Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Minister of State for Health and Manpower, at the Singapore HEALTH Awards 2012, 30 Nov 2012

Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Minister of State for Health and Manpower at the Singapore HEALTH Awards 2012 on 30 November 2012

1.  Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to join you today at the 11^th Singapore HEALTH (Helping Employees Achieve Life-time Health) Award.

2.  Today, we witness the largest number of winners since this Award was first introduced in 1999. 446 companies will receive the Award this afternoon. A third of the Award winners from 2010 have progressed to a higher Award category this year. I am very heartened by your passion and unwavering commitment to the health and wellbeing of your employees.

Sustained and Progressive Efforts is Key

3.  As all of you can attest to, Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) is a journey, and sustained and progressive efforts are fundamental to this journey. This is a critical feature that HPB looks for when they assess the HEALTH Award applications. I would like to illustrate exemplary models of such efforts from two Platinum Award winners this year.

4. The first is Tyco Electronics Singapore Pte Ltd, a TE Connectivity Ltd Company, where mature employees constitute 30% of the workforce. Since implementing the WHP programme in the 1990s, TE has successfully built up a strong WHP culture among its employees, receiving its first Singapore HEALTH Bronze Award in 2005. TE offers yearly health screening and has continuously achieved a high screening participation rate of more than 90%. Employees who are detected to be at higher risks through the health screening are encouraged to follow-up with the company doctors and to participate in targeted follow-ups such as weight management and cholesterol management programmes. A health corner was also set up in the office to enable employees to monitor their own health conditions such as Body Mass Index (BMI) and blood pressure at frequent intervals.

5.  TE’s efforts in sustaining WHP programmes have resulted in improved health outcomes among its employees. For example, over the past three years, the percentage of employees with high BMI, high blood pressure, and high blood cholesterol has gone down by an average of 4%. Across the organisation, the average number of sick leave taken has significantly decreased from 4.8 to 3.2 per staff over four years.

6. Another company, IBM Ireland Product Distribution Singapore Branch (IBM-PDL), believes that employees who are healthy, mentally resilient and physically fit will experience better quality of life and therefore higher personal productivity. With the wide range of workplace health initiatives, not only have IBM-PDL employees become healthier, there has also been significant improvements in employees’ morale and engagement over the past three years. For example, in this year’s survey, 88% of their employees are very satisfied with the company, 95% expect to be still working for IBM-PDL in the near future, and 93% will recommend IBM-PDL as an employer of choice to others.

7.  Such results are testament to the positive impact that progressive and sustained WHP efforts can help bring to a company in their constant need for a healthy, happy and talented workforce. While Tyco and IBM-PDL have adopted different organisational metrics and indicators to sustain their WHP journey, the key is to adopt metrics and indicators that make the most sense to their unique business circumstances.

Productivity through the lens of Presenteeism

8.   Many employers currently use sickness absence to gauge their employees’ health and productivity performance. However, presenteeism, which is defined as “on-the-job productivity that is lost due to poorer physical or emotional health of employees”, can be a better proxy to measure workers’ health and how it impacts their daily work.

9.  As part of this year’s Singapore HEALTH Award assessments, HPB undertook a fringe productivity study among 52 SHA companies and more than 1,500 employees. I will like to share the interesting results with you.

10.  60% of employees from the Bronze companies reported mild to severe degrees of presenteeism at work, compared to 42% of employees from Platinum companies. On average, a SHA Bronze Award recipient loses $2,400 per employee in annual productivity losses, whereas it costs a Platinum Award recipient $1,800 per employee in annual productivity losses.

11.   This means that companies with a more sustained and progressive WHP programme could anticipate an “improvement” of $600 per employee in employee presenteeism losses. I hope that the findings of this fringe study will deepen your conviction that your companies’ WHP efforts are intricately-linked to your employee performance.

Targeted WHP efforts for at-risk industry sectors

12.  Even as we acknowledge the exemplary efforts of employers at today’s HEALTH Awards, we are ever mindful that there are still industry sectors that suffer from a higher prevalence of health risks.

