Workplace health promotion

Workplace health promotion is the combined efforts of employers, employees and society to improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of people at work. The term workplace health promotion further denotes a comprehensive analysis and design at human – organization – work levels strategically and methodologically aiming at development of health resources in the enterprise.

The World Health Organization has prioritized the workplace as a setting for health promotion because of the large potential audience and influence on all spheres of a person's life. The Luxembourg Declaration provides that health and well-being of employees at work can be achieved through combination of:

• improving the organization and the working environment
• promoting active participation
• encouraging personal development.

Workplace health promotion strategies also combine alleviation of health risk factors with enhancement of health strengthening factors.

Successful workplace health promotion strategies include the principles of participation, integration, project management, and comprehensiveness:

• All staff have to be involved - workplace health promotion has to be integrated in all important decisions and in all areas of organisations
• All measures and programmes have to be oriented to a problem-solving cycle
• Workplace health promotion includes individual-directed and environment-directed measures from various fields.

It combines the strategy of risk reduction with the strategy of the development of protection factors and health potentials.

The positive impact of implementation of workplace health promotion programmes on productivity is widely discussed. The first logical step is to examine the impact of workplace health promotion on absenteeism as productivity is impossible if an employee is absent. However, the potential of increasing productivity is much greater when presenteeism is analysed as it presents the situation when an employee is being registered as attending and being paid with lower performance due to a health condition or other causes.

Workplace health promotion is complementary to the discipline of occupational safety and health, which consists of protecting workers from hazards.

A report by the European Agency for Safety and Health at work suggests that there is growing evidence that significant cost savings can be made by implementing workplace health promotion strategies.

Strategies to promote health in the workplace

Strategies for workplace health promotion need to be inclusive to account for diversity in the workforce, with behavioural economics a key tool for implementing a workplace health program. Such strategies include the use of pedometers to encourage more physical activity, as well as signs and apps to promote stair climbing, and other forms of physical activity.

Some organisations have invested in "wearable" technology to encourage their employees to monitor their physical activity.

Effects of workplace health promotion

Workplace health promotion programs have been shown to benefit employers.