But as careers progress and responsibilities grow, these instances of rest and reflection become increasingly infrequent. Add in a child or two and the care of an aging parent, and downtime can soon become the stuff of nostalgia.

Such a lifestyle has become accepted in our society, but is this norm really normal? With work commitments encroaching on our time, what else is being eroded?

Do Australian professionals have a problem with work-life balance?

Research by Beaton in collaboration with Linda Duxbury, a work-life balance expert, and Beyond Blue has found that Australian professionals are working harder than ever – and it’s not necessarily doing them any good. So how sustainable is our ‘workaholism’?

In this 2008 study, close to 12,000 professionals answered questions relating to work-life balance. The results showed that professionals in Australia are particularly time-poor. On average, they spend 9.5 hours at work each day. A large majority (70%) worked an average 6 hours of unpaid overtime each week.

Nearly half (42%) of respondents cited they felt overloaded within their role – that is, their workload was approaching or had surpassed a level with which they were comfortable. Not surprisingly, nearly a third (29%) of respondents felt their work was encroaching on their family life.

So why do we do it? Why would we willingly take on more work when we already feel overloaded? Prior research by Linda Duxbury found it was due to:

1. Downsizing
   • ‘Jackson was made redundant, now I have to do his work as well as mine.’
2. Corporate culture
   • ‘If I don’t work harder than the guy next to me, I won’t advance. If he does overtime, I have to do more, because I’m more committed and more loyal.’
3. Increased use of technology
   • ‘If you need me I’ll be contactable on my iPhone/Blackberry/laptop in the hotel lobby/plane/taxi /restaurant.’
4. Global competition
   • ‘It’s always happy hour somewhere in the world, and Johnson & Co. need their report by 9 am GMT + 10:00.’
5. Wanting to do a good job
   • ‘It’s not perfect yet. If I just spend a little more time on it, it’ll be perfect. Then I can go home.’

What these reasons boil down to are expectations – those of others or of ourselves. Just as opportunities multiply as they are seized, expectations increase as they are met. And to continually meet rising expectations, the relationship between work and life must inevitably be strained. So what effect does this have?

Depressing figures: the impact of work-life imbalance

In 2007, a collaborative study between Beaton and Beyond Blue of over 7,500 professionals in Australia found a significantly higher prevalence of depression within those working in professional service firms as compared to the general population. Lawyers in particular were the most prone to depression and were also more likely to use non-prescription drugs or alcohol to mitigate feelings of sadness.

Such a statistic begs the question of causality: ‘does working in the professions cause depressive symptoms or do the professions attract a typically more morose individual?’ Neither of the above studies intended to answer that question. However, four facts from the work-life study collectively highlight a grave concern for the Australian professional services industry:

1. Those overloaded within their role (49% of Australian professionals) are significantly more likely to express the view that they are not satisfied with their job.
2. Those who feel their work interferes with their family life (29%) are even more likely to be dissatisfied with their job.
3. One in four (25%) miss work due to physical or emotional fatigue.
4. Absenteeism due to physical or emotional fatigue is often a precursor to episodes of burnout.

Is it any surprise lawyers are the most prone to depression, when anecdotally we know they work some of the longest hours in the professions?

The link here is not between depression and hours spent at work per se; rather, it is between depression and a sense of not being in control, something often cited by those experiencing feelings of intense sadness. Growing expectations can make us feel trapped, especially when those expectations are rigidly defined. The work-life study found that, more than anything else, flexibility of work hours and location help Australian professionals balance their lives better. This relatively simple measure may drastically reduce mental health issues, absenteeism and burnout.

So is our ‘workaholism’ sustainable? For the sake of our collective mental health, is it not time to concede that the answer is a clear ‘no’? Surely the question to ask now is ‘how do we change our expectations?’

Phillip Sargeant is an Associate at Beaton, a research and consulting firm that works with professional service firms and has previously collaborated with Beyond Blue.

So where does brand fit in relation to CSR and sustainability reporting? Dr Stephen Downes, Principal of market research and brand strategy firm, QBrand Consulting, recently shared his views on this topic at a corporate reporting open-day event organised by WellmarkPerspexa.

Firstly, what is a brand? According to Dr Downes, what he described as the neuro-psycho-cultural brand paradigm views a brand as:

• a network of associations in the mind of the customer
• a cultural icon with symbolic social meaning
• having specific structural and biochemical correlates in the brain.

