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Combining Safety and Health Strategies to Boost Workplace Wellness
Workplace health and occupational safety programs, when combined, offer more benefits to employee health and quarterly profits than either can when implemented separately, according to recent research by the Harvard School of Public Health.
These two initiatives – workplace health and occupational safety – affect the resilience and safety of employees and the workplace environment by streamlining occupational safety, reducing down time and enhancing employee productivity.
One way to promote the integration of corporate health and safety initiatives is to establish a management oversight committee that can ensure workplace health initiatives are working in tandem with your company’s safety and health departments.
The preliminary stages of an integrated health and wellness program should ideally combine the following four elements:
• An evaluation of workplace safety and employee health risk
• An action plan for incorporating wellness research into day-to-day actions
• A way to assess outcomes vis-a-vis wellness and safety initiatives
• A way to appraise the ongoing value of wellness and safety programs
In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends that all workplace health initiatives clearly define, in advance, their objectives, target audience, and type of campaign. For example, an objective for a wellness program might be increasing productivity, health outcomes, and employee loyalty by a certain percentage and lowering truancy.
