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CSR SUPPLY CHAIN ETHICS
HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR
ON THE MOVE GLOBAL MOBILITY AT CCTV
WWW.HRMONLINE.CA ISSUE 2.6 | $9.99
DEMOCRACY DOES IT HAVE A PLACE AT WORK?
ON WITH
THE SHOW
How HR fuels Cirque du Soleil’s global success
HRD2.6_OFC_spine_v2_SUBBED.indd 2
1/11/2014 1:51:55 AM
CORPORATE HEALTH / PHYSICAL WELLBEING
MAKE HEALTHY CHOICES A HABIT IN YOUR WORKPLACE HRD explores the behavioural science behind lifestyle habits – both good and bad – and explains how organizations can help change them for better physical and financial health for all employees Is there any other area of life that thrives on habitual behaviour as much as the modern workplace? Employees are required to come and go at the same time every day, they have a designated lunch hour, and their meetings take place with the frequency and precision of a Swiss clock. Every workplace is a breeding ground for habits, but they’re rarely the right ones. Colleagues eat lunch at their desk or take the car to the fast-food place two blocks away. The week starts with a bang – diet resolutions and good intentions! – then limps out in a merry haze of chips and cocktail chatter. In between times, the meeting room and office space are steadily sapped of oxygen by all.that.yawning … Daily routines often distort bad habits so that they become passable behaviours required to satisfy a work culture that increasingly demands that people do more with fewer and fewer resources. The result is stress, sedentary practices, and, in turn, chronic employee health problems that gnaw into a business’s profit and productivity.
CHANGING IT UP For this to change, employees need first to become aware of the true state of their health; to feel motivated to want to improve their lifestyle; and then to be given
the education and tools for effective behavioural change. This cycle of engagement is self-perpetuating, as employees who see their health improve become more and more motivated to continue this improvement. When combined with a fun and simple wellbeing initiative that brings teams of colleagues together, you start to see a truly healthy ecosystem that is built and supported by employees themselves. So how important is this really? Look only as far as Glenn Riseley, founder of wellbeing program Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), and a man who sees the consequences of poor habits taking hold at both a global and national level. “The rise in avoidable chronic lifestyle diseases is reaching epidemic proportions across Canada and is affecting its ability to field a globally competitive workforce,” Riseley explains.
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE? “On the one hand, this is a question of personal responsibility, but business also has a critical role to play in empowering employees to make change,” Riseley says. “The workplace is the perfect environment to help create and maintain a culture of health. In fact, it’s the single biggest legacy a business can leave its people.”
24 | NOVEMBER 2014
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1/11/2014 1:41:01 AM
HRMONLINE.CA
It’s natural that HR professionals feel a certain reticence to step in and try to change the habits of a lifetime. But, as Riseley outlines, given that we spend more hours at work than we do at home, there’s no one better placed to improve people’s health and performance. This means buy-in from the CEO, who rolls out company-wide walking meetings and leads them from the front. This means prioritizing the stairs over the elevators. This means fruit and vegetables in place of pastries. Ultimately, this means mobilizing a synchronized, collective effort that becomes part of a workplace’s DNA and makes those who don’t want to change feel like they’re the ones missing out. After all, the only thing more pervasive in a workplace than habit is the influence of peers. Staff who work in this kind of environment become empowered to start making individual choices about their lifestyle. This ultimately comes down to each employee, but it helps to know that the neurological processes that drive workers are universal.
THE POWER OF HABIT In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg, business reporter at the New York Times, identifies a three-stage neurological loop at the core of every habit – whether it belongs to the CEO or the summer intern.
