Singapore Health Award Recognises 223 Recipients For Positively Impacting Workers' Health And Wellbeing

Singapore, 10 October 2017 – Individuals and companies were recognised at the Singapore HEALTH Award (SHA) Ceremony 2017 for their exemplary workplace health promotion practices.

2. Since its inception in 1999, the Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) SHA has benefitted over 1,300 companies, reaching out to more than 1.3 million workers. This year, there were 223 recipients of the award across five categories – Corporate Award, Individual Award (Health Leader), Individual Award (Health Champion), Healthy Workplace Ecosystem Award and Special Mention Award. These awards not only recognise organisations with a strong commitment to promote workplace health, but also individuals who have demonstrated commendable achievements in this area. (The list of winners can be found in Annex A.)

3. Under the Corporate Award category, four Achievement Awards were also presented to organisations that have sustained efforts in the promotion of workplace health for at least 10 years, and displayed all-roundedness in the planning and execution of workplace health programmes. The four recipients of the Achievement Award who have demonstrated top-in-class efforts are: CityCab, GlaxoSmithKline (Pioneer Sector 1), Housing & Development Board and Institute of Technical Education.

4. The awards were presented by the Health Promotion Board, who has been collaborating with various partners to bring workplace health programmes to the doorstep of workers. With 70% of Singapore’s population in the workforce, the workplace has naturally become an important setting to engage Singaporeans in achieving greater health and wellbeing. To reflect the evolving context of workplace health in Singapore, specifically the increased focus on the outcomes and impact on the workforce, HPB had enhanced the SHA qualifying criteria and reintroduced the awards programme this year.

5. The enhanced SHA places a higher weightage on the monitoring and evaluation of workplace health programmes to better analyse the outcomes and impact to the employees. The SHA now also recognises the efforts of both Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and non-SMEs in tailoring the programmes to meet the unique needs of their employees. Two new categories – Healthy Workplace Ecosystem and Special Mention – have also been introduced, to recognise partners for their commitment in building a health promoting environment and for their efforts in reaching out to their mature workers.

6. Reflecting the commitment of organisations across Singapore to workplace health, more than 25% of the SHA applications this year came from the SMEs. We also saw a good mix of organisations from both the public and private sectors. The efforts of these companies have contributed to over 300,000 workers in Singapore gaining direct access to customised health and wellness programmes at their workplaces.

7. Mr Zee Yoong Kang, Chief Executive Officer, Health Promotion Board, who presented the highest honours for the Corporate Award category, said: “With the amount of time spent at work, companies are in an ideal position to positively impact their employees’ health and wellbeing. It is encouraging to see how companies have progressed beyond setting up workplace health infrastructures to focusing on tangible impact and outcomes for their employees. With more and more companies adopting a worker-centric approach and customising programmes to meet their workers’ needs, we can reap the benefits of increased productivity and performance from a healthier and engaged workforce”.

8. “A focus on workplace health promotion practices is of utmost importance. From a HPB study we have done, we have seen that the average Singaporean tends to put on weight as he enters the workforce due to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets. With obesity being a contributing factor to health problems such as diabetes, companies have an important and meaningful role to play in encouraging their employees to lead healthier and more active lifestyles,” Mr Zee added. 
9. The SHA 2017 ceremony was attended by more than 500 senior executives from Singapore’s public sector, large multinational companies as well as SMEs.

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.

About the Singapore HEALTH Awards

Introduced in 1999, the Singapore HEALTH Awards is a biennial national platform to recognise organisations with strong commitment to promote workplace health and who have demonstrated commendable achievements in this area. Aside from the awards presentation, this year’s ceremony also had the top-in-class companies share their best practices with the guests, to help other companies learn from their experience and journey in workplace health promotion. The complete list of winners for 2017 by category is available at https://www.hpb.gov.sg/workplace/singapore-health-award.

Media Release

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