13.  In Singapore, 1 in every 7 adults (14.3%) smoke daily. Among certain industries, the smoking prevalence is even higher. For instance, more than 1 in 4 employees (27%) in the hotel industry are daily smokers. The numbers are certainly staggering, but it also provides us with an opportunity to further reduce smoking prevalence in Singapore by enhancing our smoking cessation efforts in the workplace.

14.  HPB will be partnering with the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and the hotel industry to address the high smoking prevalence through a targeted approach. This will include having regular consultations with hotel operators to understand their operating environment and challenges; implementing suitable smoke-free policies, and designing customised smoking control programmes for employees.

15.  But to be truly effective and sustainable, efforts to reduce smoking prevalence cannot be solely about addressing smoking amongst employees. We need a more inclusive and more systematic approach to involve every stakeholder in the hotel industry, including patrons and customers, vendors and contractors.

16.  I am very pleased to announce today the extension of the Blue Ribbon Movement for the hotel industry. The first seven hotels to have pledged their commitment and support to the Blue Ribbon Movement are Hotel Grand Pacific, Swissotel Merchant Court, Ibis Novena, Marriott Hotel, Capri by Fraser Changi City, Rendezvous Grand Hotel, and Royal Plaza on Scotts.

17.  The Blue Ribbon movement is not about meeting pre-determined benchmarks in smoking control efforts. Rather, it is about making progressive and sustained efforts to expand the smoke-free environment to every single individual within the influence of the hotel industry.

18.  Let me illustrate this with two examples. Swissotel Merchant Court started off by implementing 100% smoke-free rooms and premises for patrons since March this year, but has maintained a small smoking area indoors for employees, of which a third are daily smokers. Swissotel Merchant Court has committed, from next month onwards, to remove the remaining smoking area for employees, as well as implement a “No smoking in uniform” policy to discourage their employees from smoking. At the same time, they will also introduce smoking cessation and support programmes for the affected employees.

19.  Hotel Grand Pacific is another fine example. The hotel has not only introduced exemplary smoking control programmes for their own employees over the past decade, to the effect that there are currently zero smokers among their workforce. The management has now also committed to extend their smoking cessation programmes and policies to the tenants, vendors and contractors, which is a commendable step towards achieving a totally smoke-free lifestyle and environment within the hotel.

20.  I am extremely encouraged by the proactive spirit demonstrated by these first movers from the hotel industry to stub out the ill-effects of smoking. I am confident that more companies will soon join us in this movement.

Targeted Health Promotion efforts for at-risk workers

21.  Besides industry-specific efforts, there is much more that we can do for at-risk workers with limited opportunities for healthy lifestyles at their workplaces.

22.  I had the privilege of witnessing the launch of the inaugural partnership between HPB and the National Taxi Association (NTA) just two weeks ago, which was aimed at bringing the benefits of WHP initiatives to taxi drivers. I thought that was a wonderful initiative as taxi drivers, due to the nature of their occupation, were previously not able to access WHP programmes, although the long working hours and the sedentary nature of their work are risk factors for health problems such as obesity.

23.  I think there is more that we can, and ought to do. I have set a challenge for HPB to extend targeted health promotion efforts to other at-risk segments of the workforce, segments that include low-wage workers, mature workers and economically-inactive or casual workers.

24.  HPB tells me that it is a challenging endeavour, but it is a challenge that they are most happy to take on, with one small caveat. HPB tells me that they will not be able to do this alone, and they need to work with like-minded stakeholders and partners. To that end, HPB have commenced discussions with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) towards a long-term partnership. A partnership upon which will enable us to design and develop customised schemes, initiatives and programmes for at-risk workers.

25.  I have no doubts that, together, HPB and NTUC will rise to my challenge. I hope to share more details about the partnership and the proposed initiatives and programmes for workers early next year.

Conclusion

26.  In closing, I would like to reiterate my firm belief that with the concerted and collaborative efforts of employers, unions, and every other stakeholder, we can achieve a nation of healthy workers.

27.  I wish you every continued success in your WHP journey, and a pleasant day ahead.