»» A simple trigger. This could be something as basic as putting a leader board in communal areas. »» A routine that follows on from this cue: scheduling a walking meeting, for example. »» A reward. This can be a feeling of personal achievement, mastery of self-control, or professional camaraderie. The brain’s rewards system doesn’t discriminate between good and bad habits; a brisk, productive
walking meeting releases dopamine just like a muffin in the middle of a brainstorming session does, so it’s relatively easy to replace unhealthy workplace practices with good ones. There just has to be a payoff that makes staff want to repeat the actions over a sustained length of time. So how long does it take before change becomes part of an organization’s culture? The general consensus says it can take anything from 18 to 125 days for new habits to come to life, but the average person can acquire and automate new behaviours after just 66 days. This can seem like a startlingly short amount of time, but the proof is in the pudding. In 2014, the GCC was rolled out to 1,288 staff members by Canadian oil company Cenovus Energy. After 100 days of trying to cultivate the habit of taking at least 10,000 steps every day, Cenovus reported “a genuine cycle of continuous improvement” among their employees. A survey conducted by the Foundation for Chronic Disease prevention in the Workplace supported this feedback, finding that 84 per cent of Cenovus employees either met or exceeded their 10,000 daily step target, and another 76 per cent said these increased activity levels had become a new habit; ultimately, the cue provided by the wider workplace wellness initiative was then replaced by employees’ own trigger-routine-reward system. Creating a culture of health and driving long-term behavioural change might seem like a challenging way to improve your organization’s bottom line, but they are two of the most powerful allies HR professionals can have. Habits are informed by a process that is common to every employee, in every department at every level of the corporate ladder, and where health risk assessments can seem intrusive and discriminatory, few will ever object to a chance to step outside, have some fun with their colleagues – and take a breather from their daily routine. GCC works with businesses all over the world to improve the health and performance of their employees. Over the past 11 years, our program has transformed the cultures of thousands of the world’s leading organizations and changed the lives of more than 1.5 million employees across 185 countries. Our scientifically developed, independently proven program takes employees on a journey that fundamentally improves their relationship with exercise, nutrition and sleep, and instils in them a new sense of personal responsibility, self-belief and resilience. In other words, we deliver a simple and effective solution that optimizes your most valuable asset – your people – and ensures they arrive each day in the right physical and mental shape, so that they’re fully engaged and ready to take on the world.
NOVEMBER 2014 | 25
24-25_GlobalCorporateChallenge_SUBBED.indd 25
1/11/2014 1:40:55 AM
HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR
ON THE MOVE GLOBAL MOBILITY AT CCTV
WWW.HRMONLINE.CA ISSUE 2.6 | $9.99
DEMOCRACY DOES IT HAVE A PLACE AT WORK?
ON WITH
THE SHOW
How HR fuels Cirque du Soleil’s global success
HRD2.6_OFC_spine_v2_SUBBED.indd 2
1/11/2014 1:51:55 AM
CORPORATE HEALTH / PHYSICAL WELLBEING
MAKE HEALTHY CHOICES A HABIT IN YOUR WORKPLACE HRD explores the behavioural science behind lifestyle habits – both good and bad – and explains how organizations can help change them for better physical and financial health for all employees Is there any other area of life that thrives on habitual behaviour as much as the modern workplace? Employees are required to come and go at the same time every day, they have a designated lunch hour, and their meetings take place with the frequency and precision of a Swiss clock. Every workplace is a breeding ground for habits, but they’re rarely the right ones. Colleagues eat lunch at their desk or take the car to the fast-food place two blocks away. The week starts with a bang – diet resolutions and good intentions! – then limps out in a merry haze of chips and cocktail chatter. In between times, the meeting room and office space are steadily sapped of oxygen by all.that.yawning … Daily routines often distort bad habits so that they become passable behaviours required to satisfy a work culture that increasingly demands that people do more with fewer and fewer resources. The result is stress, sedentary practices, and, in turn, chronic employee health problems that gnaw into a business’s profit and productivity.
CHANGING IT UP For this to change, employees need first to become aware of the true state of their health; to feel motivated to want to improve their lifestyle; and then to be given
the education and tools for effective behavioural change. This cycle of engagement is self-perpetuating, as employees who see their health improve become more and more motivated to continue this improvement. When combined with a fun and simple wellbeing initiative that brings teams of colleagues together, you start to see a truly healthy ecosystem that is built and supported by employees themselves. So how important is this really? Look only as far as Glenn Riseley, founder of wellbeing program Global Corporate Challenge (GCC), and a man who sees the consequences of poor habits taking hold at both a global and national level. “The rise in avoidable chronic lifestyle diseases is reaching epidemic proportions across Canada and is affecting its ability to field a globally competitive workforce,” Riseley explains.
