HC 3 Flashcards
Why health promotion at the worksite?
Lifestyles are connected with mortality & morbidity, and:
- absenteeism
- healthcare costs
- productivity
Absenteeism
regularly staying away from work/school with no reason
Risk of smokers on the worksite
- a higher absence frequency + larger costs due to absenteeism/disability
Risks overweight employees
- higher risk of work disability
- higher rate of absenteeism (obesitas)
employees who exercise are … often absent, and their absence spells are …
- less
2. shorter
Return on investment: if you invest in HP programs, what do you get back?
Reasons to introduce HP:
- keep employees healthy
- part of the business culture
- reduces indirect costs of health failure
- moral responsibility
- project a favorable corporate image
- Improve employee morale and job satisfaction
3 response types:
- proactive: more in control (in advance to influence)
- pro-potentially reactive
- reactive: waiting for something to happen before responding
Live for life (Johnson & Johnson)
Mission: provide direction & resources to employees and families, that will result in healthier lifestyles
Goal: cost containment (kosten beperken ziekte/gezondheid werknemers, te duur!)
Screening, consultation & feedback
They induced fear, were confrontational about their message BUT offered people immediate help (courses & (self-help) materials)
They supported the health/lifestyle changes of their employees by taking environmental measures (smoking policy, food in canteen)
60% of employees participated & good results after 1-2 years
Stay Well program (Control Data Corporation)
Used socio-cultural processes: they integrated the informal leaders/volunteers from te company in the program –> they spread the word + are key figures, other follow quicker (action teams)
^ So, they tried to match the program to the working social environment
They changed the working environment into a healthy lifestyle supportive environment
They created support groups (for fallbacks, relapses & difficult moments)
Organizational perspective on health promotion & Public health perspective on health promotion:
In order to reduce some chronic diseases in society (prevalence of diseases) you can use the workplace as the contact to intervene and to promote healthy lifestyle changes
Working Well trial
Decrease cancer (prevention).
Change diet & smoking cessation.
Participatory strategy: involve employees themselves in the implementation, how can we best implement this is YOUR organization
Target individuals AND the worksite environment
Public health perspective
reduce prevalence of diseases amongst people
Organizational perspective on health promotion
increase healthy lifestyles & reduce risk factors in the employee population
Advantages health promotion on the worksite
- large population
- convenience target population
- stability of population
- social context
- availability organizational structure
- possibility to intervene at different levels (individual-organization-environmental)
Effectiveness WHP programs, 2 crucial elements
- reach/participation rate
2. effectiveness in creating behavioral change
Generations WHP programs (5)
- Safety and quality products
- Top management
- Medical risk factors
- Health behavior –> more individual (stress management)
- “health-wellness” programs –> individual & organization focused stress management interventions
5th generation WHP programs:
focusses on employee wellness (next to physical health & absence of disease) & targeting work conditions –> look at individual factors & job factors
Stress management interventions that are focused on individuals are not always the best option:
- low participation
- not attracting the target population
- focus on employees not coping adequately (blaming the victim)
- Avoids employers having to modify any work-related causes of stress
–> Much focus on individuals instead of changing the underlying causes of stress!
–> one of the elements in 4th generation WHP programs
Based on the job demands-resources model (Tetrick & Winslow)
Job demands and personal resources influence the employee personal well-being. The resources make it possible for people to deal with the demands:
- lots of job demands leads to strain + burnout
- Lots of personal resources leads to more work engagement
Job demands-resources model (Bakker & Demerouti)
Gain spiral:
People with resources can handle higher demands, you adapt to new settings, self-esteem is better
Loss spiral:
people with high demands and limited resources ended up in the loss spiral, losing health, positive experiences etc.
Healthier work at Brabantia
goals:
* more health, wellness & safety
* less absenteeism, turnover, accidents & more productivity
first program in NL that combined the focus on health behavior with enhancing the job: changing the working conditions.
focusing on the total population AND having specific programs for certain populations (high risk employees)
Succes factors:
- multifactorial, adress multiple risk factors at the same time
- transferability, timeline: transfer + enable Brabantia to continue with the program
Production employee (assembler) at Brabantia + how it changed
Short-cycled work = health risk (wellness risk)
Doing this full-time + reach the minimum production
- limited tasks
- draining
Does not meet the Dutch Labour act = high strain job
- time pase
- no autonomy etc.
Solution: wellness at work committee –> autonomous task groups
- involve
- discuss
- design & implement
Positive changes in Brabantia: job redesign
New situation:
- task groups
- rotation over sections and tasks
- task extension
- social contact
- training/ development of new skills
