The Law Society's Practising Well initiative has just received a significant enhancement.

This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Law Society and Vitality Works – an organisation with a specific emphasis on workplace health.

New Zealand Law Society President Kathryn Beck and Vitality Works New Zealand Business Manager Clara Budd signed the memorandum in Auckland late last month.

"The service we are offering through the Law Society partnership is free access for Law Society members to a tool called Wellbeing 360®. This is an online health assessment," says Dr Clara Budd, Vitality Works New Zealand Regional Manager.

"This is a fantastic tool and lawyers who use it are going to receive a huge benefit," she adds.

"Not only does it focus on physical wellbeing, but also on mental, work and social wellbeing. The Wellbeing 360 provides a snapshot of how you are going in these key areas and, importantly, it provides some simple actions that users can put into practice and trial for themselves."

Real benefit

"I have tried the impressive Wellbeing 360 health assessment tool," Ms Beck says.

"I spent just a quarter of an hour inputting information and received a comprehensive report and recommendations on my state of health. I know that this resource will be of real benefit to lawyers."

Vitality Works has created a specific page where Law Society members can access Wellbeing 360 – www.wellnessportal.co.nz/lawsociety.

On that page there is some general information about Wellbeing 360. This includes a video, which overviews to the end user what the tool is all about.

"Think of it as a wellbeing compass that explores 360 degrees of health," the video says.

The Wellbeing 360 segments are: mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing, work wellbeing and social wellbeing.

"Wellbeing is about the whole of you. Of course that includes your physical health, but it's also about your head space, human connection, how you feel about your work and even your financial means.

Personalised report

"When you complete the Wellbeing 360 you will get an immediate personalised report with your score and heaps of ideas to improve your awesomeness."

Participants' score and information will be kept "100% confidential", Ms Budd says.

Lawyers can register for Wellbeing 360 on the portal page www.wellnessportal.co.nz/lawsociety. Once on the page, lawyers will need to go to the "Register Here" section. They will need to type in their name and their email address. There is a field to input their Law Society Registry login password, although this step is optional as Vitality Works does not have any data from or access to the Law Society Registry. There is also a field to state your firm, but this is optional too.

After they have filled out the information, the request will be processed and lawyers will then receive an invitation to participate in the Wellbeing 360 online health assessment.

The value of this service that lawyers can now receive free differs, as Vitality Works' clients are companies rather than individuals, but for larger organisations like the Law Society it is in the $100,000 region, Dr Budd says.

Another resource

As well as the free Wellbeing 360, are there any other services that Vitality Works provides that lawyers can access?

"The Fit 24 team challenge is an online challenge and allows individuals to sign up themselves," Dr Budd says.

"It is a month-long challenge that gets you to focus on how much you sleep, how much sugar you eat and how much you move. It really overviews three of the main pillars of general health and wellbeing.

"It is not part of our memorandum of understanding, but it is absolutely a service that individuals can sign up for and participate in. That is a self-funded process. The cost per person is $45 for the month," Dr Budd says. Lawyers can access Fit 24 at www.fit24monthlychallenge.com.

The services Vitality Works provides offer more of an holistic approach to wellbeing, Dr Budd says.

Inspiring healthy, happy people

"Our approach of transformation focuses on the individual as well as the business. We work to resource and inspire happy, healthy people. At the same time, we help cultivate a thriving business, or in short 'healthy people – thriving business'".

It is all about providing real solutions to reduce injury and sickness and improve performance and productivity. That's how you thrive.