Aachen City Administration - an example of a modern company health management

Introduction
Company Health Management (CHM) was introduced from 2006 in the Aachen City Administration as a strategic management approach and is an integral component of corporate philosophy.

Methods
CHM comprises the work areas circumstantial prevention (creation of health -promoting working conditions, especially via projects), circumstantial prevention (promotion of a healthy lifestyle/behavior through an extensive programm of courses) and crosscutting issues (health-appropriate staff supervision, healthy nutrition), and is regulated in the public-sector establishment agreement "Company Health Management"

Results
Of special importance is the active promotional work done by the managers of all levels of the hierarchy and the involvement of the staff. Ultimatley, CHM cannot succeed without the paticipation of the managers. The staff is actively and promptly involved (e.g. workshops, staff questionaires, health circles, online surveys) They can contact the Healthy Administration Team at any time with their ideas and suggestions. Staff is kept up to date via intranet, pamphlets, staff magazine, notice boards, and personal talks on all current developement in the CHM sector (e.g. current status of CHM projects, courses on offer for circumstantial prevention, information on interesting, regionally offered health programs, database on health topics).

Discussion
CHM activities are steered by the Healthy Administration Team. The team is organizationally subsumed to the Office of Occupational Health, Safety and Social Affairs, in which Technical Safety, Occupational Healthcare Service, Counseling Service for the Disabled and Social-Psychological Staff Counceling Service are also integrated. The office is headed by the occupational physician.
The working group Health and Work is the central steering committee for all measures of Company Health Management.
At the moment about 4300 employees work for the Aachen City Administration.