EU firms looking to healthy workplaces to improve the bottom line
Canadian firms are talking about helping employees balance work and home lives, but most still have a long way to go to catch up with the progressive policies in place in many European organizations.
German-based RWE Net AG, the largest electricity distribution company in Europe, has created a company kindergarten and provides on-site day-care mothers (their word for nanny) for their employees. The latter is a very popular arrangement, with more than 200 day-care mothers on-site throughout the firm’s German operations. Arranging the agreement with the day-care company that offers these services is taken care of by RWE Net — the cost of the child care itself is paid for by the employee.
RWE Net also offers employees the opportunity to take up to a three-year parental leave with the guarantee of re-employment at least in an equivalent position afterward, and the option of working part time, with the flexibility to choose the hours they wish to work. Job-sharing is the norm in this company.
Along with many other large companies (such as GlaxoSmithKline, based in the U.K., and HAG, a Norwegian furniture maker), RWE Net has joined the European Network of Enterprise for Health (EfH) — a non-profit organization formed within the European Union by private companies to share ideas and experiences in developing healthy corporate culture. One of the main benefits EfH offers its members is assistance in developing company health policies, by offering the latest models of successful practices.
These firms are motivated by a desire to strengthen the European Union’s ability to compete internationally, while maintaining longstanding Western European values of social well-being.
Bernd Tenckhoff, head of operational safety management at RWE Net AG, said that “to have a long-term chance of survival in the marketplace, we must invest in the health and happiness of our people.”
RWE Net has an interest in an open exchange about this philosophy with other organizations partly because it contracts with so many outside companies and wishes to achieve uniform health and safety standards not just throughout RWE Net, but within its subsidiaries and affiliates, as well.
Tenckhoff will be part of a panel of senior managers from European firms who will speak at the Health, Work & Wellness Conference this September in Gatineau, Que.
One of the unique aspects of RWE Net’s organizational health effort is an employee involvement program, where the company encourages small teams of employee volunteers to develop solutions to workplace issues they are concerned about.
The company offers three-day training seminars on “moderated teamwork” that are open to all employees. Employee teams typically elect a team leader who has been trained in moderation technology to assist them in working on a solution to a health and safety issue. Solution proposals are put forward to a body of decision-makers and if accepted, the solutions are implemented by the organization.
Not only do these activities boost motivation for individuals, they are improving the bottom line. RWE Net estimates it has realized a 300 per cent return on the investment of $4.5 million in its wellness program, saving more than $13 million due mainly to an increase in attendance rates from 95 per cent to 97 per cent for its 6,000 employees.
At Norway’s HAG, the organization's leaders believe the time you spend at work should have a positive impact on your personal life. That means creating an inspiring work environment. HAG started this culture shift six years ago by involving every employee in defining the firm’s five core values, which include:
•security and care;
•responsibility and loyalty;
•innovation;
•customer focus; and
•initiative and commitment.
These values are discussed and worked with continuously so that every employee identifies with and is committed to them.
“HAG relies on and values the creativity of its people and understands that an open, positive culture is necessary for creativity to flourish,” said Kirsti Vandraas, project director for research development at HAG. Vandraas will also be speaking at the Health, Work & Wellness Conference.
The senior management at HAG believe that the only way to achieve this culture is through management modelling the expected values. On a yearly basis, a “Work Climate Analysis” is carried out which measures, among other things, how the values are being modelled within the organization.
In keeping with the need for employees to remain creative and innovative, HAG believes that flexibility is needed to provide an environment that supports work-life balance. For example, the company provides a maternity/paternity leave system (for birth or adoption) of 42 weeks with full salary, or 52 weeks with 80 per cent salary. After this paid time is up, new mothers are entitled to another year’s leave without salary with a guarantee of the same job when they return. There are a variety of options, for example, working from home might be the right solution for one employee, but not for another.
How Canada stacks up
Although there are some examples of work-life balance in Canada, the latest Canadian report on work-life balance reveals that for many Canadian companies the situation is much different.
According to Voices of Canadians: Seeking Work-Life Balance, a study of 31,000 Canadian workers led by Linda Duxbury and Chris Higgins for Human Resources Development Canada, many Canadians point to their companies as the culprits for the issues they face, including longer working hours, heavier workloads and weekends away from home due to work-related travel.
For individuals, these are dangerous trends. Not only does it reduce time for family obligations, but it reduces the time to take care of personal health, both physical and mental. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians today are not active enough for optimal health benefits. Job and life stress has increased, and job and life satisfaction has decreased, according to Duxbury and Higgins.
Despite the rhetoric of catering to the knowledge society, building learning organizations and becoming “employers of choice,” it is difficult to name many Canadian companies that have actually achieved this. One participant in the Voices of Canadians survey said, “Technically speaking, we have flex hours and compressed days — but when we ask for them our manager always uses ‘operational requirements’ as an excuse for turning us down.”
Employers don’t have an obligation to give employees more flexibility to counter increasing workplace demands, but those that want to retain top employees are starting to look more closely at the work environment.
Canada is moving towards an “employee’s market” as demographics shift in the coming years — much like Europe has already started experiencing. It will be more important than even before to listen to the changing needs of employees for companies that wish to thrive. As one respondent in “The Voices of Canadians” said, “I don’t want more money, just less work to do, better planning and co-ordination and less crisis management focused activities.”
As Graham Lowe, who wrote about European policy shift in this area stated in Canadian HR Reporter’s May 19 issue said, “Employers should not be deterred from taking immediate action in developing healthy workplaces — we have enough knowledge of its benefits.”
Deborah Jones is president of Well-Advised Consulting Inc., a company that specializes in strategic planning for organizational health, and chair of the Health, Work & Wellness Conference 2003. www.healthworkandwellness.com.
