Workplace Health Promotion Program: Conditions for Success
1. Senior management involvement in the Workplace Health Promotion Program- Evidence of enthusiastic commitment and involvement of senior management helps staff members understand their companies’ serious commitment to health. Employees need to perceive that their senior management, supervisors, and coworkers have positive attitudes toward health since these factors have all been associated with improved employee health status. Management-related factors have been shown to contribute more to success than the content of the intervention.
2. Participatory planning – A Workplace Health Promotion Program should be undertaken in partnership with the workforce. Employees from all levels of staff should be actively engaged in the health and management aspects of the project as well as all on-going processes of any Workplace Health Promotion Program. Planning must also include processes for maintaining communication with all staff and building their commitment to the process. Establishing Workplace Health Promotion Program steering committees to guide interventions during the planning and delivery of workplace health promotion programming increases worker awareness, participation, and satisfaction. Staff Member committees can identify perceived staff member interests regarding educational programming, determine work site-specific characteristics that may affect the intervention or influence participation, and suggest the best methods for promotion and delivery of Workplace Health Promotion Programs and activities. Ways to maximize staff member input and involvement might include interest surveys, focus groups, and peer counsellors.
3. Primary focus on staff members’ needs – A Workplace Health Promotion Program should meet the needs of all staff members, regardless of their current level of health and recognize the needs, preferences, and attitudes of different groups of participants. Program designers should consider the major health risks in the target population, the specific risks within the particular group of staff members, and the corporation’s needs. In other words, interventions should be tailor-made to the characteristics and needs of the recipients. This means that different programs must be offered at different levels. Participation and commitment can be increased if a group of workers has the opportunity to address a specific modifiable risk factor of their choice.
4. Optimal use of on-site resources – Planning and implementation of Workplace Health Promotion Programs should optimize use of on-site personnel, physical resources, and organizational capabilities. For example, whenever possible, initiatives should use on-site health and safety, management, work organization, communication, Human Resources, and other specialists. Well-qualified external leadership may be introduced when in-house expertise is lacking.
5. Integration – An overall workplace health policy should be developed. The policies governing employee health must align with the corporate mission, vision, and values, supporting both short- and long-term goals. These consistent policies must affirm the value of staff member health and a commitment to engage staff members in health enhancement. Workplace Health Promotion Program Procedures should be integrated into a company’s regular management practices and eventually should be formally incorporated into the company’s corporate plan with adequate resources attached to them.
6. Recognition that a person’s health is determined by an interdependent set of factors – Any Workplace Health Promotion Program must address multiple components of an individual’s life:
• the workplace physical and psychosocial environment;
• their personal resources such as social support, sense of empowerment, etc.; and
• their lifestyle practices influencing health.
7. Tailoring to the special features of each workplace environment - Workplace Health Promotion Programs must be responsive to the unique needs of each workplace’s procedures, organization and culture. Integrating health behaviors and program participation into the existing corporate culture will normalize program participation.
8. Workplace Health Promotion Program Evaluation – Project management should flow through needs analysis, establishing priorities, planning, implementation, continuous monitoring, and evaluation. Evaluation must include a clearly-defined range of process measures and outcomes as well as mechanisms for monitoring the impact of non-intervention workplace changes such as plant closure, major workplace re-organization, and new technology on staff health.
9. Long-term commitment – To sustain the benefits of the Workplace Health Promotion Program, the worksite must continue the initiative over time, reinforcing risk-reduction behaviours and adapting the programs to ongoing personal, social, economic, and workplace changes.
