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Canada's Healthy Workplace Week is overseen by
the Canadian Healthy Workplace Council
and managed by:


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Practice Solutions
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2006 Archive

2006 Theme

MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR WORKPLACE

"Dare to dream big dreams."
   Al Stubblefield, CEO
   Baptist Health Care Corporation

The theme for Canada's Healthy Workplace Week (CHWW) 2006 is Make a Difference in Your Workplace. Whether you're 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 going right in YOUR organization? Please drop us a line and let us know if you have any innovative and/or positive practices happening at your workplace. We would like to celebrate them!

Being more aware of the positive practices in your organization and celebrating them (for example, recognizing those people responsible) may seem like a small step, but it is a significant step in the right direction.

Sometimes, what you can do to create positive change will depend upon your circle of influence. Obviously, if you are a senior decision-maker, you have a greater circle of influence. Did You Know? Every shining example of a healthy, high-performing organization has a senior decision-maker who became very engaged in the process at an early stage. These are the executives that recognized the need to create an environment where people can buy into a vision, where people feel respected and listened to, and have work-life balance. In these environments, they were able to encourage creativity, innovation, productivity, and in the end, profit. And they all say that this is not a complicated thing to do, but it also doesn't happen overnight.

To create positive change in your organization or team:

"Lead by making others powerful. (Remember, the conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound!)"
   Benjamin Zander, Conductor
   Boston Philharmonic Orchestra

As an individual, you have the influence to create at least "a pocket of health" in your organization. Small actions can make a big difference, and there is often a ripple effect that we aren't even aware of. You can take action. Choose to be empowered and focus on what is going right.

To start a ripple effect of positive change in your organization, you may:

"When our attention is primarily directed at how wrong things are, we lose our power to act effectively."
   Rosamund Zander
   Author of "The Art of Possibility"

Remember that whether you have an organization of 5 or 5000 employees, you can create positive organizational change! Click here for tips on getting started.

Healthy Workplace Model

Healthy Workplace Model

Model Rationale

The centre of the Healthy Workplace Model shows that the goal of healthy workplace development is not only employee health, but also organizational health and success. The surrounding 'drivers' - healthy leadership, planning, people focus and healthy outcomes show the actions required to have healthy workplace development.

Employee Health

As shown in the diagram, the broad view of employee health considers an individual's ability to optimize their physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being. How an organization functions - including its leadership style, communication methods, the way work is structured, reward systems, decision making style, culture, etc. - can significantly affect all aspects of an individual's well-being.

Organizational Health

A healthy organization is one that is productive, effective, has high morale, high employee engagement levels, and a healthy bottom-line. Organizational health is impacted by the well-being of the employees, but is also affected by workplace culture, leadership, communication, job design, decision making styles, etc. And these factors, in turn, affect employee health.

Dr. Martin Shain has described organizational health as "relying upon management to create a supportive management culture through policies, leadership, programs and other initiatives, and upon employees to care for their own well-being."

Four Drivers of a Healthy Workplace

The four drivers on the outside of the circle are fundamental to creating a healthy organization. These 4 elements include:

For further information on these 'drivers' click here to access the Canada's Healthy Workplace Criteria.