Promoting Personal Health Resources: A Key Avenue of Influence in the WHO Healthy Workplace Model

The workplace has been recognized as a key setting to promote health. Next to ethical reasons the employer has an economic incentive to provide workers and their families with health resources. Lowering absenteeism and increasing productivity by maintaining high levels of worker health are significant reasons for employers to invest in personal health resources. The personal health resources avenue is one of the four avenues of influence that frame the WHO Healthy Workplace model which implements strategic health interventions that have the potential to achieve measurable positive health outcomes amongst the worker population.   Key steps required to build personal health resources at the workplace will be covered: conducting needs assessments and risk analyses of the employee population provides the information employers need to tailor interventions, and to ensure that there are adequate resources and trained staff available to sustain health promotion activities. Providing resources that support physical activity, nutrition, and mental health and encourage employee involvement creates an environment in the workplace that promotes behavioral changes beyond what educational interventions alone can achieve, e.g. a smoke-free environment or healthy foods in the company cafeteria. This is the responsibility of the employer together with the involvement of the workers.  Last but not least, the importance of data collection for evaluating programs after implementation will be highlighted. In addition, several case examples of successful and good practice workplace health programs within leading enterprises (large as well as small and medium-sized) will be presented as well as workplace health promotion approaches in different countries and regions in the world.