Reducing sugary drinks in the workplace: A guide for East Gippsland. A toolkit to help your workplace become a better place to work.

Transcription

1 Reducing sugary drinks in the workplace: A guide for East Gippsland A toolkit to help your workplace become a better place to work.

2 Introduction Congratulations! You have decided to take action to improve the health and productivity of your workplace! This toolkit has been created in order to assist you in decreasing the amount of sugary drinks that your colleagues drink. The resources, tools, methods and information included in this toolkit have been designed using thorough scientific and consumer research. Making changes to what we eat and drink isn t easy, and it certainly isn t something that happens overnight! However if we work together, we can make a difference for the better. On behalf of the project organisers, thank you for prioritising health. East Gippsland Drink Less Sugar Working Group (Facilitated by the East Gippsland Primary Care Partnership)

3 Contents Why is a healthy workforce important? 4 What s next? 5 What you need to do 7 Project timeline 8 H3O Challenge 9 H3O Challenge web portal 10 Rethink Sugary Drink 11 Rethink Sugary Drink calculator 12 LiveLighter sugary drinks calculator 13 Alfred Health retail case studies 14 How to get staff actively involved 15 Achievement Program 16 Healthy workplace policies 17

4 Why is a healthy workforce important? Health Comparison of the Australian Worker Unhealthy: Healthy: 18 days annual sick leave 2 days annual sick leave Self-rated performance 3.7 out of 10 Self-rated performance 8.5 out of effective hours worked (full time) per month 143 effective hours worked (full time) per month Each year, sick leave costs employers $2,861 per employee High fat diet Low energy levels and poor concentration Obese or overweight Irregular sleep patterns Poor stress management techniques Loss in productivity due to obesity through absenteeism, attending work when sick and premature death is estimated to cost $6.4 billion a year The increase in preventable disease and workplace injury resulting from unhealthy living is a major cause of workplace absence or disruption Healthier employees have more energy, higher self esteem, a lowered risk of chronic disease, and feel happier at work Low fat diet Fit, energetic and alert Normal body weight More attentive at work and better sleep patterns Actively manage stress better Productivity gains of up to 15% can be achieved by upgrading the workplace environment Organisations that promote health can reduce their workers health risk factors by up to 56% Improved corporate image and attraction/ retention of employees Increased return on training and development investment 4

5 What s next? Posters These simple posters contain key information about sugary drinks. We have provided you with two sets of posters. The first set raises awareness around the health effects of sugary drinks. First set of posters The second set raises awareness of the sugar content in sugary drinks. Second set of posters We ask you to replace the first set of posters with the second set of posters in the fourth week of the project. The aim of refreshing the posters is to maintain interest in the project. Running out of posters? Download from the East Gippsland Primary Care Partnership website. Other resources are also available. 5

6 What s next? Weekly s You will be provided with an each week that will contain useful tips and further resources. You will be able to forward these s to your whole organisation to make it easy for everyone to access the information. Survey You will have already received the link for our first survey. It s a good opportunity to have everyone thinking about what they drink before the program kicks off. At the end of the program, a follow up survey will be sent out. Please encourage your colleagues to participate in the surveys! The surveys will show if the program has made a difference in improving health in the workplace and is worthwhile for you and your colleagues. The results of the survey are unique to your workplace and can reveal areas for improvement. 6

7 What you need to do: 1. Meet with other health and wellbeing representatives in your workplace and discuss how you can implement the project effectively. 2. Put up posters in your workplace. If you have a fridge, vending machine or tearoom where people regularly access sugary drinks, be sure to post some posters there! 3. Forward the weekly to all of your colleagues. The implementation timeline outlines the theme of each week of the project and what will be included in the weekly newsletter. 4. Encourage and support your colleagues to make the switch away from sugary drinks. By getting everyone on board and enthusiastic about participating, you can change the culture of the workplace environment for the better. Consider how you can effectively communicate the strategy to ensure all staff are aware of what is happening and that management support their participation. You could also consider encouraging staff family involvement so that loved ones also reap the rewards! 5. Have a think about how you can keep up the good work after the completion of the 8 week program. We will provide you with options that can help you embed healthy practices in your workplace. 7

