By Dede Montgomery, Workplace Safety, Health, and Well-Being Consultant
How are you feeling these days? If we ask this question at work, we are likely to get different responses depending on who we ask and what day it is. We might be happy and excited about a new project we are working on, about our success in what we are building or designing. We might be frustrated, exhausted, achy, or tired. We do know many people and organizations are paying more attention to our wellness and well-being, although it doesn’t always translate to making things better.
What is worker well-being?
Sometimes it is easy to be confused between the term “wellness” and “well-being.” “Wellness” often refers to physical health while “well-being” considers physical health, but also focuses on a more complete or whole health picture to include mental, emotional, social, and even financial and spiritual health.
What workplace well-being programs work best?
A key challenge in planning workplace well-being programs and initiatives is that each industry and workplace has unique needs, hazards, and opportunities. What’s best for one company may not be a fit for another. Today it is easy to find different models as a foundation for an organization’s well-being program, although most models share in their basic recommendations. While broad strategies are easy to uncover, organizations must also understand the needs of their workforce and be willing to look at unique solutions, best based on employee feedback.
The most effective well-being programs today go far beyond the individual wellness efforts of yesterday. All those things, fitness, sleep, diet, and mindfulness applications (apps) and personal goals, play an important part in our individual health journeys. Yet, they do little to change the way work is organized or how difficult, unsafe, frustrating, or downright exhausting some parts of our jobs are. We know that construction and trades workers face a unique array of not just job hazards, but also schedule, travel, and interpersonal communication challenges. Taking steps to improve our own personal health, through diet, social activities, sleep, and seeking support for mental health challenges are all important and both contribute to our longevity and help us be more resilient. However, commitment to improving our personal health will be even more successful when our organization helps to foster work improvements that also have a direct bearing on how we feel. Leading organizations target both those things causing the biggest “pain points” or issues, which might take longer to address, while also implementing relevant solutions to simpler challenges.
Today we have a better understanding about how the “whole health” of a person— financial, mental, physical, spiritual— impacts how we are doing. We also recognize how our personal lives can impact how we are at work. Over our careers, most of us experience times when our home or personal life impacts our ability to be fully present at work, and times when we take workplace stresses home to our family or community. While each of us needs to take charge of the choices and decisions we make, we know that support of the company we work for can sometimes make it easier to do the things that make us feel better or live healthier. Not only is it helpful to recognize the whole-person approach to health and the importance of psychological safety, but to also acknowledge how being distracted or impaired at work can present both health and safety risks.
What can go wrong?
Sometimes in construction, it’s difficult for workers to believe that wellness or well-being efforts are relevant. Some might view such ideas or programs as impractical for the type of work and projects many work on. Traditionally, although this is slowly changing, we might clash between honoring “being tough” on the job (“no pain, no gain”) with being more accepting and compassionate. Other times, efforts to focus on communication or creating a safe and healthy culture is inconsistent throughout the organization. Finally, sometimes workers feel the organization only cares about their workforce members’ health to increase productivity or decrease healthcare costs, rather than caring for and valuing workers as people.
How can we improve our efforts?
Sometimes work can also make our own health struggles worse. Recent efforts like those within the Total Worker Health framework remind us that by trying to design the task or job better, we can reduce the stress and hazards our bodies and spirits feel.
- For example, many organizations in construction continue to seek ways to increase a person’s flexibility during the workday or work week, for example, so that we can find time to go to the doctor, see a therapist, or fit in other personal needs. The trick (to success) is in realizing that one idea might not work for everyone, and being in tune with (an individuals’) workers’ needs is critical as we design work and schedules.
- Some construction companies are examining work shift lengths and allowing breaks to support their team’s best performance and longevity. While we know the job must get done and limitations exist based on the project schedule, we are realizing that by better listening to the people who understand the job or task best, we can learn ways to reduce the physical and mental stress getting that task done creates.
- Other companies are also realizing that it’s often hard to find healthy food to eat during the long days of construction and being creative in offering healthier food on the job, social breakfasts where we can have a few relaxed minutes with people we don’t know very well or supporting our opportunity to purchase fruits and vegetables to take home.
- It has been shown that our well-being is also directly tied to how safe we feel at work. Accident prevention and developing cultures of respect, safety, and inclusion adds to our feeling of safety, and belief that our employer cares.
Often people think that an organization’s wellness program consists solely of access to their Employee Assistance Program (or EAP). While EAPs are an important part of well-being, they aren’t the only thing. In fact, today we recognize there are other important aspects of our work culture that also have a direct bearing on our health, safety, and well-being that are also important for leaders and the workforce to focus on. Here’s a few important fundamentals to help foster total health and well-being:
- Your internal safety management. When we know that our company is invested in our personal safety on the job, we tend to trust that they care as much about us as much as the job getting done. Safety leadership and follow-through is important throughout the company and extending into our work with sub-contractors.
- Fostering a culture of respect and inclusion. It may sound simple, but most of us feel better when we feel cared for. It is critical that this commitment is shared consistently throughout our organization and prioritized by all leaders and supervisors.
- Helping reduce stigma around mental health. Providing support to employees and team members when any of us or our family members are having challenging times, including those related to addiction. When we feel safe and are vulnerable in sharing our stories, it often allows others to open up or seek solutions. We also must honor confidentiality and understand that each of us may be at different points in our own personal health journeys.
- Supporting our front-line supervisors so they can be supportive and knowledgeable about both safety and well-being with others. For example, leading appropriately designed functional based warm up activities not only reduce injuries but help develop teamwork and relationships.
- Self-evaluating (and communicating about) mental, physical, and financial health benefits to ensure that those services and offerings best match the needs of the workforce.
We’re fortunate today to have people and organizations paying attention to the challenges and potential solutions to improve work and worker well-being in construction and the trades. Programs that help to improve workforce well-being include the Total Worker Health Approach (NIOSH), GUTS (Get Us There Safely by Hoffman), Total Human Health (Associated Builders and Contractors), Safe from Hate jobsite culture pledge, Construction Industry Suicide Prevention Partnership, Worker Well-Being in Five Easy Steps (SAIF), Mental Health First Aid, and QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) among others. Stay tuned for Part 2 to learn more about other real workplace well-being examples in construction and trades.