A new magazine for a new era in workplace health.

Welcome to the first issue of Working Well, a magazine dedicated to improving workplace health in Canada.

Ten years ago, a magazine focused solely on the well-being of this country’s workforce would probably have been a hard sell.

While some employers were talking about and implementing employee health initiatives, few in corporate Canada’s upper ranks were taking it seriously. Many considered workplace health a nice thing to do — the equivalent of a corporate “warm fuzzy” — but certainly not a financial necessity.

In Canadian Healthcare Manager, this magazine’s predecessor, a lot of ink was spilled about how to make the business case for workplace wellness and how to demonstrate to senior financial executives the ROI on employee health initiatives. Human resource and wellness professionals just couldn’t seem to convince their superiors of the merits of investing in the health of their employees.

A lot has changed since then. As the research showing a clear link between the health of an organization’s employees and the health of its bottom line continues to pile up, more employers are taking notice. According to a survey of more than 500 Canadian employers by Buffett & Company Worksite Wellness, 90.3% were offering at least one health promotion or wellness initiative in 2006, compared with 44% in 1997. But there’s still a long way to go. The same survey showed that only 15% of organizations develop an operating plan for wellness program offerings. And fewer than 30% are actually evaluating the success of their programs.

So it would seem the time is right for a publication about building a healthier, more productive workforce. Look in the pages of this magazine for workplace health case studies and best practices, wellness trends from across Canada and around the globe, pointed commentary from industry experts, and timely statistics and research on employee well-being.

We hope you enjoy our first issue. More importantly, we look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions about what you’d like to see in future issues of Working Well. I can be reached at 416-764-3867 or Don.Bisch@rci.rogers.com. Or give our Associate Editor Nancy Kuyumcu a call. She can be reached at 416-764-2817 or Nancy.Kuyumcu@rci.rogers.com.

We’re all ears.

Don Bisch is the editorial director of WORKING WELL. don.bisch@rci.rogers.com

For a PDF version of this article, click here.

© Copyright 2007 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the October 2007 edition of WORKING WELL magazine.