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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

If you gotta work on
a Monday, you might
as well be healthy

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On a Monday you've gotta ask yourself, "Am I in a healthy workplace?" It should be a bit easier than having a Magnum .44 pointed at your head and having to ask yourself if you're feeling lucky -- punk.

Employees in only a handful of businesses and organizations can answer "yes" to the first question with recognized certainty.

Nordic Construction, Hawaiian Electric Co., the Casey Family Programs, the United States Coast Guard Group Honolulu and the Honolulu Police Department were recently honored with 2002 Healthy Workplace Awards by the Hawaii Psychological Association.

Awards are presented in five categories: small business, large business, nonprofit organization, military and government.

The organizations were judged based on five areas of performance: health, safety and security; employee involvement; employee career development; family support; and community support and corporate citizenship.

Other companies were recognized for having a "best practice" in a key area. They included Bubba Gump, Easter Seals Hawaii, Honolulu Resource Recovery Venture (or HPOWER), the International Archaeological Research Institute Inc., the Life Foundation and Pacific Resources for Education and Learning.

Not all who applied won, but Hawaii Psychological Association press relations and marketing executive Drake Beil said non-winners likely benefited from the application process itself.

"Just the fact of assessing their own business ... looking at what they're doing in each of the five areas, ultimately that's the source of productivity," he said.

Beil is president of Solutions Inc. and has been a management consultant for some 20 years. His research has shown that more than 60 percent of workplace absenteeism is related to psychological problems and as much as 90 percent of industrial accidents may be caused by personal and stress-related problems.

Tips toward a healthy workplace may be found at the Hawaii Psychological Association Web site at www.hawaiipsych.org.

Last year, the inaugural awards were presented to Hawaii Business Equipment, Hilton Waikoloa Village, Castle Medical Center, 115th Military Intelligence Group, and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Hawaii Healthcare Systems, which tied in the government category.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com