8 Project timeline Before Week 1 (until 18 April) Send survey to all staff and encourage participation. Week 1 (18 April 22 April) Survey will close on 22 April. Notify, introduce and engage staff of/to participant in the project - via , staff meeting, in the tearoom etc. Week 2 (26 April 29 April) Put up first set of posters. Forward weekly to all staff. Promote sign-up to the H3O Challenge via the East Gippsland link. The H3O Challenge will run from 2-31 May. newsletter contents: H3O Challenge, visualising how much sugar is in sugary drinks. Week 3 (2 May 6 May) Start the H3O Challenge in your workplace. The challenge will run through the month of May. Mid-program survey. newsletter contents: H3O Challenge reminder. Week 4 (9 May 13 May) Change posters to refresh interest. newsletter contents: label reading resource spot the sugar and quiz. Week 5 (16 May 20 May) newsletter contents: Jazz up your drink - try adding lemon or other fruit to your water to help you make the switch, soda water as an alternative to soft drink. Week 6 (23 27 May) End H3O Challenge. Keep up the good work though! newsletter contents: videos, label reading apps and other apps that assist in healthy living. Week 7 (30 May 3 June) Receive examples of healthy workplace policies and an introduction to the Achievement Program. How workplaces can support staff to drink less sugar i.e. provide cold water and herbal tea. newsletter contents: How to progress long term change. Week 8 (6 10 June) Evaluating the project survey for all staff. newsletter contents: resources to help improve other areas of your lifestyle. Sign up your workplace to the Achievement Program. After the project (from 10 June) Send survey to all staff and encourage participation.

9 H3O Challenge East Gippsland H3O Challenge 2-31 May, 2016 Victoria s leading health promotion agency VicHealth using extensive research and community consultation. Good for: The real cost of sugary drinks (to your pocket and your health). Track your progress. Tips to keep you motivated. Forming support networks. You can also form a team or two with your friends, family and colleagues to support each other. You can do it together! If you aren t keen on using the H3O website, you can still make the pledge to cut soft drinks out of your diet for 30 days. Give it a try! 9

10 H3O Challenge East Gippsland H3O Challenge 2-31 May, The H3O Challenge web portal calculates: how many kilojoules you ve saved how much money you ve saved how many teaspoons of sugar that you ve avoided by switching to water. 10

11 Rethink Sugary Drink Rethink Sugary Drink was developed by some of Australia s most influential health organisations such as the Cancer Council, Diabetes Australia, the Heart Foundation, Nutrition Australia and the Australian Dental Association. Good for: These people are the real experts, so listen up! Informative and engaging videos to share with your workplaces. (length ranges from 30 sec to 1 min). Tips to reduce sugary drinks for you and your work. Directing you to other resources. 11

12 Rethink Sugary Drink Good for: Calculating just how far you need to walk to burn off a sugary drink. Try putting in all of the drinks you have over a week to help you consider how many blisters you would get from all that walking! 12

13 LiveLighter Good for: How much sugar are you drinking? How much weight does that add? How long does it take to burn off? Sugary drink calculator. Resources such as infographs (visual summaries) and videos. Tools to help encourage healthy lifestyles (snapshot of your health). 13

14 Alfred Health Case Study The café attached to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne was asked to hide their sugary drinks behind the counter and make them available only upon request. This resulted in customers picking up the healthier drinks that were on display instead of the sugary ones. The most interesting fact was that the café s profits didn t decrease! A win for everyone! Click the below to read the report A Green Light for Healthy Consumption by Alfred Health. Reducing sales of sugary drinks AND maintaining profits?!?! READ ON TO FIND OUT HOW 14

15 How to get staff actively involved Ideas Visualise how much sugar is in drinks Ask staff to guess how many teaspoons (packets) of sugar are in their favourite drink. The actual amount might shock them! 375 ml ~300 ml 8 teaspoons Take it to the next level! Ask them to mix the actual amounts of sugar and liquid together When they have a sip, they will taste the amount of sugar in their drink without all the flavouring covering it up. If they drank the whole lot they would probably feel very ill afterwards! If you would like to host a workplace activity about sugary drinks, we can provide some assistance and materials. 15

16 Achievement Program The Achievement Program encourages and supports the development of healthy workplaces and workforces. Whether you are a small business or large organisation, the Achievement Program can help create a healthy work environment and culture to improve and sustain health, wellbeing and productivity in the workplace. Improves your workplace by: identifying opportunities for improvement providing resources to support improvements across 5 key health areas: smoking, physical activity, mental health, healthy eating and alcohol recognising your great work. 16

17 Healthy workplace policies Are you thinking of developing a healthy food and drink policy for your workplace? We can help! The Achievement Program offers easy to use policy templates and examples to help you get started. 17

18 Reducing sugary drinks in the workplace: A guide for East Gippsland Thank you for your participation