Health group gets gold for scheme

FOCUS ON WELL-BEING: Lorraine Thorne (left), Pollyanne Taare, Theresa Graham and Kelly Aplin with the WorkWell Gold accreditation. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

They work in the health field, so it seems only natural Rotorua Area Primary Health Services and Rotorua General Practice Group has a focus on the wellness of its employees.

From encouraging a smoke-free and breastfeeding workplace, to promoting good nutrition and physical activity, the organisation has spent the past three years putting in place simple strategies for managing employee well-being by focusing on the impact of the working environment and organisation systems.

This week, it was recognised with a gold accreditation through the WorkWell scheme, something it has been working towards for the past three years.

WorkWell leader Pollyanne Taare said it was great to be part of the programme, which was designed to enrich employees' physical, mental, emotional, occupational and spiritual well-being.

She said it also had spin-offs for their families.

As part of it, they have provided fruit to staff, encouraged them to take part in sports activities like the Ekiden relay, had pedometer challenges and wrote their own healthy eating book.

"It takes a multi-level approach that affects individuals' decisions and abilities to practise positive behaviours, or to make needed lifestyle changes."

She said over the years they had encouraged a workplace culture that supported a healthy lifestyle and had had a lot of fun in the process.

"I believe its extremely important to promote overall wellness and to support a good work/life balance in the workplace as it improves the health and well-being of your workforce, boosts morale, job satisfaction and productivity.

"It's about taking care of the most important commodity in any business ... its people."

Ms Taare said they had noticed a big difference since starting the WorkWell programme three years ago.

"Staff are here for eight hours, we may as well make it a good eight hours. You have to have a safe work environment but it can also be a fun, healthy work environment."

She said she would definitely encourage other businesses to take part.

"One of the biggest successes of being a WorkWell organisation has been the opportunity to support other workplaces in terms of providing health services and workplace health checks as part of our [cardiovascular health] outreach clinics."