Health promotion, wellness and productivity > Gathering information and identifying risks

The next step is to collect information that will allow you to identify health risks specific to your organisation.

Assess the situation

In order to design an effective workplace health program it is essential to gather data on three things:

Collecting absenteeism information is simple. In most organisations absenteeism information exists through central records.

Useful information to include in the assessment of absenteeism includes:

•	The total number of sick days taken;

•	The proportion of working hours this represents;

•	Common causes of absence (if known);

•	Trends in the amount of sick leave taken;

•	The departments or workplaces prone to absenteeism; and

•	The prevalence of chronic absenteeism.

2. Presenteeism

Measuring presenteeism is more complex and requires the collection of information that central records is unlikely to have.

To make this job easier, there are a number of pre-existing surveys that can be used to analyse presenteeism. The Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ) is one of these. The HPQ was developed by the World Health Organisation and Harvard University. The questionnaire can be delivered to employees face to face, in written form, over the phone, or online.

The questionnaire has a simple guide to producing estimates on absenteeism and presenteeism. It also indicates the health conditions that may be appropriate to focus on for the health and wellbeing program.

3. The health conditions that most effect the organisation

The list of ‘culprit’ conditions in the table above is a good starting point. However each organisation will have its own unique priorities.

An organisation with outdoor workers, for example, may focus on the prevention of skin cancer, while a workforce with a sedentary workforce may focus on promoting exercise.

Information about conditions that frequently cause ‘lost time’ may be available from central records. It may also be appropriate to seek feedback from supervisors, line managers and employees about conditions effecting productivity.

Identifying risk factors you CAN change

Once the target health conditions have been identified, a sensible next step is to pinpoint factors that increase an individual’s chance of developing these conditions.

Of course, not all risk factors are alterable: factors such as genetics, for example, are beyond the reach of even the best workplace health program!

However as the term suggests, ‘modifiable risk factors’ can be changed. Modifiable risk factors increase the likelihood of health problems developing, but can be altered by changes in behavior.

The most important modifiable health risks are:

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Smoking;

•	Physical inactivity;

•	Poor diet and nutrition;

•	Overweight/obesity;

•	High blood pressure;

•	High blood cholesterol; and

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Stress.