In late January, a playshop-workshop morning was hosted by Alliance Insurance Services Limited to help HR practitioners get a better grasp of employee wellbeing. Delegates gained advice on healthy living, healthy eating and healthy thinking from Anita Cheung, Wellness Coach, Integrative Living. Shaun Bernier, Managing Director, Community Business also put forward the business case for enhancing work-life balance.
Cheung outlined the importance of diet on an individual’s wellbeing, stressing that often medicine can often do more harm then good. She added, "We can live without medicine but we cannot live without food." Citing her own experience as an example, Cheung described her previous unhealthy lifestyle and transformation through diet. "I worked in the Fashion industry for ten years and I didn’t take care of myself. I was drained and slow. I would go to bed late and I would eat steak all of the time and made myself so unhealthy. One day out of desperation I decided to eat less meat. In a few months I noticed that my cravings for all the unhealthy foods just disappeared. I noticed I had not touched my drawer full of biscuits and chocolates."
Addressing the morning coffee ritual of many employees Cheung stated, "Coffee is like an overdose on your system that robs you of energy and robs you of minerals." For those of us who have been living an unhealthy lifestyle there is, however, hope according to Cheung. She explained, "The body renews itself every few seconds. Cells regenerate from every few seconds to every seven years. The average time of renewal is from six months to twelve months…the whole body can be completely renewed in between six and twelve months."
Cheung challenged the audience of HR professionals by asking, "Is what you’re eating giving you optimal energy and optimal health?" Likening the body as a house, Cheung asked, "What building materials are you giving your body?"
Speaking with regard to the most popular food staple in the world, Cheung noted, "White rice is eaten by half of the world’s population as a main food source, though 200 years ago most humans ate brown rice. [The switch] all started with the introduction of machinery which was able to remove the best part of the rice so it could be better preserved. For wealthy people to eat white rice was a status symbol showing they could afford to polish rice. But now we know that instead of feeding brown rice to pigs and white rice to people, many studies are showing that we should do the opposite because white rice makes pigs grow and gain weight faster."
According to Cheung the irony is that modern food is containing less nutritional value. "All of our foods are becoming less and less like food because they are being over processed," she explained, "They are becoming unrecognizable to the body"
The second speaker on the day was Shaun Bernier, Managing Director, Community Businesses who spoke of the recent Work Life Balance Day and shared ideas on their strategic approach to corporate wellness and outlined the Business Case for Work Life Balance. Bernier highlighted that work life balance is difficult to define as it is open to individual interpretation, so there was no one-size-fits-all approach. Bernier stated, "What works for me may not work for my colleagues." She also noted that changes in family life, for example having children, can have an impact and so work life balance changes for each of us over time. From Community Business’ perspective, "Work life balance is having a measure of control over when, where, and how you work." It is not simply about working less, but rather having a measure of control over your own working life.
Bernier explained that as we become increasingly tied down to our laptops and Blackberries work life balance becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. She noted, "In Hong Kong this is a particularly difficult challenge, because we are considered to have such a strong work ethic and this is part of our success." Companies are also facing increasing pressure in the current economic climate, which results in individuals carrying an increased workload—often with fewer resources. Hong Kong, being a regional hub, but working eight hours ahead of GMT, also places more pressure on employees with heavy travel schedules and frequent late night or early morning conference calls. The idea of ‘face time’ also compounds this problem, and many employees don’t want to be seen as the first to leave the office—to ensure their boss sees that they are working hard and one of the last staff to go home.
To limit the impact of these factors, Community Business encourages HR to tackle work life balance issues using the following steps.
Establish the business case for work life balance for your company. Make it relevant to your company—show how it enhances productivity, manages costs and increases employee retention. Look at the issues facing your company that can be addressed by better work life balance, such as low motivation in staff, and show how these can be solved resulting in costs savings to the company.
Secure support from senior leadership. Not only is it important to have the CEO behind the initiative but also an army of senior staff need to be involved and supportive to help promote the message for you. Without this support it is harder to get buy in from the rest of the staff.
Determine the major issues or priorities that you want to focus on. Of the many work life balance issues, you want the ones that you focus on to match the needs of your staff. It is recommended to survey staff or run focus groups to listen to staff and find out what is important to them.
Develop work life balance initiatives that address staff needs, and follow up to measure the effectiveness.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
