It’s not only office workers who need to pay attention to their health, as shown by a series of short videos aimed at the blue collar sector.
The University of Queensland teamed up with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland as part of the State Government-funded Healthier. Happier. Workplaces to produce videos aimed at the construction, manufacturing, transport, oil and gas industries.
UQ’s School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences’ Dr Nicholas Gilson led the development of the videos.
“Too often we forget the significant health challenges faced by workers in non-office-based occupations,” Dr Gilson said.
“The videos provide real-world insights into how companies and workers in the blue-collar sector can implement lifestyle solutions to deal with high levels of chronic disease.”
The six short videos, which last between four and six minutes, consist of an introduction to energy balance presented by UQ experts, and case studies of four Australian companies from each target industry.
The case studies focus on employee perspectives and feature people working in blue-collar industries who are struggling to lead a healthy lifestyle.
The videos then explore how these same people incorporate activity and good dietary choices into busy working lives.
One video is solely dedicated to presenting management perspectives and highlights how effective leadership can facilitate healthy choices at work.
The idea for developing the video resources emerged from the findings of a previous collaborative study between UQ and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland.
The study used smartphones to encourage truck drivers to self-monitor and regulate their physical activity and diets while at work.
The new video suite can be used for induction and toolbox talks, reinforcing healthy behaviours for workers and supporting managers in leading conversations regarding health and wellbeing.
The Worksafe website provides a range of complementary tools and resources to further support the implementation of broader workplace health and wellbeing programs, including the work health planning guide, checklists, benchmarking tools and case studies.
Videos featuring the work of UQ experts can be found on WorkSafe Queensland’s YouTube channel, prefixed by the title Healthy work. Healthy you.
Media: Dr Nicholas Gilson, n.gilson1@uq.edu.au , +61 7 3365 66114 or +61 0431 099 337; Robert Burgin, UQ Communications, r.burgin@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3346 3035, +61 0448 410 364; Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, healthyworkers@justice.qld.gov.au, +61 0478 332 200.
