In the past 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 WHM as a process not only for continuous improvement and health gain within the company but also a 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.
Workplace health promotion is 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 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.
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.
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.
There is a need to develop further the focus of all occupational health services to include efforts to maintain workability and to prevent non-occupational workplace preventable conditions through 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.
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 of 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.
Although the environmental health impact of companies are 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.