German-based RWE Net AG, the largest electricity distribution company in Europe, has created a company kindergarten and provides on-site day-care mothers (their word for nanny) for their employees. The latter is a very popular arrangement, with more than 200 day-care mothers on-site throughout the firm’s German operations. Arranging the agreement with the day-care company that offers these services is taken care of by RWE Net — the cost of the child care itself is paid for by the employee.
RWE Net also offers employees the opportunity to take up to a three-year parental leave with the guarantee of re-employment at least in an equivalent position afterward, and the option of working part time, with the flexibility to choose the hours they wish to work. Job-sharing is the norm in this company.
Along with many other large companies (such as GlaxoSmithKline, based in the U.K., and HAG, a Norwegian furniture maker), RWE Net has joined the European Network of Enterprise for Health (EfH) — a non-profit organization formed within the European Union by private companies to share ideas and experiences in developing healthy corporate culture. One of the main benefits EfH offers its members is assistance in developing company health policies, by offering the latest models of successful practices.
These firms are motivated by a desire to strengthen the European Union’s ability to compete internationally, while maintaining longstanding Western European values of social well-being.
Bernd Tenckhoff, head of operational safety management at RWE Net AG, said that “to have a long-term chance of survival in the marketplace, we must invest in the health and happiness of our people.”
RWE Net has an interest in an open exchange about this philosophy with other organizations partly because it contracts with so many outside companies and wishes to achieve uniform health and safety standards not just throughout RWE Net, but within its subsidiaries and affiliates, as well.
Tenckhoff will be part of a panel of senior managers from European firms who will speak at the Health, Work & Wellness Conference this September in Gatineau, Que.
One of the unique aspects of RWE Net’s organizational health effort is an employee involvement program, where the company encourages small teams of employee volunteers to develop solutions to workplace issues they are concerned about.
The company offers three-day training seminars on “moderated teamwork” that are open to all employees. Employee teams typically elect a team leader who has been trained in moderation technology to assist them in working on a solution to a health and safety issue. Solution proposals are put forward to a body of decision-makers and if accepted, the solutions are implemented by the organization.
Not only do these activities boost motivation for individuals, they are improving the bottom line. RWE Net estimates it has realized a 300 per cent return on the investment of $4.5 million in its wellness program, saving more than $13 million due mainly to an increase in attendance rates from 95 per cent to 97 per cent for its 6,000 employees.
At Norway’s HAG, the organization's leaders believe the time you spend at work should have a positive impact on your personal life. That means creating an inspiring work environment. HAG started this culture shift six years ago by involving every employee in defining the firm’s five core values, which include:
•security and care;
•responsibility and loyalty;
•innovation;
•customer focus; and
•initiative and commitment.
These values are discussed and worked with continuously so that every employee identifies with and is committed to them.
“HAG relies on and values the creativity of its people and understands that an open, positive culture is necessary for creativity to flourish,” said Kirsti Vandraas, project director for research development at HAG. Vandraas will also be speaking at the Health, Work & Wellness Conference.
The senior management at HAG believe that the only way to achieve this culture is through management modelling the expected values. On a yearly basis, a “Work Climate Analysis” is carried out which measures, among other things, how the values are being modelled within the organization.
In keeping with the need for employees to remain creative and innovative, HAG believes that flexibility is needed to provide an environment that supports work-life balance. For example, the company provides a maternity/paternity leave system (for birth or adoption) of 42 weeks with full salary, or 52 weeks with 80 per cent salary. After this paid time is up, new mothers are entitled to another year’s leave without salary with a guarantee of the same job when they return. There are a variety of options, for example, working from home might be the right solution for one employee, but not for another.
How Canada stacks up
Although there are some examples of work-life balance in Canada, the latest Canadian report on work-life balance reveals that for many Canadian companies the situation is much different.
According to Voices of Canadians: Seeking Work-Life Balance, a study of 31,000 Canadian workers led by Linda Duxbury and Chris Higgins for Human Resources Development Canada, many Canadians point to their companies as the culprits for the issues they face, including longer working hours, heavier workloads and weekends away from home due to work-related travel.
For individuals, these are dangerous trends. Not only does it reduce time for family obligations, but it reduces the time to take care of personal health, both physical and mental. Nearly two-thirds of Canadians today are not active enough for optimal health benefits. Job and life stress has increased, and job and life satisfaction has decreased, according to Duxbury and Higgins.
Despite the rhetoric of catering to the knowledge society, building learning organizations and becoming “employers of choice,” it is difficult to name many Canadian companies that have actually achieved this. One participant in the Voices of Canadians survey said, “Technically speaking, we have flex hours and compressed days — but when we ask for them our manager always uses ‘operational requirements’ as an excuse for turning us down.”
Employers don’t have an obligation to give employees more flexibility to counter increasing workplace demands, but those that want to retain top employees are starting to look more closely at the work environment.
Canada is moving towards an “employee’s market” as demographics shift in the coming years — much like Europe has already started experiencing. It will be more important than even before to listen to the changing needs of employees for companies that wish to thrive. As one respondent in “The Voices of Canadians” said, “I don’t want more money, just less work to do, better planning and co-ordination and less crisis management focused activities.”
As Graham Lowe, who wrote about European policy shift in this area stated in Canadian HR Reporter’s May 19 issue said, “Employers should not be deterred from taking immediate action in developing healthy workplaces — we have enough knowledge of its benefits.”
Deborah Jones is president of Well-Advised Consulting Inc., a company that specializes in strategic planning for organizational health, and chair of the Health, Work & Wellness Conference 2003. www.healthworkandwellness.com.
