A manual for promoting health activity at work

This methodology has been developed to help organisations increase their level of health activity in a planned and systematic way. There are many good reasons for undertaking health improvement actions in the workplace, not all of them related to the benefits of improved health. Research undertaken throughout Europe reveals that this kind of action is undertaken for a variety of reasons, and that most organisations have multiple reasons for doing so. Firstly, some organisations have as part of their mission statements, a philosophy to care for the health and welfare of their employees in the wide sense of the term. A second reason relates to current or ongoing problems which a company may have, where the company views health improvement actions as having a role to play in solving them. Finally, companies may undertake health actions because of the benefits they expect to gain from doing so. A number of important features are embodied in this manual such as employee participation in the programme, marketing of health improvement actions, communications and feedback, and a focus on the whole health of the employee