Under each of these conceptualisations, brands shape customer attitudes, perceptions, expectations and behaviour – whether rational or irrational, tangible or intangible, conscious or unconscious, he said. ‘And it’s important to realise that customers can’t, and often won’t, separate what’s happening with CSR and sustainability reporting from everything else they see, hear and know about a brand.’

Dr Downes explained that CSR reporting has often been used inappropriately, and even cynically, as disposable packaging, a cost of doing business, brand ‘insurance’ or economic self-interest. ‘The concepts of “greenwashing” and “necessary evil” are self-evidently insincere and can’t build sustainable brand resonance. Viewing CSR as brand “insurance” positions it as a grudge purchase to counter future problems. And, while economic self-interest at least recognises that CSR is positive for business, it fails to understand the leverage that comes from doing things that are good for the bottom line and good for the brand in the long run,’ he said. These usages, Dr Downes continued, do not lend themselves to making the brand look authentic or credible. ‘CSR reports provide a real opportunity to capture more about the brand, but many companies don’t recognise this.’

CSR has the most to offer, in terms of brand building, when it reflects something deep about the brand’s character and its values, according to Dr Downes. ‘The reporting should genuinely reflect what the brand believes in, what it stands for, what it will fight for. Brand values can’t simply be conjured up, created by a brand consultant or borrowed from a celebrity endorser. You can’t just add a new logo with a new set of values attached, as some companies mistakenly try to do.

‘Authentic brand values have to be about life, about society, about big-picture issues, about the world. They shouldn’t just be about the company,’ said Dr Downes. ‘But that’s the problem with many global corporations – it’s all about them. They should be telling people what they think is important. Values have to come from the heart and soul of the brand.’ He emphasised that input and support for CSR and sustainability must come from all levels of the company, top-down and bottom-up.

That begs the question: how do you find the values that are true to a brand? Many methods are available but Dr Downes particularly likes the ‘tombstone’ exercise. ‘If the brand disappeared today, what would people write on its tombstone? What would they miss about the brand?’ he asked. ‘What kind of brand-related behaviours are most highly regarded and rewarded in the company?’ In fact, we can start even further back with brand vision and thinking about how the brand will make the world a better place, he said. ‘A lot of good-quality, really successful brand strategy has started from this perspective.’

When companies are integrating brand and CSR/sustainability reporting, they need to know what’s in the hearts and minds of customers, Dr Downes said. ‘Not just consumers but also business buyers, business partners, shareholders and analysts – this is a two-way dialogue where corporations look for values they have in common with their target audiences. However, it’s not realistic for them to say they care about exactly everything their audiences care about.’

Dr Downes also highlighted some common pitfalls. ‘Not acknowledging issues of concern is a real risk because it’s so easy for people to find out the truth. Companies need to honestly address concerns to defuse cynicism and counter-arguments,’ he said. Not using plain, easy-to-understand language is another no-no. Some reports really take on their own language and the whole message of CSR and sustainability gets lost, he said.

‘CSR and sustainability reporting is a huge opportunity for companies to emphasise authentic, meaningful and differentiating brand values. Let the brand show its character and be real,’ Dr Downes advised.

So brands build corporate value … but values build brands. Food for thought.

Brandy Munro is a Writer at WellmarkPerspexa, one of the first agencies to design and produce sustainability reports for some of Australia’s largest corporate entities.

• How customers perceive the authenticity of your sustainability activities can affect your reputation and sales.
• How employees perceive your commitment to sustainability can affect staff morale as well as your ability to attract, engage and retain talent.
• How investors perceive your environmental performance is helping or hurting your competitiveness can affect whether they choose to invest with you and/or keep investing.

If you believe all that, then you’ll agree that it’s vital for companies to create a credible market-facing image around sustainability. In today’s market, sustainability credentials are fast becoming an expected rather than an augmented product feature. If you’re slow to market with these messages, you’ll never catch up.

As such, now is not the time to stop reading this article and tell me that talking about sustainability with your customers is irrelevant in your industry or line of work. It’s not only large mining and petroleum companies that consume the earth’s resources. If your business operates in the real world, it’s a consumer of the earth, so how can sustainability not be a relevant topic – particularly when your customers are growing more environmentally conscious every day?

So, if you’re a marketer, it’s time to get to know your sustainability officer or equivalent – think office manager or managing director if you’re an SME – and start weaving your environmental story into your promotional materials and activities in ways that engage customers and support your corporate image and value proposition.

