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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Breakfast Business with Enterprise Ireland on Newstalk.
Chapter 2: What do employees believe about workplace support for health?
Only 37% of employees believe that their workplace supports them to engage in activities to main their health and well-being and indeed to prevent future diseases. That's according to VHI's new Workplace Health Insight Service, which is highlighting the need to rethink how workplace well-being is promoted. Joining us now to discuss this is Amy Burke, People and Sustainability Officer with VHI.
Good morning, Amy. Good morning, Tom. Amy, you surveyed workers across a large number of, shall we say, large companies. What did you find?
Chapter 3: What insights did the VHI Workplace Health Insights survey reveal?
Thank you, Tom. I mean, there's over a thousand employees we're surveyed. So it's a deep and meaningful data point for us. What we found is that, you know, less than 40 percent of colleagues feel that their workplace supports them. And on top of that, only 83 percent believe that. that small actions we take as individuals will help us into the future.
But of that 83%, then, Tom, you only have 26% who actually participate. So there's a big gap in we think we need to do something, but we're not participating, and aligned to that, that workers are not feeling supported within their environment. So what could companies, and we're talking about larger companies, what should larger companies be doing here?
The most important thing, Tom, is that you promote a very positive work environment. So how do you do that? You educate colleagues on what is good for them, workers. Is it sleep? Is it good nutrition? Is it mental health activities? Is it physical health activities? And a lot of that is now freely available. If you think of our own VHI park run at weekends, that's freely available to everybody.
There's a huge amount of technology now, apps available. So it's not a huge amount of dollar signs, but it does take a deliberate action across corporate.
And not putting words into your mouth, but presumably this isn't just better for employees. Companies shouldn't be doing this just because it's better for employees. Presumably this is better for their advantages for the companies themselves.
Tom, this is win-win. We all know that when we feel well, whether that's happiness or contentment, that we perform better. So as organisations, we want colleagues and we want workers to feel happy that they can do their best in their working environment. And the way we all know we do that is by being content. And a huge part of contentment is well-being.
So if you want your organisation to serve its customers, in our case members, in a really positive way and outperform competition, you will provide for them to feel really well through your activities, well-being programmes, education, etc.
And presumably it's a win-win-win because it's also a win for VHI. Presumably healthier customers, clients are less likely to avail of medical services and that's better for the company.
Wellbeing has huge correlation with preventative health. So if you look at lifestyle diseases like hypertension, like type 2 diabetes, like chronic lung conditions, we do know that there's a strong correlation between
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