IN the office of Philip Wong, director of food and beverage at Sheraton Towers, is a large, fuzzy stuffed toy - a cheerful yellow star known as Sparkie. It's the mascot of Sheraton's workplace health programme, and its presence in Mr Wong's office reflects his role as prime mover of that programme.

He and colleague Francis Tan, the hotel's director of human resources, received the Health Promoter Award in 2008, making Sheraton the only company with two concurrent Health Promoters.

Sheraton's workplace health programme, which won silver in the 2008 HEALTH Awards, has been in place since 1995. But sports and fitness only began to assume a major role in it in 2006, with the establishment of the Sheraton Sparkies, also known as the Sports Excellence Committee.

Set up by Mr Wong and headed by managers from all nine divisions of the hotel, the Sparkies organise and implement many activities to help Sheraton's 350-odd staff keep fit, including outings, sports challenges and an immensely popular five-a-side football tournament.

Mr Wong, who has previously made headlines for his love of sports, believes fitness is particularly relevant during crises such as the current economic slump. 'Health is something nobody can take away from you,' he says. 'Tough economic situations will come and go, and tough people will live through them.'

With this philosophy in mind, the Sheraton Sparkies have been working on boosting the health and fitness of the hotel's staff. Besides various games and competitions there are weekly workouts and runs, many led by Mr Wong himself, educational talks and health screening.

Big challenge

One of the greatest challenges faced in implementing these activities is organising different departments. Often, some departments are unable to release staff for health and sports, which means activities have to be run twice so everyone gets a chance to take part.

But this effort has not been in vain - the participation rate in these activities has steadily risen over the past two years.

Besides the effort to make programmes and activities as inclusive as possible, many attribute the high participation rate to Mr Wong's leadership.

Commenting on how he has worked to make staff enthusiastic about health and fitness, HR director Mr Tan said: 'Philip is our model. At 52 he can complete a 5 km run in under 20 minutes - and that puts a lot of people to shame. We say that if Philip can do it and you are younger than him, you should be able to do it.'

Increasing participation in fitness activities has been mirrored by a fall in medical costs and absenteeism - the two key performance indicators of a workplace health programme applied by the hotel. According to Mr Wong: 'Some people would take an MC just to avoid coming to work.'

Productivity is up

But since the Sparkies were set up and the number of activities increased, medical leave has dropped dramatically and productivity has gone up. In 2008, attendance at activities has been perfect, while staff turnover has fallen to less than half of the industry average.

This can be put down to not only better health encouraged by physical activity, but also a sense of camaraderie and belonging fostered by sporting events - vital factors in improving the mental and physical health of participants.

Besides the emphasis on sports and physical activity, Sheraton has one of the strictest anti-smoking policies in the industry.

Employees are banned from smoking anywhere on hotel premises during working hours. To help them cope with this restriction, alternatives are provided at the hotel's expense to the tune of up to $400 per person, ranging from counselling and support groups to nicotine patches for hard cases. Staff who quit smoking are rewarded with vouchers and featured in the hotel's internal newsletter. Between 2005 and 2008, this policy resulted in a 6 per cent drop in the number of smokers - and netted the hotel the 2008 Smoke Free Award.

Sheraton has generally implemented its workplace health programme without making use of the Workplace Health and Sports Promotion Grant.

As always, however, money is less of a concern than the positive impact the activities will have. 'The grant will come as an enhancement, but it's still the responsibility of the company to do this,' Mr Wong points out.

Responsibility - managerial responsibility for the health of staff - is a major feature of every workplace health programme, regardless of its focus or the level at which it is implemented.