Orchard Road Workplace Health Programmes Draw Participation From 10,000 Workers

Singapore, 4 October 2018 – In a span of ten months, 10,000 workers from hotels, retail malls, eateries, entertainment outlets and offices along Orchard Road have taken part in a series of health and safety programmes under the Work Great on A Great Street initiative, jointly rolled out in the precinct by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and the Orchard Road Business Association (ORBA). This is part of the efforts under the Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Safety and Health, to extend holistic health and safety programmes to different workplace clusters.

Senior Minister of State for Health and Co-Chairperson of the Tripartite Oversight Committee, Dr Amy Khor, said: “Workers often spend long hours at work. Hence, the best way to get workers to adopt healthy lifestyles is to make such programmes and activities easily accessible at the workplace.  We have been reaching out to workers in different industrial and business clusters via the developers of these premises with good progress. This latest approach, which focuses on reaching out to workers from diverse segments who work in a large precinct such as Orchard Road through the Orchard Road Business Association that represent many premise and business owners in the precinct will further boost the outreach of our health promotion programmes among workers.  They include segments of workers, like those from retail, who have been traditionally harder to reach. This new approach has been made possible through our collaboration with industry partners like the Orchard Road Business Association who are well-networked and have the capabilities to run programmes suited for workers within the precinct. This has allowed us to bring suitable programmes to the doorsteps of the workers in the most effective and efficient way.”  

Innovative approach sees success
The precinct approach was developed to aggregate demand for holistic, customised workplace health and safety programmes, in order to reach and impact more workers, particularly those scattered across various large, densely populated work sites with diverse segments of workers.

In October last year, HPB worked with ORBA to announce this innovative approach which, for the first time, enables the 60,000 workers in Orchard Road to gain direct access to workplace health and safety programmes. The precinct is predominantly made up of workers from hard-to-reach sectors such as the retail, hospitality, food services and entertainment industries, many of whom have little or no access to health and safety programmes due to their shift-work hours and unstructured work patterns.  

As one of the first precincts to apply such an approach, the Orchard Road initiative has seen good take-up of the programmes, as well as other positive behavioural change and health outcomes within a span of ten months:

• 4 in 5 participants who took part in the epi-centre activities increased their physical activity time ¹

• 1 in 4 participants who took part in the epi-centre activities attended more than 4 sessions of the activities, indicating sustained interest in the programmes¹

• 3 in 10 of those who reported bodily pain due to work pre-programme experienced a reduction in pain ²

• 2 in 10 smokers reduced their daily habit by an average of 6 sticks per day²

• 1 in 2 workers are overweight, of whom 13% saw an improvement in their key biometric indicators²

Minister of State for National Development and Manpower and Co-Chairperson of the Tripartite Oversight Committee, Mr Zaqy Mohamad, said: “The outcomes and impact of the workplace health and safety programmes achieved in Orchard Road have been very encouraging. We expect interest in the programmes to grow. So long as workers are healthy, they should be given every opportunity to contribute to the workforce. This is why workplace health and safety will continue to be a priority. We urge companies and industry partners to support the health and safety programmes by encouraging the active participation of all employees. Together, we can achieve a healthy workforce in safe workplaces.”

Wide-ranging programmes tailored for workers in Orchard Road
The HPB-ORBA partnership has resulted in a total run of over 400 activities made accessible to employees in the precinct. Many of the programmes are customised around the work schedule of the workers, and tailored to suit the demographics and work nature of the Orchard Road workforce.

Public spaces are turned into epi-centres for weekly mass or group activities, ranging from mental wellness workshops, lunch-time cooking workshops, to health talks and evening workouts like Piloxing and Yoga sessions. Some customised programmes such as bite-sized health and safety coaching programmes are delivered to the employees’ workplaces, right at their doorsteps. To create buzz and awareness among workers, and spur participation, precinct-wide thematic events are also organised twice a year.

The precinct initiative in Orchard Road complements the Tripartite Oversight Committee’s ongoing efforts in industrial and business clusters. Working with developers, building owners and managers, shared facilities and amenities within a cluster are used as central touch points to provide healthier meals and conduct health activities. This translates to healthy living being made convenient and accessible to all employees co-located at these sites.

Over the last four years, more than 50 workplace clusters have been reached, with over 320,000 workers given direct access to health programmes. The Tripartite Oversight Committee is on track to reach 435,000 workers through its initiatives by 2020.

