Wellnomics tells 25,000 staff to take a break

Wellnomics tells 25,000 staff at Australian Tax Office to take a break

Press release, Wellnomics, Christchurch NZ, 13 November, 2013: Christchurch occupational health and safety software company, Wellnomics, has had its office ergonomics software implemented on over 25,000 desktops in the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The deal follows earlier implementations within other Commonwealth public service departments including the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Australian Federal Police, CSIRO and the federal government’s workplace health and safety agency Comcare.

“As part of meeting their health and safety obligations the ATO chose to implement the Wellnomics® Risk Management and WorkPace® software for their 25,000 office staff,” says Dr Kevin Taylor, CEO of Wellnomics. “This deal is an important step towards our goal of having our software installed across all 200,000 employees in the Australian Federal Government.

“During the tender process Wellnomics was judged to provide the strongest solution. The software helps ATO both identify staff at risk of injury and proactively reduce these risks. ATO will be analysing the results over the next 12-24 months and are expecting to see significant benefits from the initiative.”

Interest in office ergonomic software that promotes breaks and exercises for computer users has increased recently due to research showing the serious health risks of sedentary office work.

Studies like those by the Australian National University in Sydney have found the health risks from sitting for long periods without a break are, surprisingly, on a par with smoking. The harmful metabolic effects of this inactivity have now been directly linked to reduced life expectancy. For example, a study by the American Cancer Society tracking 123,000 people found that sitting six or more hours per day resulted in a death rate 20% higher in men, and 40% higher in women.

Contrary to previous thinking, keeping fit with regular exercise several times a week doesn’t stop these risks. With office work now the most common occupation, Wellnomics is positioning itself to take a lead in ameliorating what is developing into a major public health issue.

“Our solution not only reminds staff when to take breaks, it also provides centralised reporting that allows companies to remotely monitor, measure and manage the risks across their entire organisation,” explains Dr Taylor.

Stephen Gardener of Wellnomics’ Australian partner Balanced Ergonomics Pty Ltd says: “Based upon results in other organisations we expect ATO’s payback period for their investment will be very quick. Success at ATO will pave the way for many other organisations in Australia to implement our solution.”

About Wellnomics

Wellnomics are world leaders in the provision of software solutions for office ergonomics, with over 1 million users of the Wellnomics® Breaks & Exercises (WorkPace®) product worldwide. Our integrated Wellnomics Risk Management solution enables organizations to efficiently manage the health and safety of large numbers of office workers and ensure best practice in office ergonomics. Our solutions are proven to prevent injuries, improve productivity, and ensure employee health and wellbeing.

Based upon the latest research on office ergonomics and employee health Wellnomics products are science based and scientifically validated. As well as providing online ergonomics training and online workstation assessments the software provides unique features such automatically monitoring employee risk levels by monitoring levels of computer use and work patterns on a daily basis.

Wellnomics customers include many Global 500 organisations such as Chevron Corporation, Intel, Boeing NASA, Shell, BP, ING Bank, Nike, and Eli Lilly, with implementations of up to 100,000 users across many countries. The software is available in 12 languages and is designed to fulfils legislative and best practice requirements in Europe, North America and Australasia.

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