Health Organization and Future - Characteristics of organizations with healthy employees

Introduction
The HOF-study (Health, Organization & Future) is co-operation between researchers, two major Swedish insurance companies, and employer- and employee organizations. The project aims to identify factors at company level predicting a healthy workforce in order to find factors that can be utilized to promote health. Work-organizational factors have been studied in relation to productivity, and profitability. Organizational factors have also been proposed to relate to stress and burnout.

Methods
An interview-study was conducted with over 200 interviews in 38 companies with persons in strategic positions. The interviews were semi-structured using well known areas from work-life research. All interviews were recorded and transcribed into a uniquely large database. Comprehensive content analyses were conducted, using NVivo 7.

Results
We found healthy companies in all types of business also in branches well known for high sick absenteeism. Women employed in male dominated companies are healthier than women in other companies.

We compared companies with low level of sickness absence to those with average levels and found differences in the areas leadership, employee development, communication, worker participation and influence, corporate values and visions, and sickness absence. In companies with low sickness absence, working with these areas or factors is to a higher degree integrated, in a continual process. Strategies, procedures or principles related to relational justice were more common and accentuated in companies with low sickness absence. Our results have been presented in a book, at seminars and communicated to businesses and Occupational Health Services

Discussion
The results can be important in designing programs and interventions to promote health at companies that are already high-quality in many ways but wants to improve further. The results may have implications also for productivity and diminishing turnover etc, and are therefore important to communicate to businesses.