Workplace Health Promotion Programs

Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation

Carl I. Fertman

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781118669327
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Public Health, Administration & Care

Shine a spotlight on the benefits of promoting health in the workplace

Workplace Health Promotion Programs focuses on the incredible value that employee health programs can offer by exploring six key topics: behavioral health, physical health, healthy environments, health education, nutritional health, and physical activity. This in-depth resource explicitly establishes what successful workplace health promotion programs, services, and collaborations are, and then builds upon this foundational understanding by introducing methods and tools for promoting employee health and safety, while emphasizing the skills students need to do so. Through this resource, students will come to understand how to recognize employee health and safety opportunities, and how to think on a larger scale when it comes to workplace health initiatives in small, midsized, and larger employers that are comprehensive and fiscally sound.

Workplace health promotion programs have the potential to both improve the health of the population as a whole and control healthcare spending in the process. Health problems are estimated to cost employers in the United States over $200 billion per year through medical costs, absenteeism, disability, and overall reduced productivity. Improving well-being through effective workplace health promotion programs can reduce this cost—and create healthier, happier workforces.

• Discover the design, implementation, and evaluation of workplace health promotion programs that address the range of employee health needs and concerns
• Understand how evidence-based programs can positively impact business and reduce health care cost
• Explore the larger scale implications of successful workplace health programs, including health policies, health insurance design, worker safety, employee behavior, etc.
• Learn how together employers and employees work to create a culture of health and well-being to support and promote employee health and safety
• Review the ways in which successful workplace health promotion programs can prove financially beneficial

Workplace Health Promotion Programs is a resource that guides students and professionals alike in the discovery, development, and execution of successful employee health initiatives.

Part One

Foundation

Chapter 1
Workplace Health Promotion Program Foundations

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Learning Objectives

• Define workplace health promotion programs
• Summarize the historical context for workplace health promotion
• Discuss the impact of the Affordable Care Act on workplace health promotion
• Identify workplace health promotion controversies and pitfalls

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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).

Historical Context for Workplace Health Promotion

Workplace health promotion reflects three major revolutionary steps or phases in the quest to promote healthy individuals and healthy communities (Kickbusch & Payne, 2003). The three phases parallel the transformation of the company personnel office from a paper-processing operation to the modern-day human resource department directed by a chief human capital officer who leads, contributes, improves, and advances the organization's mission and goals. Personnel offices dealt with problems with little perceived corporate value beyond doing what was required by the law, and were often portrayed as overwhelmed and unavailable. Strategic human resources is a corporate partner, expert counsel, and an effective presence within the organization (ADP, 2008). And workplace health promotion is key to an organization's strategic human resources.

First Phase

The first workplace health promotion program phase, which focused on addr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Figures, Tables, Boxes, and Exhibits
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Part One: Foundation
• Part Two: Planning
• Part Three: Implementation
• Part Four: Evaluation
• Part Five: Workplaces
• Index
• End User License Agreement