Saskatchewan Health has presented the Sun Country Health Region with a six-figure sum of money to help improve employee morale and job satisfaction, and to reduce turnover, absenteeism, and injury rates.

As part of an initiative to create "healthy" Regional Health Authority workplaces in Saskatchewan, Sask. Health provided Sun Country with $155,720 to do just that. In total, RHAs in Saskatchewan received $1.79 million to make their environments more mood-friendly.

Lee Spencer, CEO of Sun Country Health Region, says Sun Country has always been a leader in creating happy and healthy workplaces, but as Spencer explains, "wanted to go a little further," in maintaining a good workplace culture.

"Sun Country has provided a lead in trying to balance family in the workplace all in an effort to make sure employees are comfortable with their work space," he said, referring to such bonuses as providing daycare, fitness and educational opportunities for employees in their buildings, and free respite care for employees looking after parents.

"But we thought we wanted to go a little further, so we applied to the Department of Health for some funding to do some pilot projects, and that's what we're embarking upon now."

Too early for specifics, he said, Spencer indicated that the health region body would perform an evaluation of all possible sites and improvements that may be made to workplace cultures. He said after evaluations and consultations with staff, three sites will be chosen for pilot projects that will last one year.

"What we learn from the evaluations about how the staff think we can improve their work environment, what other types of characteristics do they think are necessary to have a supportive work environment, then we'll move into focus groups and try to get more information from the staff," he said.

"At the end of that one year, we'll evaluate what it is we can enact that is going to improve the culture in the workplace."

While Spencer denies any sort of crisis of poor morale in the Sun Country Health Region, he says the point of the project is to never neglect employee satisfaction on the job.

"What is it that you think we can do to improve the support that you need," is how Spencer states the purpose of the program.