Mercedes Sanchis Almenara, Laura Martínez Gómez, Marta Valero Martínez, José F. Serrano Ortiz, Raquel Marzo Roselló, Raquel Ruiz Folgado
Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV). Universitat Politècnica de València. Edificio 9C. Camino de Vera s/n (46022) Valencia. Spain
It has been shown that promoting health at work means fewer accidents and diseases, especially the chronic ones, which reduces the costs they involve. That is why an increasing number of companies are implementing actions to promote healthy living habits among workers. However, it is essential to consider that such actions must be selected according to an initial diagnosis of the well-being of the workers, and that a regular follow-up should be performed to know whether the action was adequately designed to achieve the objective set. In any case, the economic and material resources of the company must always be taken into account.
INTRODUCTION
The WHO defines health as not merely the absence of disease or infirmity but as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. This state of well-being allows people to develop their activities with an adequate performance; therefore, healthy workers are highly important in the occupational setting. Companies are increasingly aware of this and consider that just preventing accidents or diseases is no longer enough; consequently, more and more companies are implementing actions to promote health among their staff.
The studies conducted by the European Network of Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP) show that Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) has a significant return on investment (ROI):
♦ Each euro invested in WHP programs generates an investment return of between 2.5 and 4.8 euros because of absenteeism reduction, and between 2.3 and 5.9 euros due to the decrease in disease costs.
♦ It reduces presenteeism, that is, the fact of going to work sick and underperform in comparison with when the worker is healthy, which can be 33% or more.
♦ It lowers social security costs by reducing healthcare costs up to 26.1%, temporary or permanent disabilities, pensions, etc.
In addition to the ROI, the importance of the VOI (value of the investment) should also be considered, which includes factors related to the emotional aspect of the workers. In this respect, according to the ENWHP, the actions intended to promote health increase the satisfaction of people in their jobs, improve the feeling of belonging and the staff involvement, and strengthen the image of the company.
It is therefore obvious that implementing actions to promote health among workers is an opportunity for companies.
In this regard, the Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV) has launched a service to help companies implement health promotion programs on the basis of a diagnosis of the well-being status of workers and considering the resources that each company has to implement this type of actions.
Figure 1. Person stretching in an office environment
METHODOLOGY
The IBV follows the following steps to implement health promotion programs:
1. Diagnosis of the well-being of the workers
The first step before implementing actions that promote the health of workers is to know the well-being status of the workers and their living habits. This makes it possible to identify both the type of actions that should be implemented, and which actions should be prioritized based on the impact that not implementing a specific action may have on their health and well-being. In this regard, for example, the identification of musculoskeletal problems in workers of the same line of work may indicate unresolved ergonomic risks, and therefore, the company should prioritize this type of actions in order to reduce the risk of absenteeism due to musculoskeletal disorders.
In order to perform an initial diagnosis, the IBV has developed a methodology based on validated surveys that cover the following pillars of well-being:
a) Well-being from a generic perspective. The objective is to collect information related to the physical and emotional well-being, quality of sleep and theperceived health status of the workers.
b) Lifestyle. The objective of this block is to know the lifestyle of the staff in order to implement actions to improve their lifestyle in terms of physical activity, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, and sleep hygiene, if necessary.
c) Work environment. This section collects information about the physical environment of the workplace, organizational and motivational aspects, reconciliation, age management and degree of job satisfaction.
In addition, it is necessary to know the reality of the company when proposing to implement programs, since aspects such as the size of the company or its resources must be considered.
The diagnosis includes a total of 50 indicators that are compared with results of both the national average and companies in the same economic sector in order to have an order of magnitude of the room for improvement in the welfare of its workers.
2. Implementation of actions
According to the results obtained in the survey and the resources of the company, the IBV prioritizes the actions to be implemented based on the most critical aspects that need to be improved from the point of view of the health and/or well-being of the staff (for example, actions designed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular accident in a specific group of workers). In this respect, different types of actions can be considered:
♦ Training in healthy living habits (physical activity, diet, sleep hygiene, etc.).
♦ Actions design to reduce sedentary lifestyle among workers (sports challenges, guided classes, discounts at gyms, etc.).
♦ Actions designed to promote a healthy diet (healthy menus at cafeterias, recipes for "healthy tupperwares", etc.).
♦ Assessment of ergonomic risk and redesign of workstations.
♦ Actions designed to improve emotional health (mindfulness, reconciliation, work organization, etc.).
Figure 2. Physical activity performed in a work environment
3. Assessment of the actions implemented
The implementation of health promotion programs should include the identification of indicators and regular assessments in order to evaluate whether the desired objective is being achieved or if any of the actions needs to be modified.
This evaluation includes aspects related to the health and well-being of the workers, as well as economic aspects (related to both the cost of implementing health promotion programs and sickness absences) and staff turnover, which will allow the company to know the impact that health promotion initiatives have on both the workers and its finances.
The following figure graphically shows the steps to follow to implement and monitor a health promotion program:
Figure 3. Diagram of the implementation and monitoring of a health promotion program in a company
CONCLUSIONS
As different studies have shown, implementing health promotion programs at companies implies a competitive advantage since it improves the involvement of the workers, their job satisfaction and, consequently, their productivity. In addition, it has been shown that the long-term return on investment is positive; therefore, it seems obvious that companies miss opportunities if they do not implement this type of actions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Part of the knowledge necessary to develop the IBV line of business related to the promotion of health at work was generated as a result of the following projects:
FITWORK: “Good practices to develop physical activity programs at work” Ref. 2016-3600/001-001 Submission number: 579903-EPP-1-2016-2-ES-SPO-SCP. Supported by the European Union through the Erasmus + program.
BIENLABOR: “Improvement of the competitiveness of companies by assessing the workers well-being” Project funded by the IVACE within the framework of the assistance program for technology centers in the Valencian Community to develop R+D projects of a non-economic nature. It was carried out in collaboration with other companies for the tax year 2017, 50% funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the ERDF Operative Program of the Valencian Community 2014-2020. Ref. IMDEEA/2017/93.
