement its reputation as an employer of choice.

The second piece of the puzzle is helping employees lower their blood pressure and cholesterol. Once a year, a “heartmobile” pulls up to HP’s office and employees can voluntarily go out and get things like blood pressure, cholesterol and body fat percentage checked. HP is then given anonymous results to get an overall impression of how healthy the workforce is.

When the numbers recently came in, Cross says there seemed to be a bit of a problem with high blood pressure and cholesterol.

“That’s an area that is, we understand, common in this industry, but we’ve got a fairly aggressive program to try and help out in that area,” he says.

For example, the company has four subsidized on-site fitness centres for staff in the Toronto area. For $20 a month, employees can join the gym and use it any time of the day to take a break and work out and relieve some stress.

“Many, many people have said they just don’t know what they’d do without that fitness break to clear their mind and reduce stress and then they’re all energized again,” says Cross.

HP also encourages healthy eating, has a heart-friendly meal in employee cafeterias, and conducts lunch-and-learns on a wide variety of topics and has brought in chiropractors, massage therapists and yoga instructors.

“We’ve even had folks coming in and giving lessons on gardening,” says Cross. “It’s not directly a health-related item, but ultimately if they get out in the garden, it is healthy.”

The third piece of the puzzle — and sort of a crown jewel for HP — is the company’s recreation site located north of Kingston, Ont. Employees can go to the site to take a free vacation, stay in a chalet and spend some time fishing or canoeing on two lakes the company owns.

And how did HP handle employee stress during uncertain times created by the recent merger between Compaq and HP? In May 2002 the two tech giants combined to form one company, resulting in a lot of mental health issues for staff who were unsure of whether or not they would have a job when all was said and done.

“It was certainly an issue at HP because we had not been in any kind of standard downsizing mode at all,” says Cross. “But, obviously, when you have the integration of two companies you end up with duplicate jobs. But at that stage we really just leaned on the HP value system. This was really handled along the lines of caring about your employees, being honest with them and telling them what you do and don’t know.”

He says a number of staff who were let go had written him to compliment him on how well everything was handled.

Selling health and wellness to senior management has never been a problem at HP. Cross says most of the executives work out and the initiatives undoubtedly show a return on investment.

“We think we’re a paradise company to work for, but we also provide this because we know that there’s a return on investment,” says Cross. “There’s zero question in our minds that you get a tremendous return on investment, whether it’s hiring people or retaining them.”




Corinna Ainslie
Director of Human Resources
Okanagan University College

The Kelowna, B.C.-based post-secondary institution employs 1,000 people.


Having moved to the Okanagan Valley from Ontario under two years ago to assume the post of director of human resources, Corinna Ainslie was at first struck by the elevated quality of life in the area.

People golf, people ski, people do water sports in the summertime. They don’t have to deal with aggravating commutes.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not stressed, says Ainslie. “We all have very complicated lives. We all have issues around children, aging parents, financial concerns and job stresses.”

At Okanagan University College, Ainslie and others on the management team are committed to the idea of being proactive.

So, while Ainslie can’t point to any area of employee health and wellness that’s causing her to be concerned, she’s keen on rolling out a health and wellness plan that looks at both personal issues and organizational contributors such as workload.

“We’re looking into that, and our gut instinct says things like physical working conditions, job content, job autonomy and co-worker relations” have a role to play. Although she doesn’t think workplace environment at the university college represents a particular source of aggravation, it’s the piece of the puzzle that her team has greatest control over, she says.

Okanagan University College has a score of programs to support employee efforts in improving their health and wellness, including recreation services, flu clinics, depression screening clinics, lunch-and-learns and informational sessions on such health problems as diabetes.

Ainslie declines to reveal any of the university college’s stats on employee wellness such as absenteeism or employee assistance program usage. “We look at it from a proactive point of view. We recognize that creating a healthier workplace is going to lead to better productivity and a happier workplace.”

What Ainslie finds to be a challenge is how to measure the need for, and the benefits of, such wellness programs.

“In moving forward some of these initiatives, we would like to gather more information about how we’re going to evaluate this. What outcome are we going to measure? Do you look at changes in behaviour and attitudes and culture, which are challenging to measure. Or do you look at things like weight loss or participation rates?

“You can provide some resources but we can’t force people to use them. I mean, ‘do I have to drive you to the gym?”

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