Rest assured that marketing your sustainability efforts doesn’t require knowledge or skills you don’t already have as a marketer (this is why the term ‘green marketing’ is a myth, since it implies that acting responsibly is optional rather than just a part of good marketing practice). Marketing sustainability follows all the normal rules of marketing, i.e:

• Develop a comprehensive strategy for branding your sustainability initiatives
• Understand what motivates your customers to purchase your offering and what role sustainability plays in current purchase behaviour
• Determine how you want your customers to experience sustainability throughout your product’s lifecycle
• Define how you want to relate sustainability to your core, existing business.

This inside-out approach positions sustainability alongside other more traditional brand attributes such as price, quality and performance, enabling it to function as a natural (rather than artificial or contrived) extension of your brand offering.

Once you have this foundation, you can work on bringing sustainability to life for your customers through sophisticated messaging and innovative executions. The key is not to think of your environmental credentials as something you tag on to a campaign or communications piece at the last minute – they have to be part of your brand plan from the get-go. If you take shortcuts, your sustainability messages will stick out like a sore thumb, rather than a green thumb (pardon the pun).

The brands that market their sustainability initiatives well (think Toyota or GE) put sustainability at the core of their brand strategy – it’s a consideration when deciding any and all of the 4Ps. Any other approach just pays lip service to the green movement. The flow-on effect is marketing communications that are genuine and believable. It’s the old adage – actions speak louder than words.

Candice O’Sullivan is Head of Strategy at WellmarkPerspexa, a business-to-business communications agency that believes in marketing that’s green by nature rather than by name.

Like an annual report, a sustainability report can, at its most basic level, serve the purpose of a compliance document (think the Form 10-K in the United States).  Mission accomplished? Well, sure, a compliance document will satisfy the analysts and regulators, but what does it say about your organisation? That you can comply, that’s all – which is important, of course, but hardly very inspiring stuff.  Should you not grasp this opportunity to communicate something more? After all, the contents of your sustainability report more often than not convey good news to stakeholders. It is a vehicle through which you can speak about progress within your business, connect with an ever more savvy (and, for want of a better word, ‘green’) audience, and build positive perceptions of your brand.

To that end, it is vital to present your key information and data in a compelling way:

• Be upfront about your organisation’s highlights and achievements; don’t bury them amid never-ending pages of dense, impenetrable copy
• Engage a designer who is used to working with text-heavy or highly technical data and thus knows how to design layouts that support clear messaging despite the plethora of mandatories required
• Ensure that you constantly link the different parts of your report back to your company’s overall strategic vision – like an engram, a recurring graphic device or umbrella theme can repeatedly cue the reader to recall your key stakeholder message
• Give your company a (human) face by quoting key leaders within the organisation throughout your report
• Bring your initiatives to life by using professional photography to capture uncontrived moments ‘from the field’.

Paying attention to these kinds of details will build trust with your audience by conveying what is often highly technical (even scientific) information in a wholly transparent, digestible and meaningful way.

If the visual style of your sustainability report reflects your brand image, your strategic messages are communicated clearly, and the key data (too often dense and opaque) are presented in an engaging and accessible manner, it will only enhance the perception of your brand. As David Stuart of UK agency The Partners writes in his book A smile in the mind: ‘What you’ve got to worry about is whether someone actually reads this … Someone who is intrigued will stay with the item until curiosity is satisfied’. It might sound like Marketing 101 but it resonates with me, because poor design – and thus communication – in the area of corporate reporting is a frustratingly common occurrence.

The sustainability report is a relatively new beast, but just as the annual report has adapted from a pure compliance document into an often visually compelling window into the state of a company’s strategic and financial health, so too are sustainability reports evolving. If presented in an engaging and accessible fashion, the sustainability report can similarly contribute to positive perceptions of an organisation in the workplace, market and broader community.

As WellmarkPerspexa‘s Art Director, Chris Raybould has designed annual and sustainability reports for some of Australia’s leading corporate entities including Amcor, Santos, NAB, Coles Myer, Paperlinx, CentroProperty group, The Just Group and Melbourne Airport.

The healthcare workforce absorbs 40–90% of the health budget. Instead of viewing this as an investment, governments and administrators regard it as a cost that must be contained – in a system with finite resources, finding ways to make the health dollar go further is seen as essential. While some measures taken in this regard can achieve short-term cost savings, these gains may be negated by the effect that such measures can have on staff morale.

In their 2006 World Health Report, the WHO acknowledged that health services around the globe engaged in poor human resource practices that focus on cost cutting and lead to low staff morale, heavy workloads, lack of professional autonomy, poor supervision and support, long working hours, unsafe workplaces and unfair remuneration.

