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Arlington
County Employee Wellness Program Uses Health Culture Audit to
Building a positive, healthy, and supportive organizational culture has become the new focus of the Arlington County (Virginia) Health Smart Employee Wellness Program. In 1997, Health Smart phased out using a health risk appraisal for identifying wellness programming priorities. Administrators chose instead to use a Lifegain Health Culture Audit to determine their programming needs
Based
on a growing body of research that suggests organizational culture health, the
Arlington County Government employee wellness program decided to expand the
employee wellness program to help foster a healthy and supportive work
environment.
To
help reduce stress and improve employee health, job satisfaction, and
productivity, Health Smart adopted a
new goal to help build a healthier workplace that fosters a positive attitude,
social support, and a shared vision among employees.
The wellness program used the Lifegain Health Culture Audit
® developed by Healtlyculture.com to measure how the work-place organizational culture was affecting employee health. The audit was a 99-qtiestion survey that gathered information on self-reported individual health behaviors, work culture, and health promotion program interests. It also requested gender, age range, department, and division.In 1998, the Health Promotion Oversight Committee administered the survey at departmental meetings. Completion of the survey was voluntary and anonymous, and individual results were confidential. Healthyculture.com compiled the results of the survey and in the spring of 1999, presented them to top management. The health promotion manager presented the results to the individual departments.
The
survey identified two top issues: stress and interpersonal relations among
employees. Health Smart
chose to take a new work culture approach to stress management rather than just
trying to "fix" the individual with more traditional stress management
programs. It began looking at ways
to help create a less stressful and more supportive work environment.
Survey
results revealed that individual departments' needs were very different and did
not lend themselves to countywide programs.
Based on the survey results and department interest, the wellness staff
worked with three departments to develop new pilot programs that addressed their
specific needs:
Department
of Economic Development
The
survey revealed a high level of stress and anxiety due to the pending department
move to a new building. Health Smart offered
the department several programs on managing change and creating a shared vision
on the move. Employees were invited
to get involved with the change by selecting furniture, doing office layouts,
and choosing paint for their new offices. The
Leadership Team and the Wellness Committee worked with the department to help
them address their issues. Working
together the employees created a personal and shared vision for their new
facility.
Management
and Finance Department
The survey identified communication, stress, and interpersonal concerns as issues facing this department. Employees were located on two floors, did not know each other well, and faced high stress during the fall budget planning. Heath Smart sponsored a True Colors program to help department employees identify their individual communication and work styles, learn more about their coworkers, and understand how the different styles could work better together. To help address stress, Heath Smart provided department employees with onsite seated massage, weekly meditation programs, and regular blood pressure checks.
Community
Planning and Housing Development Department
The
survey identified a high level of stress. Employees
were responsible to many different individuals and groups throughout the county.
Their work often required attending late night meetings followed by
reports due early the next morning. Recognizing
the department work could not be changed, wellness program staff helped the
department to develop ways to make the work environment more supportive under
the circumstances. To facilitate
greater productivity and less stress from interruptions, the department
instituted a daily quiet time with no interruptions in one- to two-hour blocks
for each employee. Heath
Smart provided employees with onsite seated massage and meditation
facilitation programs. A special
program series covered basic stress management, eating for productivity, dealing
with difficult people, and a board game called The
Early in 2000, the pilot programs will be evaluated and what has worked will be expanded. Heath Smart will also conduct another organization-wide culture audit.
While Heath Smart adds more programming to promote a healthier work culture, it continues to offer a variety of traditional health promotion programs including nutrition, fitness, exercise classes, work/family programs, team building, yoga, tai chi, and weight management. It also continues to offer optional annual cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose testing and tracking for employees.
As
a member of the Organizational Development Team, the Arlington County health
promotion manager provides input from a wellness perspective to help promote a
more healthy organizational culture. The
results of the health culture audit provides valuable data for organizational
development.
RESOURCES
Lifegain
Health Culture Audit,
Healthyculture.com,
A service of the Human Resources Institute, LLC
151 Dunder Road,
Burlington,
VT 05401
(802)
862-8855,
Email:
info@healthyculture.com
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Program developed by: Jacci
Reynolds, MS, CHES |
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© 2007 Human Resources Institute, LLC 151 Dunder Road, Burlington, Vermont USA 05401 |
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Phone (802) 862-8855 Fax (802) 862-6389 Email Info@healthyculture.com |
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