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About the Health Promotion Board

The Health Promotion Board was established as a statutory board under the Ministry of Health, Singapore, in 2001 with the vision of building “A Nation of Healthy People”. The Health Promotion Board aims to empower the people of Singapore to attain optimal health, increase the quality and years of healthy life and prevent illness, disability and premature death. As the key agency overseeing national health promotion and disease prevention programmes, HPB spearheads health education, promotion and prevention programmes as well as creates a health-supportive environment in Singapore. It develops and organises relevant health promotion and disease prevention programmes, reaching out to the healthy, the at-risk and the unhealthy at all stages of life – children, youths, adults and older Singapore residents. Its health promotion programmes include nutrition, mental health, physical activity, smoking control and communicable disease education. HPB also promotes healthy ageing, integrated health screening, and chronic disease education and management.

More information can be found at www.hpb.gov.sg ↗ (opens in new tab).

About the Workplace Safety and Health Council

Established on 1 April 2008, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council comprises leaders appointed from major industry sectors (including construction, manufacturing, marine industries, petrochemicals, and logistics), government, unions, employers as well as professionals from the legal, insurance and academic fields. The Council works closely with the Ministry of Manpower and other government agencies, the tripartite partners, the industry, and professional associations to develop strategies to raise WSH standards in Singapore. The Council's main functions are to build industry capabilities to better manage WSH; promote safety and health at work; recognise companies with good WSH records; and set acceptable WSH practices.

ANNEX A

WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY PROGRAMMES IN ORCHARD ROAD PRECINCT

1. Background

• One of the key strategic thrusts of the Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Safety and Health (2017-2020) is to bring holistic health and safety programmes to different workplace clusters.

• Since the end of 2014, HPB has been scaling up its intervention efforts to transform different work clusters including, industrial estates, business parks which also house small-and-medium-sized companies, into Healthy Workplace Ecosystems. HPB works with developers, building owners and managers to leverage shared facilities and amenities within a cluster as health touch points to provide healthier meals or to conduct health activities, making healthy living convenient and accessible to all employees co-located at these sites.

• To extend the reach and impact to workers, HPB has reached out to large precincts through strategic partnerships with the industry. This approach was implemented for the first time in Orchard Road in October 2017, through a collaboration with the Orchard Road Business Association (ORBA). The initiative in the Orchard Road precinct is entitled “Work Great on A Great Street”.

1. “Work Great on A Great Street” for Orchard Road workers

• Orchard Road is densely populated with 60,000 workers, of whom close to 60% are employed in the retail, food & beverage, hospitality and entertainment sectors.

• It is typically hard to reach these workers due to the scattered distribution of their workplaces. For example, in Orchard Road, workers are dispersed across Tanglin Place to Dhoby Ghaut, with some situated in office blocks or large hotel chains, and others in the small retail outlets along the district. Many of them also tend to work long shift hours, have short rest breaks or unstructured work patterns, resulting in their limited access to regular health and safety programmes.

• The needs of the Orchard Road workforce are also multifaceted. Some job types require the workers to carry out manual heavy-lifting, some have to bend over stoves over a long period, while others may have to stand for long hours.

• A worker-centric approach was adopted by HPB and ORBA in implementing this initiative. Over 400 activities were made accessible to employees in the Orchard Road precinct, with several programmes tailored around the work schedule, demographics and work nature of the workers.

• These programmes are:

ANNEX B

TRIPARTITE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH 2017-2020

• The Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Health was formed in 2014, with the ultimate objective to promote wellbeing of workers through interventions at the workplace, by adopting a holistic approach that focuses on workers’ health and wellness, and increases the reach and penetration of workplace health promotion.

• The first term (2014-2017) concluded in July 2017. At the end of the first term, over 300,000 employees had benefitted from customised and holistic health and safety programmes, directly accessible at their workplaces.

• The second-term Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Safety and Health (2017-2020) convened in October 2017. Led by co-chairs Dr. Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State (Health) and Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State (Manpower), the Tripartite Oversight Committee comprises representatives from the public and private sectors to drive and implement workplace health and safety initiatives at the national level. It consists of senior representatives from the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Health Promotion Board (HPB), Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSHC), partners and relevant stakeholders.

• Three sub-committees will look into developing and promoting Total Workplace Safety and Health initiatives in high-risk industries; enhancing and sustaining implementation of holistic safety and health initiatives at office, business and industrial clusters; as well as enhancing and sustaining targeted interventions for mature workers in key priority sectors.

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[1] Based on a survey with 1,116 participants

[2] Based on a survey with 200 participants