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE? “On the one hand, this is a question of personal responsibility, but business also has a critical role to play in empowering employees to make change,” Riseley says. “The workplace is the perfect environment to help create and maintain a culture of health. In fact, it’s the single biggest legacy a business can leave its people.”
24 | NOVEMBER 2014
24-25_GlobalCorporateChallenge_SUBBED.indd 24
1/11/2014 1:41:01 AM
HRMONLINE.CA
It’s natural that HR professionals feel a certain reticence to step in and try to change the habits of a lifetime. But, as Riseley outlines, given that we spend more hours at work than we do at home, there’s no one better placed to improve people’s health and performance. This means buy-in from the CEO, who rolls out company-wide walking meetings and leads them from the front. This means prioritizing the stairs over the elevators. This means fruit and vegetables in place of pastries. Ultimately, this means mobilizing a synchronized, collective effort that becomes part of a workplace’s DNA and makes those who don’t want to change feel like they’re the ones missing out. After all, the only thing more pervasive in a workplace than habit is the influence of peers. Staff who work in this kind of environment become empowered to start making individual choices about their lifestyle. This ultimately comes down to each employee, but it helps to know that the neurological processes that drive workers are universal.
THE POWER OF HABIT In his book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg, business reporter at the New York Times, identifies a three-stage neurological loop at the core of every habit – whether it belongs to the CEO or the summer intern.
»» A simple trigger. This could be something as basic as putting a leader board in communal areas. »» A routine that follows on from this cue: scheduling a walking meeting, for example. »» A reward. This can be a feeling of personal achievement, mastery of self-control, or professional camaraderie. The brain’s rewards system doesn’t discriminate between good and bad habits; a brisk, productive
walking meeting releases dopamine just like a muffin in the middle of a brainstorming session does, so it’s relatively easy to replace unhealthy workplace practices with good ones. There just has to be a payoff that makes staff want to repeat the actions over a sustained length of time. So how long does it take before change becomes part of an organization’s culture? The general consensus says it can take anything from 18 to 125 days for new habits to come to life, but the average person can acquire and automate new behaviours after just 66 days. This can seem like a startlingly short amount of time, but the proof is in the pudding. In 2014, the GCC was rolled out to 1,288 staff members by Canadian oil company Cenovus Energy. After 100 days of trying to cultivate the habit of taking at least 10,000 steps every day, Cenovus reported “a genuine cycle of continuous improvement” among their employees. A survey conducted by the Foundation for Chronic Disease prevention in the Workplace supported this feedback, finding that 84 per cent of Cenovus employees either met or exceeded their 10,000 daily step target, and another 76 per cent said these increased activity levels had become a new habit; ultimately, the cue provided by the wider workplace wellness initiative was then replaced by employees’ own trigger-routine-reward system. Creating a culture of health and driving long-term behavioural change might seem like a challenging way to improve your organization’s bottom line, but they are two of the most powerful allies HR professionals can have. Habits are informed by a process that is common to every employee, in every department at every level of the corporate ladder, and where health risk assessments can seem intrusive and discriminatory, few will ever object to a chance to step outside, have some fun with their colleagues – and take a breather from their daily routine. GCC works with businesses all over the world to improve the health and performance of their employees. Over the past 11 years, our program has transformed the cultures of thousands of the world’s leading organizations and changed the lives of more than 1.5 million employees across 185 countries. Our scientifically developed, independently proven program takes employees on a journey that fundamentally improves their relationship with exercise, nutrition and sleep, and instils in them a new sense of personal responsibility, self-belief and resilience. In other words, we deliver a simple and effective solution that optimizes your most valuable asset – your people – and ensures they arrive each day in the right physical and mental shape, so that they’re fully engaged and ready to take on the world.
NOVEMBER 2014 | 25
24-25_GlobalCorporateChallenge_SUBBED.indd 25
1/11/2014 1:40:55 AM
