Health, Safety, and Wellness
Why do you need a Health, Safety and Wellness program?
Every week, over a half million Canadians miss work due to illness or injury. The cost to Canadian business is enormous, exceeding $50 B annually.
While the cost of absenteeism is significant, it pales in comparison to the cost of presenteeism, lack of engagement, accidents, and turnover. The average cost to Canadian business is in excess of 22.1% of the total payroll, and for many, exceeds 35%. Up to 1/3 of your total payroll likely yields no tangible return.
What does it Involve?
Workplace Wellness is not a system, and it is not an initiative. Wellness becomes part of your culture, and it helps to define you as a leader in your industry. It builds loyalty within your workforce, creates stronger relationships, and enhances performance, all of which support your financial goals.
What is the expected Return?
Studies have shown that an effective wellness program makes sound economic sense, with typical ROIs of between 340% and 600%, with some companies seeing even greater returns.
Most companies see a 100% payback the first year. That is just the beginning. As your wellness programs take hold, returns are typically greater the second and third year. Health Canada reports an average return of $3.40 for every dollar invested. A Harvard study indicates an expected return of 600%.
The facts are undeniable!
Organizations with effective Health, Safety, and Wellness programs consistently out perform those that don’t.
Why Sound Wellness Institute?
At the Sound Wellness Institute, we are uniquely positioned to help you get your program underway, from an assessment of your needs, to implementation, through reviews and assessment to ensure that your programs are achieving their goals.
We have implemented programs in Safety (OHS – Occupational Health and Safety), in quality management (ISO 9001), in Food Safety (HACCP), and in Corporate Wellness. Our team of experts has decades of experience in creating and building programs.
How do we get started?
It begins with commitment from senior management. Is a Health, Safety, and Wellness program something that you believe is integral to the success of your organization? Is it the right thing to do?
If so, the first step is to complete Phase 1: Assessment. You can’t move forward if you don’t know where you are, and where you are going.
With Phase One complete, you can choose to move forward into Phase Two, or to do nothing. Your commitment initiates the creation of the Leadership team, determines which programs will be made available, and how they will be implemented. Phase Three is designed to keep you on track, ensuring program effectiveness.
The facts are undeniable. Organizations with effective Health, Safety, and Wellness programs consistently out perform those that don’t.
Questions?
Implementing a Health, Safety, and Wellness program can be intimidating, but our systemized approach reduces the complexity, as well as the demand on your time and resources.
To determine if this is a fit for you, and your organization, please contact us, and we’ll answer all of your questions.
Nancy Addison’s focus is on an optimal diet that will supply the basic needs of the body and fortify the body’s defenses, thereby improving health, increasing vitality, delivering greater longevity and preventing diseases associated with aging. These include heart disease, age-related muscle loss and fat gain, memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and the physical effects of aging.
When you give your body the right tools, it can do miraculous things!
When we play music together, there is a battery of hormones released by the nervous system, including Oxytocin, the bonding hormone, Dopamine, the ‘feel good’ hormone, Immunoglobulin A (IgA) an important immune system antibody, Serotonin, which regulates the sleep/waking cycle, and Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), Growth hormone (GH), and B-endorphin (B-EP), all helpful in supporting our immune function. 
There is a growing body of research that documents the benefits of gratitude. Experiments have confirmed an immediate increase in happiness, reduction in depressive symptoms, and increased wellbeing. These benefits have lasting effects on the brain and the individual.
We all have our own perceptions. It has been said that there is no one truth for our individual truths have been coloured by our perceptions and beliefs, our upbringing and past experience – just as our vision is coloured when wearing a pair of sunglasses.
Tibetan Singing bowls were traditionally used as an aid for a meditation practice, but they do much more. The slow repetitive movement of the playing stick creates an instant physical relaxation response, while calming emotions and focusing the mind, so there is greater access to creative solutions and inspiration. The Tibetan Singing Bowl can act like the restart button on the computer. They are natural stress-busters that can stimulate the natural healing ability of the body.
However, it can be easily suppressed by stress, by fatigue, or illness, with short term and long term consequences.
There are always distractions in an office environment. From the sound of a phone ringing, conversations in the hall, or a photocopier, or printer working away to name but a few. The distractions are compounded as more businesses shift to cubicles, which have been shown to reduce productivity by up to 60%. 
Brainwave entrainment is a thousands of years old practice.
In 1998, Robert F Furchgott, Louis J Ingnarro, and Ferid Murad won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery that our cells puff and release nitric oxide. Nitric oxide, is a gas that acts as a signalling molecule in the body. Since its discovery, the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical medical complex have spent hundreds of million of dollars investigating this gas. As a result, medications are now widely available to support cardiovascular disease, and others.
Let’s take a look at the software that handles stress or relaxation. The autonomic nervous system has 2 divisions that work like a teeter-totter. One division takes control, and the other yields. And then the other takes control.
There are two sides to our autonomic nervous system – the sympathetic (fight or flight) system whose purpose is to protect, and the parasympathetic (rest and digest) system whose purpose is to restore health.
Building on the ‘Office Fitness’ module, we look at ways to bring fitness home. There are many ways to incorporate an easy to follow fitness program, from walks to swimming, to shoveling the driveway. They all come with the benefit of supporting a healthy body, one that is more resistant to disease, one that has the energy to do things with friends and family, and one that strengthens performance. 
Keeping the mind and body well oxygenated is essential for peak performance, yet sitting for extended periods reduces blood flow in the upper body, with the corresponding drop in oxygen to the brain. Using deep breathing techniques, coupled with simple movement that can be done in the office, oxygen levels can be restored, invigorating the body and mind. 
Mindfulness has a significant impact on communication and safety. It is a proven way to reduce stress and improve health (physical, emotional and mental), thereby reducing absenteeism. 
One of the most powerful tools you have to navigate through everyday life is your voice. It is one of those things that, like air, is always there, but we pay little attention to it. Your voice is your communication center. And it communicates both verbally and non-verbally. Your voice communicates from many different aspects of who you are.