Given the emphasis on cost saving in healthcare, it is curious that many highly effective management approaches, which consistently improve efficiency in a range of industries, are not utilised in healthcare. These practices place employees and their needs at the centre of business operation, and they work because they build the organisation’s ‘psychological capital’. The notion is not revolutionary, but run it by any doctor working in a public hospital and they will dismiss it as a utopian ideal.

Creating a health system that values doctors is not impossible, but it requires a shift in the priorities of governments, administrators and clinical leaders.

How can it be achieved?

1. Make workplace safety a priority
   • In the 1980s, Paul O’Neill, as CEO of Alcoa aluminium manufacturing, wanted to demonstrate to employees that there ‘would be a code of inviolable values including basic human respect for workers at all levels’. On his first day, he launched a workplace safety campaign that made workers’ health a genuine priority.
   • In the healthcare setting, the hazards may not be as obvious, but they are no less real, and no less preventable. And in health, of course, there are implications not only for workers but also for patients. There is plenty of evidence to show that fatigue, stress and low morale significantly increase the likelihood of needlestick injuries and car accidents for doctors, and serious and costly adverse events for patients.
   • Safety in this context is not about hardhats and earmuffs; it’s about fatigue-minimising rosters, adequate staffing levels, sufficient backup when staff are sick, and appropriate supervision and support. It is also about ensuring the availability of dedicated spaces for doctors to sleep, rest, prepare meals and debrief amongst colleagues.
2. Focus on education and training
   • A recent New Zealand government report on junior doctor welfare, ‘Treating People Well’, clearly articulates many problems in the public hospital system that result in low morale and potentially affect the quality of patient care. It calls for a shift in the model of hospital management to one that regards junior doctors as being employed for training, not simply as service providers. It may be an obvious need, but it’s one that has been obscured in the push for short-term cost savings.
   • The WHO acknowledges that access to training, supervision and mentoring, and a considered and supportive approach to lifelong learning and personal development, are amongst the most significant incentives for healthcare workers. Interestingly, such factors have also been recognised as integral to managing financially successful organisations.
   • Training is an essential investment in the future of the healthcare system. Some practical steps to making it a priority include providing greater financial rewards and administrative support for senior staff who become educators, building education into hospital KPIs so that it becomes a proportion of the budget for each patient’s care, providing dedicated work spaces and training facilities, and investing in programs like Queensland’s MoLIE (More Learning for Interns in Emergency), which ensures that structured clinical training is rostered and paid.
3. Engage health workers in management
   • A major factor contributing to low morale in the healthcare workforce is a lack of autonomy. Employees, particularly trainee doctors, are given few opportunities to engage with management or contribute to organisational decisions, and yet it has been shown that a decentralised organisational structure and systematic communication between management and staff help to build a positive and more efficient working environment.
   • The health system must engage clinicians in management, because the business of health systems is to deliver clinical services. We need more clinically trained professionals in management positions, as well as mechanisms for healthcare workers to contribute to organisational decisions. As well, more information about organisational matters should be shared with health workers, to create an environment of trust and mutual responsibility.

A guarded prognosis

These strategies are only a starting point for improving healthcare workers’ wellbeing and morale. The health system is entirely dependent on its workforce, and as such it needs to be recognised as a valuable asset rather than an unwanted cost. A healthy, motivated workforce and a cost-efficient health system are not mutually exclusive: they are intimately linked. So a real shift in focus is essential if we are serious not only about maintaining workers’ health but also creating an efficient, high-quality, and sustainable workforce. This raises the question – are there other management concepts and frameworks we could apply to the world of medicine?

Dr Sarah Mansfield is a robust advocate for junior doctors through her roles as President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Victoria Doctors in Training and Deputy Chair of the Federal AMA Council of Doctors in Training.

What will the internet do to our privacy? Our sense of self? Our health? Here is Mark’s take on it…

http://www.youtube.com/user/vicgovhealth

Ryan Wallman is Senior Writer at WellmarkPerspexa, a business-to-business communications agency specialising in healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing.

With technological advances gathering pace all the time, it’s easy for businesses to feel the pressure to jump on the bandwagon of ‘progress’ for fear of being left behind. The pharmaceutical industry, in its role as a driver of change, is perhaps more susceptible than most to this kind of pressure. But how much of this makes strategic sense, rather than being a knee-jerk tactical reaction? How relevant is a nifty ‘app’ or an online community to a pharmaceutical brand?

