Submitted by Amber Johnston, Lab Instructor, School of Kinesiology, UFV
Many of you will remember that an employee health and wellness survey was distributed twice over the course of spring leading into fall term. Thank you to those who took the time to complete. Your contribution to this survey is important as it provides helpful feedback of where UFV employees are currently, where their health-related concerns are, and what is needed for us to move forward and strive towards achieving a balance of health and wellness for our employees.
A total of 568 employees completed the survey – of those completed it broke down to approximately ~ 45% staff, 25% permanent faculty, 10% administration and the remaining temporary or auxiliary staff or contract faculty. The age range of those who completed survey was evenly distributed across 4 age brackets of 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, and 55-65 with less than 3% within the age brackets of 18-25 or 66 years and older.
Sixty percent of employees consider their health to be average, 20% excellent, 16% somewhat poor and 3% poor. The majority of employees consider their health a priority ranging from important to very important. From questions investigating health and wellness behavior employees are keen to learn more about establishing healthy behavior patterns and putting their health as a priority.
When looking at work related habits – it is evident that we all have different roles here at UFV. Many have a bit more flexible schedule, others have a fully packed day with little time for movement or a break – in fact, 70% of respondents indicated that they sit for 4 hours or longer at work with minimal or no break. In the last year 33% of respondents have tried or are currently on a diet, one third food prep for their workweek, while another third rarely or never do. Roughly 75% do try to follow a healthy diet according to Canadian guidelines.
What were the reported physical activity and mental health outcomes? There was an even split for those who follow an exercise routine – always, often, sometimes and rarely, and 10% never. Of those who are physically active, ~55% participate in in the recommended 30 minutes or more of moderate physical activity on most days of the week. When looking at mental/spiritual health – there are some employees who participate and practice mindfulness related activities, close to half do not. Employee patterns of sleep are decent – many report having minimal problems falling asleep, or that the sleep well getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night, however some indicated waking up throughout the night, or not waking up feeling refreshed in the morning and having a hard time feeling relaxed. It is also apparent that there are some post pandemic effects in that during the pandemic physical and mental health and wellness were significantly impacted. Many indicated (~45%) that their physical activity levels decreased during this time, while mental health was impacted as well (~58%), noting a decline in their overall mental health and capacity.
When considering other behavior habits such as drinking and smoking, those who do engage 90% fall within the recommended weekly consumption for alcoholic beverage. It is wonderful to report that 92% of our employee respondents do not smoke.
It can be expected that many employees are experiencing and currently working through a stressful time, 70% indicated that they feel stressed sometimes or often, feeling the pressure of not being able to get everything completed that they would like. When investigating related behaviors to this – it is seen that coping mechanisms vary across the respondents – some choose sleep, physical activity, meditation, and talking with someone as their mechanisms of support, while others indicate eating, sleeping, drinking or recreational activities to cope.
Looking further into lifestyle factors and their association with disease risk assessment – 70% of respondents do not monitor their blood pressure, 75% do not know or monitor their cholesterol levels, 55% have not undergone routine pre-screening physicals recommended for their age group. There was large interest in finding out more about cardiovascular risk and assessment, with 70% of respondents indicating they would like to know their own cardiovascular risk.
Only 15% of employees are a current/active members of the Manulife Vitality program offered through our UFV Benefits and Human Resources. In follow up, 65% of respondents were interested in finding out more information about Manulife Vitality and what is has to offer to support to support employee health and wellness. Half were interested in some form of social media forum through HR where information such as recipes, health and wellness tips, suggested workout videos etc. could be provided.
When asked about UFV support for employee health and behavior in the workplace there were several responses with feedback and comments. Trying to categorize into a few different areas indicate that the following would help to support employees in their health and wellness journey, and to provide a more positive and successful workplace environment. In no order, here is a summary of some of the suggested supports:
- Human Resources– balanced workload, increased work from home opportunity, 4 day work week, improved online systems related to HR, increased coverage in services, improvement in HR program offerings, increased or dedicated funds allocated to physical activity and wellness, inclusion of all employees (faculty, staffy, contract, admin) and equity across all.
- Workload/Life Balance – improved work culture and support, stress reduction, increased motivation for productivity, and setting of boundaries (responding to emails as an example).
- Mental Health – mental health days or days of life, a safe space and culture across all UFV campuses, overcoming anxiety, mental and emotional wellness and support
- Social Health – improved employee sanctioned social time, team building and activities related to UFV employee health and wellness
- Lifestyle Related– accessibility and availability to space for physical activity on ALL campuses – requests and comments specific to a space in Chilliwack for UFV employees on those campuses. Increased offerings of exercise classes, increased nutritional related information, increases offerings of classes for mental health – stress, yoga, stretching. Access to healthy food options on all campuses. Improved ergonomics in the workplace. General increased physical fitness literacy along with mental health and emotional health literacy. More access to information on pre-screening, risk assessment and lifestyle related behaviors.
What does this tell us? Where do we go from here? It is clear that most employees currently are, or are interested in becoming more invested in their overall health and wellness. We are on the right track, many are active in their well-being while some are needing further support, information and accessibility to programming. General comments indicated an interest in providing more information on ‘how to do’ and ‘what to do’ rather than just general information. From this we can see that health and wellness promotion programming can be further developed and offered through UFV to achieve workplace wellness, satisfaction and success. An increase in connecting employees to resources, offering programs of interest, creating and providing available space to participate and engage and physical and wellness activities is needed. Providing more detailed information on health-related assessment and topics of interest is requested. Supporting employees to continue to engage or become engaged in their behaviors related to health and wellness. Bottom line – employee health and wellness should be a priority here at UFV.
To learn more about Manulife Vitality and what it this program has to offer please visit www.ufv.humanresources/vitality if you have specific topics you would like to learn more about please email hrinfo@ufv.ca. For more information on health and well-being at UFV visit https://www.ufv.ca/hr/health-well-being/