Salutogenesis to complement pathogenesis - a necessary paradigm shift for well-being at work

Well-being is a term that reflects not only on one's health but satisfaction with work and life. It is a summative concept that characterizes the quality of working lives, including occupational safety and health (OSH) aspects, and that may be a major determinant of productivity at the individual, enterprise and societal levels.     With increasing life expectancies, we need longer careers and good work. Eliminating or diminishing occupational accidents and work-related illnesses continues to be an important issue. Although these risks require constant attention, we also need to develop resources and exploit positive opportunities; motivate and support workers. This is to bring 'salutogenesis' in line with 'pathogenesis' in our OSH thinking.     At FIOH, we have developed a self-evaluation tool as a means of benchmarking well-being at work. It involves the physical, material, social, and emotional dimensions of work, as well as the aspects of development and activity. However, we need to go one step further. Risk assessment has characterized the relationships between traditional hazards and exposure-outcomes. Now we need to understand the variables that influence well-being, to measure them and use them in risk assessments.     Regarding traditional occupational hazards, the greatest shortcoming of the OSH community has been the failure to address small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). How can we get our message through regarding well-being at work, having failed to do so with our messages concerning noise and dust issues, which are relatively simple to understand and to control. It seems that OSH-professionals need also to learn to speak the language of business. The economic aspects of well-being at work motivate decision-makers in SMEs to address the issues of occupational safety and health seriously, including that of well-being at work.