Over 300,000 Workers Given Direct Access To Customised Health And Wellness Programmes At Their Workplaces

Singapore, 20 July 2017 – Over 300,000 employees have benefitted from customised and holistic health and safety programmes, directly accessible at their workplaces, during the Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Health’s three-year term. With the term ending this year, the Tripartite Oversight Committee has released a report, Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Health 2014–2017, to showcase its achievements as well as key learnings and recommendations for workplace safety and health promotion. 

2. The Tripartite Oversight Committee was established in 2014 and comprised representatives from the public and private sectors to drive and implement workplace health and safety initiatives at the national level. Its three sub-committees looked at fostering partnerships to engineer efficiencies, developing targeted interventions for mature workers in unstructured work environments and implementing Total Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) to build a safer, healthier and more productive workforce. More information on the Tripartite Oversight Committee and its members can be found in Annex 1. 

Key Achievements, Learnings and Recommendations

3. During its tenure, the Tripartite Oversight Committee has achieved notable success in the roll out and adoption of customised workplace health and safety programmes. This includes:

• Implementing Total Workplace Safety and Health (Total WSH) programmes for some 110,000 workers across 120 companies;

• Impacting more than 32,000 mature workers in seven priority sectors^[1] to improve their health conditions^[2]; and

• Transforming more than 30 business clusters into Healthy Workplace Ecosystems for 178,000 workers to create positive behavioural changes^[3] and health outcomes^[4].

More information on the Tripartite Oversight Committee’s achievements can be found in the report.

4. “We are pleased to see over 300,000 workers benefitting from our industry-specific solutions and needs-based programmes during this first term of the Tripartite Oversight Committee. In particular, we have increased the awareness of safety and health, improved the overall health of hard-to-reach mature workers, and increased the adoption of healthier behaviours among workers in business clusters. There has also been greater buy-in from companies to incorporate health and safety programmes to increase staff engagement, productivity and retention,” said Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health and Co-Chairman of the Tripartite Oversight Committee. “With the rise in chronic diseases, such as diabetes, increasing obesity rates and the Health Promotion Board’s findings that the average Singaporean tends to put on weight after entering the workforce, due to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets, it is imperative to reach out to the working population. Given the amount of time spent at work, the workplace is an ideal setting to positively impact Singaporeans’ health,” Dr Khor added.

5. In working with stakeholders like developers, businesses, unions and the community to implement safety and health programmes, the Tripartite Oversight Committee found that customisation is imperative to drive impactful outcomes for companies and workers. Instead of a one-size-fits-all model, programmes must be developed to fit within operational structures and schedules in workplaces to facilitate uptake amongst the workers. Win-win solutions are also important to help secure and retain partners in order to ensure the sustainability of the programmes.

6. Based on the key learnings, the Tripartite Oversight Committee recommends to continue working in close partnership with key stakeholders and to focus on:

• adopting a worker-centric approach to better customise programmes in order to benefit workers with different demographics and job natures

• streamlining processes and offerings to make it hassle-free for companies to implement and sustain safety and health programmes

• building a strong business case for workplace health and safety to encourage commitment and adoption from companies

Workplace Safety and Health Policy Sub-Committee

7. Under this sub-committee, the concept of Total WSH was launched to increase awareness and understanding of holistic safety and health.  A key milestone was the revision of the Code of Practice on WSH Risk Management, which recognises personal health risk as a potential hazard which may contribute to work injury and ill health from work. To date, over 110,000 workers from 120 companies across various industries such as construction, manufacturing, healthcare, marine, logistics and transport, and retail sectors have benefitted from newly incorporated Total WSH policies and practices in their work environment.

8. “The Total WSH approach is a key foundation for a happy and productive workforce. By incorporating personal health risk factors into the risk assessment process, companies can better tackle overall workplace risks to advance workers’ health and well-being. We are glad that companies are increasingly seeing the importance of adopting a holistic approach towards safety and health, in this case, through Total WSH, to benefit their workers and businesses. We urge more companies to take proactive steps in addressing various risk factors at the workplace and implement suitable programmes to protect their employees’ safety, health and well-being,” said Mr Sam Tan, Minister of State for Manpower and Co-Chairperson of the Tripartite Oversight Committee.

9. To encourage companies to start and sustain their health initiatives, the Tripartite Oversight Committee proposes simplifying the processes and procedures for ease of implementation. The report also highlighted a need to demonstrate the tangible business benefits of Total WSH to encourage employers to adopt holistic safety and health programmes.

Mature Workers Sub-Committee

10. During the tenure of the Tripartite Oversight Committee’s Mature Workers sub-committee, the Health Promotion Board reached out to more than 32,000 mature workers from less structured workplaces with multiple shift patterns such as those in the transport and logistics, retail, cleaning, security, food and beverage, education and healthcare sectors. This has impacted the overall health of hard-to-reach mature workers. Under the pilot intervention programme for taxi drivers and bus captains for example, about half of the 3,000 participants with abnormal health screening results saw an improvement in at least one chronic condition post screening and one in four managed to achieve normal health status.

Business Cluster Sub-Committee

11. Under Tripartite Oversight Committee’s Business Cluster sub-committee, the development of Healthy Workplace Ecosystems has been key to creating a supportive environment for employees. Through the ecosystem approach, healthy living has been brought to the doorstep for over 178,000 workers in more than 30 business clusters. Positive behavioural changes and health outcomes were observed among workers in these business clusters. Almost one in three workers participated in one or more activities within their cluster, and almost three in five programme participants reported an improvement in their active time. Through health screening and coaching on-site, one in three workers with abnormal health results at the onset also saw improvements in one or more biometric health indicators^[5] post screening.

12. The Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Health 2014–2017 report is available for download here. The new Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Safety and Health will be appointed for a three-year term from 2017 to 2020, with SMS Dr Amy Khor and MOS Sam Tan resuming their roles as co-chairpersons.

Annex 1 About The Tripartite Oversight Committee on Workplace Health (2014 - 2017)
Annex 2 About Total Workplace Safety and Health
Annex 3 Targeting Mature Workers in Different Sectors
Annex 4 Reaching Out to Workers in Business Clusters and SMEs
Annex 5 Healthy Workplace Ecosystem at OUE

^[1]

The seven sectors include F&B, healthcare, retail, transport & logistics, cleaning, security and education, which has a higher proportion of mature workers (workers aged 40 years old and above). These workers usually may not have a fixed working location and work multiple shifts.

^[2] About half of the 3,000 participants with abnormal health screening results saw an improvement in at least one chronic condition post screening and one in four managing to achieve normal health status under the pilot intervention programme for taxi drivers and bus captains.

^[3] Positive behavioural changes such as almost three in five programme participants reported an improvement in their active time, as two in five workers consumed healthier food options within the Ecosystem.

^[4] Positive health outcomes such as one in three with abnormal health results at the beginning saw improvement in one or more biometric health indicators post screening.

^[5] Biometric indicators include body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose levels.

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About 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.

About the WSH Council

The Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council was formed on 1 April 2008. It comprises leaders from the major industry sectors (including construction, manufacturing, marine industries, petrochemicals and logistics), the Government, unions and professionals from the legal, insurance and academic fields.

The Council work closely with the Ministry of Manpower and other Government agencies, the industry, unions and professional associations to raise WSH standards in Singapore and realise the national WSH 2018 strategy.

The Council’s main functions are to build capabilities to manage WSH, promote WSH, recognise companies with good WSH records and set acceptable WSH practices.   

Media Release

For more information on the article above, refer to Media Release [PDF, 440.3 KB].