Thank you for your comment.

I have had several meetings with the people from NQI, but I don’t have in-depth knowledge of NQI’s Healthy Workplace Criteria. My understanding is that NQI and GP2S both have the mission of promoting health in the workplace by providing businesses with information and tools based on best practices.

Traditionally, NQI has not had a strong presence in Québec. NQI has developed the Healthy Workplace Criteria, including several levels of recognition for implementing initiatives and programs that favour health in the workplace. For its part, GP2S is a Quebec-based organization whose main achievement to date is the Healthy Enterprise standard. This is the first ISO-type certification in the world to promote health and wellness in the workplace. It includes two levels of certification. The higher level requires a high degree of engagement by the organization, which in turn facilitates the development of a health-focused culture within it.

NQI and GP2S are currently working together to promote the Canada-wide adoption of the Healthy Enterprise standard that has been developed in Quebec.

Dr. Mario Messier
Scientific Director, GP2S

Thank you for your comment. Seeing that this is the first of a series of 6 articles that I am producing on Employee Wellness Programs in Canada, I needed to lay a bit of foundation for the other articles by stating some of the *boring* stats and facts that drive employers to start targeted programs. Believe it or not, there are still a surprising amount of companies that are not aware of these stats. I see this through the conversations that I have on a daily basis. Although none of the stats I presented show anything shockingly new, the goal was to paint a clear picture by putting them all in one place (which I may refer to in later posts).

To answer your question, yes, Medisys does offer an online HRA as a part of each of our Fresh Start programs (http://www.medisys.ca/healthy-workplace/employee-wellness-program.htm). The HRA consists of 25 health and lifestyle questions (some with sub-questions) that probe employee behaviours and what they want to get out to the program. There is no immediate/generic feedback or recommendations given once the HRA is completed. The individual answers to the HRA aids our nurses to prepare for the individual feedback session with each employee and issues/concerns/risk areas are addressed individually at that time.

The HRA helps to gain insight on general health risks, family history, behaviour-related risks, employee needs/wants/short & long-term goals, willingness to change, requested program components/interests and preferred methods of communication for resulting programs.

Once the program is complete, an aggregate report is presented to the company along with comprehensive medical results reporting (cholesterol levels, blood pressure, etc…). We feel that this, along with internal numbers (absenteeism rates & causes, STD & LTD rates, turnover, drug costs, etc.) provides employers with the information needed to launch targeted initiatives that are relevant to all employees. I don’t want to give too much away about the next post, but I will go more in detail about how to benchmark and target programs.

If you would like to schedule a time to talk about your specific situation, please feel free to call me anytime 1-800-499-1394 x 3535. I would be more than happy to discuss.

Thanks again for your comment and take care.

Randy McCaig