What Is Corporate Health?

As workplace health has evolved, many different terms have been used to describe the industry. This includes workplace health management, corporate health, and health and productivity management.

 

By definition Workplace health represents “the combined efforts of employers, employees and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work. This is achieved through a combination of improving the work organisation and the working environment, promoting the active participation of employees in health activities and encouraging personal development.” 

(Adapted from ENWHP, 2007)
 

Why The Workplace?

In the changing world of work, motivated, qualified and above all, healthy employees are essential for Australia’s future economic prosperity. With Australians spending approximately 1/3 of their life at work, the workplace plays an important role in the physical, mental, economic and social wellbeing of workers, and in turn, their families. The workplace has subsequently been recognised as a priority setting for health promotion by the World Health Organisation and Australian governments. This is also reflected in the growing demand for green buildings, the implementation of work/life balance policies, technology to support flexible work practices and the trend to provide amenities such as on-site gymnasiums and child care facilities.

 
 Reference: Best Practice Guidelines, Workplace health In Austraia, HAPIA (Health and Productivity Institute of Australia)
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our latest report "Financial  Benefits: Improving Your Bottom Line"
contains numerous case studies and the financial benefit of implementing health and wellbeing programs and incentives in your workplace, along with suggestions for program design and implementation. Click the image on your right to read more about how you can improve the productivity and profitability of your organisation.

Obesity, bad for business as well as health

An American study has shown that, in addition to damaging their own physical health, overweight and obese workers are damaging the fiscal health of their employers. For the study, researchers from the Centre for the Advancement of Health surveyed 7,338 working individuals, focusing on the areas of missed work time, reduced work effectiveness and impairment of daily activities. Obese people and type II diabetes sufferers lost between 11 and 15 per cent of work time (equating to about 5.9 hours per week) due to health problems.


Anne Wolf, an instructor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and specialist in the field of the economic effects of obesity, said that the findings support previous research that drew a correlation between increasing weight and higher levels of lost productivity in the workplace. She noted, however, that the new study had found an independent effect of diabetes on worker productivity. Advocating a greater degree of employer involvement in employee health and wellbeing, Wolf said, ‘Employers who spend money in a lifestyle intervention will find their investment returned to them in the form of increased productivity and reduced absenteeism’.  Source: American Journal of Health Promotion.