On 11th July and 10th September this year, HPB and the Club HEALTH workgroup (made up of eight fellow health facilitators, representing various organisations and industries) organised two ‘best practice’ sharing sessions. Almost fifty members attended each session.

Much was learned from both sessions. Jonathan from Ethylene Glycols shared “how it was motivating to hear how the other companies persevered and succeeded in improving the health of their staff” while Leng Leng from AXA Insurance felt that “the good sharing helped to re-charge her passion!”

For those of you who were unable to join us, here’s a snippet of what was discussed at both sessions.

Session 1: Creating and Sustaining Participation – The Blue and White Approach

This session focused on the approach and strategies deployed in engaging Blue and White collar employees.  

Sharing the White Approach:
Jeslin, from Cerebos Pacific Limited, comes from an organisation with a greater number of White collar employees. Some of the strategies which worked for her included:

• demonstrating flexibility and variety in her health programmes to meet the needs of her employees-this included making exercise sessions available throughout the week and organising a wide range of health activities
• using a charity points system, where staff participation in health activities translates into charity donations by Cerebos
• sharing success stories of employees' efforts in leading a healthy lifestyle

According to Jeslin, the essence of sustaining interest and engaging the employees stems from having a committee which is well represented across the board, enjoying dedicated support from top management, ensuring regular communication and last but not least, the active contribution of the Human Resource Department to drive the programme.

Sharing the Blue Approach:
Jessie, from Wyeth, shared her experience in engaging Blue collar employees in her company. Her strategies to reach out to them comprised the following:

• creating interesting and interactive programmes
• ensuring regular communication and encouragement
• providing incentives
• having personal commitment and being a role model
• having strong management support

To illustrate some of the above principles, Jessie shared key features of her ‘healthy eating programme.’ They include:

• a healthier choice menu at the company’s cafeteria
• organising  exhibitions of food components using teaspoons of fat and sugar, a daily display of meal sets denoting calorie count, food-preparation competitions, cooking demonstrations and quizzes at the cafeteria during lunch time
• providing ready information on healthy eating by placing tent cards on dining tables
• engaging employees through interactive dialogue sessions during lunch time
• participants had the opportunity to benefit from a sharing by Shamril, who represents the National Parks Board and Jim  from Schering Plough (Singapore) Pte Ltd. Shamril, Jim and Club HEALTH members discussed the challenges faced in implementing targeted intervention, which centred around two key issues: low-participation and high drop-out rates

Session 2: Implementing Targeted Intervention – Lessons Learnt

Some of the lessons learnt included:

• the importance of peer group support and sharing. Some ‘best practices’ involved incorporating pre- and post- workshop sessions, group activities as well as pairing of participants within these group activities
• appropriate use of incentives to bring about improvement and completion of the programme
• positive branding and affirmative naming of the targeted intervention programmes to reduce stigma and encourage greater participation
• linking achievements of group targets to a charitable cause so as to motivate participants
• building up interest by varying the types of intervention programmes offered, for example, having a wide range of exercise and healthy eating initiatives to suit the needs of participants

We encourage Club HEALTH members to attend these quarterly ‘best practice’ sharing sessions.

If your organisation has just been conferred the 2008 Singapore HEALTH Award, you are eligible to join Club HEALTH. Privileges include regular invitations to ‘best practice’ sharing sessions, networking opportunities, free or discounted seminar packages and access to the online Club HEALTH forum.