What Are Workplace Health Promotion Programs?
Workplace health promotion programs are designed to promote physical and mental health and well-being in the workplace. Workplaces are defined as organizations that employ people to produce products, services, arts, care, and goods. The organizations can comprise a single person or many; they can be small, midsized, or large and range from employing a few people at one shop to employing thousands of people at many locations around the world. Workplace health promotion programs have their roots in the socioecological model of health, which spans the individual, family, workplace, community, and larger environment and health advocacy to create and impact public policy at the organizational, local, regional, and national levels.
Workplace health promotion programs can improve physical, psychological, educational, and work outcomes for individuals and help control or reduce overall health care costs by emphasizing prevention of health problems, promoting healthy lifestyles, improving individual compliance with occupational safety and health regulations, and facilitating access to health services and care. Such programs play a role in creating healthier workers and workplaces but also healthier families and communities. Workplace health promotion programs contribute to an environment that promotes and supports the health of individuals and the overall public. Workplace health promotion programs take advantage of their pivotal position in peoples' jobs and places of employment to provide individual employees as well as their family members with the knowledge and skills they need to make informed decisions about their health. They foster good health, work performance, work quality, and quality of life (Fertman, Allensworth, & Auld, 2010). Workplace health promotion programs depend on the combined efforts and commitment of employers, employees, and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013a).
Workplace health promotion programs are a coordinated and comprehensive set of health promotion and protection strategies implemented in the workplace; these strategies include programs, policies, and benefits as well as safety, health, and environmental support systems (and links to the surrounding community and larger society) designed to encourage the health and safety of all employees and their families. Workplace health promotion programs involve (CDC, 2013b):
- Having an organizational commitment to improving the health of the workforce
- Providing employees with appropriate information and establishing comprehensive communication strategies
- Involving employees in decision-making processes
- Developing a working culture that is based on partnership
- Organizing work tasks and processes so that they contribute to, rather than damage, health
- Implementing policies and practices that enhance employee health by making the healthy choices the easy choices
- Recognizing that organizations have an impact on people and that this is not always conducive to their health and well-being
The federal government's Healthy People 2010 initiative (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2000) proposed a definition of comprehensive workplace health promotion programs as those that incorporated five key elements: (1) health education (i.e., skill development and lifestyle behavior change, along with information dissemination and awareness building), (2) supportive social and physical work environment (i.e., support of healthy behaviors and implementation of policies promoting health and reducing risk of disease), (3) integration (i.e., incorporating the program into the organization's structure), (4) linkage (i.e., connecting to related programs such as employee assistance programs), and (5) worksite screening and education (i.e., programs linked to appropriate medical care) (Soto Mas, Allensworth, & Carnara, 2010).
Workplace health promotion programs address occupational health and safety, organization and conditions of work, leave policies and benefits, and workplace wellness initiatives that are integrated to maximize resources and ensure success. The most promising programs feature a strong employer commitment and are responsive to employees' needs. The workplace is viewed as a health-promoting environment that connects employee health and the health of the organization, community, and society (Polanyi, Frank, Shannon, Sullivan, & Lavis, 2000). The most effective programs feature advocacy strategies that create and impact health policy at the workplace, community, regional, state, and national levels (Fertman et al., 2010).
Finally, workplace health promotion programs are part of strategic human resource management: integrating strategies and systems to achieve an overall mission to ensure the success of an organization while meeting the needs of the organization's clients, customers, consumers, stockholders, and other stakeholders as well as the employees. The personnel office of the 1980s processed paperwork; verified and rekeyed data; answered routine inquiries; monitored compliance; hired, suspended, and fired employees; and kept track of vacation and sick days. Today the personnel office is called the department of human resources, and charged with the following tasks: growing and retaining staff, increasing employee engagement, recruiting and hiring the best people, controlling costs, focusing on “best practices,” deciding employees benefit offerings (including health insurance coverage, workers' compensation, and disability management), and being a proactive and creative force to address emerging and changing conditions. The human resource department is recognized as contributing to an organization's bottom line whether it is profits, services, goods, or products. And it is true for all organizations regardless of their size: large, midsized, or small. Workplace health promotion programs as part of strategic human resource management make organizations successful (Schwind, Das, Wagar, Fassina, & Bulmash, 2013).
