Workplace Health Management There are four key components of workplace health management:
Occupational Health and Safety Workplace Health Promotion Social and lifestyle determinants of health Environmental Health Management
In the past occupational health policy was frequently driven solely by compliance with legislation. In the new approach to workplace health management, policy development is driven by both legislative requirements and by health targets set on a voluntary basis by the working community within each industry. In order to be effective Workplace Health Management needs to be based on knowledge, experience and practice accumulated in three disciplines: occupational health, workplace health promotion and environmental health. It is important to see workplace health management as a process not only for continuous improvement and health gain within the company, but also as framework for involvement between various agencies in the community. It offers a platform for co-operation between the local authorities and business leaders on community development through the improvement of public and environmental health.
The Healthy Workplace setting – a cornerstone of the Community Action Plan.
The Luxembourg Declaration of the European Union Network for Workplace Health Promotion defined WHP as the combined effort of employers, employees and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work
This can be achieved through a combination of:
Improving the work organization and the working environment Promoting active participation of employees in health activities Encouraging personal development
Workplace health promotion is seen in the EU network Luxembourg Declaration as a modern corporate strategy which aims at preventing ill-health at work and enhancing health promoting potential and well-being in the workforce. Documented benefits for workplace health programs include decreased absenteeism, reduced cardiovascular risk, reduced health care claims, decreased staff turnover, decreased musculoskeletal injuries, increased productivity, increased organizational effectiveness and the potential of a return on investment (Mossinik, Licher1998(Oxenburgh 1991).
However, many of these improvements require the sustained involvement of employees, employers and society in the activities required to make a difference. This is achieved through the empowerment of employees enabling them to make decisions about their own health. Occupational Health Nurses are well placed to carry out needs assessment for health promotion initiatives with the working populations they serve, to prioritize these initiatives alongside other occupational health and safety initiatives which may be underway, and to coordinate the activities at the enterprise level to ensure that initiatives which are planned are delivered. In the past occupational health services have been involved in the assessment of fitness to work and in assessing levels of disability for insurance purposes for many years.
The concept of maintaining working ability, in the otherwise healthy working population, has been developed by some innovative occupational health services. In some cases these efforts have been developed in response to the growing challenge caused by the aging workforce and the ever-increasing cost of social security. Occupational health nurses have often been at the forefront of these developments.
There is a need to develop further the focus of all occupational health services to include efforts to maintain work ability and to prevent non-occupational workplace preventable conditions by interventions at the workplace. This will require some occupational health services to become more pro-actively involved in workplace health promotion, without reducing the attention paid to preventing occupational accidents and diseases. Occupational health nurses, with their close contact with employees, sometimes over many years, are in a good position to plan, deliver and evaluate health promotion and maintenance of work ability interventions at the workplace.
Health promotion at work has grown in importance over the last decade as employers and employees recognize the respective benefits. Working people spend about half of their non-sleeping day at work and this provides an ideal opportunity for employees to share and receive various health messages and for employers to create healthy working environments. The scope of health promotion depends upon the needs of each group.
Some of the most common health promotion activities are smoking reducing activities, healthy nutrition or physical exercise programs, prevention and abatement of drug and alcohol abuse.
However, health promotion may also be directed towards other social, cultural and environmental health determinants, if the people within the company consider that these factors are important for the improvement of their health, well-being and quality of life. In this case factors such as improving work organization, motivation, reducing stress and burnout, introducing flexible working hours, personal development plans and career enhancement may also help to contribute to overall health and well-being of the working community.
The Healthy Community setting In addition to occupational health and workplace health promotion there is also another important aspect to Workplace Health Management. It is related to the impact that each company may have on the surrounding ambient environment, and through pollutants or products or services provided to others, its impact on distant environments. Remember how far the effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear accident in 1986 affected whole neighbouring countries.
Although the environmental health impact of companies is controlled by different legislation to that which applies to Health and Safety at work, there is a strong relationship between safeguarding the working environment, improving work organization and working culture within the company, and its approach to environmental health management.
Many leading companies already combine occupational health and safety with environmental health management to optimally use the available human resources within the company and to avoid duplication of effort. Occupational health nurses can make a contribution towards environmental health management, particularly in those companies that do not employ environmental health specialists.
Coming up. Key steps in developing New Workplace Health Policies
Category Archives: health promotion
Spirituality And Health Promotion Behaviors
Everyday life is full of events and happenings that are beyond our control. But there is one thing that only we can control: our thought. When a thought is planted in the mind, energy is released, creating actions such as spirituality and health promotion behaviors.
How to start spirituality and health promotion behaviors?
The first step to being spiritual and healthy is to practise focusing on good thoughts so that they create positive energy for us. All thoughts are connected and one good thought will lead to the next. So we begin our journey to spirituality and health by being mindful of the things we do.
How can we be mindful?
We can all be a little more mindful if we simply practise taking a pause in everything we do. Pause for a split second before you speak. Breathe in before you type. Close your eyes for a moment after the first sip of coffee in the morning. Smell your apple before you take your first bite. It is in these in-between space that spiritual life can be found.
Practise pausing can enrich your spiritual life because a pause is a gentle reminder that there are many aspects to life. Work is only one part of your life. Besides Work, we have Family, Friends, Love, Study, Leisure and Spirituality. When you are upset over one area of your life, you can immediately restore your inner peace by putting your problem in perspective. A seemingly big problem becomes smaller when it is places in a larger scheme of life.
Health Promotion Program – Benefits of Health Promotion in the Work Environment
Benefits of health promotion are not only for the workplace of a company it also touches the interest of the employees. You can use cash advance loans to maintain your family’s health. There are various types of benefits that are transferred from the employee to their members of the family.
Teaching and supporting are the best feasible ways of communicating health tips to the employees. Already thousands of people get their health information from TV, Internet and magazines.
Benefits of Health Promotion
Health Awareness — Most of the employees like to follow these tips for the benefit of working together. Some of the areas of health awareness are such as awareness concerning alcohol and tobacco, recreation, fitness, nutrition, heart health, urology problem, diabetics etc. Also workplace safety areas and workplace health promotion are very effective. Workplace Health Promotion — It will lead to a general shrink of health care expenses, health maintenance, health education and other preventive measures for various diseases. These are all crucial for generating a solid institution within an association. Workplace health promotion is having the strong evidence to supports the success of wellness programs or health programs. This type of inventions is making the important difference in the managerial structure.
Health Programs — Most of the popular companies would like to implement the wellness programs. They are encouraging not only their employees to improve their health lifestyle but the members of family as well. Mental health programs are part of health support on the workplace. It can function as a barometer to show the state of wellbeing of the employees. This is the significant factor for mental health programs.
Positive Working Environment — Company employees enjoy many of these types of strategies for they reduce behavioral problems and suicide rates. Stress management classes and/or mental health programs have resulted in a decrease of domestic aggressions due to a positive working environment for the employees. On social level there is an important reduction of child abuse and also spousal abuse. Generally the safety and health promotion or occasional health both help to reduce the number of disabilities and deaths at the workplace. Safety and health issue of employees are part of their workplace environment therefore wellness programs and common health promotion occurs in the work environment. Training workers while implementing wellness and safety procedures results in a significant decrease of injuries. As job injuries reduce, workers asking for a compensation claim reduce. To conclude workplace health promotion is an excellent tool for the company to show the employees that their health is the most important to the organization.