One way to think about this issue is to consider the impact that digital media have had on broader society. There can be no doubt that the net, Pods, Pads and all the rest have changed things forever; for most people, life will simply never be the same. And it is generally accepted that many aspects of our everyday life – shopping, travel, business and, perhaps most of all, social connectivity – have been transformed. But what has really changed? Do we travel to different places, consume or transact differently, or associate with different people? For the most part, no. We do the same things, just with greater ease or on a grander scale.

So should we expect things to be any different in a marketing context, whether in the pharmaceutical industry or anywhere else?

In my opinion? No. No. And no.

Don’t get me wrong: some fantastic opportunities have arisen with the advent of new media. To name but a couple of examples, there are now numerous online patient communities (take a look at Dose of Digital for some examples) and it is not uncommon for pharmaceutical sales teams to be equipped with iPads and other smart technology. Indeed, such initiatives are probably the way of the future.

But the essence of pharmaceutical (or any other) marketing has not changed, and that is brand. When it comes down to it, fancy gadgets and whiz-bang applications are nothing more than vehicles for communicating your brand. If you don’t have something important to say, there’s no point broadcasting it – because if the internet has proven anything, it is that ‘content is king’.

The pharmaceutical industry is well placed to take advantage of the opportunities presented by new media, but that doesn’t mean it should blindly pursue them at the expense of established marketing principles. When it comes to brand, the medium is not the message.

Ryan Wallman is Senior Writer at WellmarkPerspexa, a business-to-business communications agency specialising in healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing.

And I, for one, think that Jacques (and his difficult-to-name colleagues) would have had a valid point. Because if we look at this subject in more detail – or, sigh, ‘deep dive’ into it – their grievances would be pretty understandable.

Imagine yourself in Jacques’ flippers. Here you were, the champion of a dangerous activity requiring great courage and skill: a feat that was once at the very frontier of human exploration. And now imagine this. A few decades after your aquatic accomplishments, some nong in a comfortable office who has never been in deeper water than that of a hotel spa during a business trip decides that the fundamental act underpinning your achievements – and indeed your entire raison d’être – would make a handy little description for the finer points of his prosaic pen-pushing and pontification.

It would rankle a little, wouldn’t it?

But that’s the reality. We are now much more likely to hear ‘deep dive’ from someone in a wool suit than a wetsuit. But what exactly does this neologistic variant mean? As far as I can tell, it simply means to look at more closely; to investigate in greater detail; or sometimes, seemingly, just to continue talking about whatever is being talked about.

Wow. What a bold new linguistic frontier. But then, maybe it’s just for people who can talk underwater.

Ryan Wallman is Senior Writer at WellmarkPerspexa, where he ‘harbours’ a deep-seated distrust of cliches.

First, ask the right questions

Has the right value proposition been articulated for your brand? If not, the whole process of value production, communication and harvesting will be out of sync, your offer will appear confused and sales will start to slide.

There are three key questions to ask yourself:

1. What’s the real offer?
   • Know what the business stands for, the advantages it delivers and the story behind it. Be aware of under- or over-estimating the offer, a common pitfall.
2. How is the business landscape shifting?
   • Be vigilant of the ever-changing environment, monitor competitors and track macro changes. Anticipate the impacts of these forces on your brand.
3. Who benefits and who is worth most to the business?
   • Know current and future customers, the loyals, the switchers etc. and their attitudes to your brand. Weaving this knowledge into the innovation process produces quality offers that add to the value of a culture, thereby securing competitive advantage.

Making it stick

Everyone working in your company affects its brand equity, making it imperative that the value proposition lives through their actions. The way to encourage this is to:

• Re-articulate the positioning internally via focus groups of employees and management, then energise staff around it, empowering and rewarding them for behaviours that fulfil its promise
• Align the agreed values with company objectives and productivity measures that are easily understood, and use them to judge performance
• Ensure that messages to external audiences remain consistent, by referencing the value proposition for each piece of communication.

A thousand-year brand

Millennium brands are not ‘hot right now’ – they are forever. Millennium businesses grow their brands by taking a long-term approach and employing sound marketing practice to engage with their markets. Whatever short-term bump a business may get from talking about a small but insincere ‘green’ initiative will not continue. Indeed, it may turn customers away. What really counts is a vision for the future.

Hannah McVean is a freelance marketer with a Master of Marketing from Melbourne Business School. Her mission is to uncover a brand’s mantra, its true unique expression, and to help that brand live it consistently.