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Healthy Employees in Healthy Organisations

"We are a network of national occupational health and safety institutes and public health institutions committed to developing and promoting good workplace health practice, which in turn contributes to sustainable economic and social development in Europe."

This vision is based on a broad and comprehensive perspective on health and includes a number of convictions, values and judgements which ENWHP members share with each other:

Healthy work is the result of an interplay of various factors. The most important factors or workplace health determinants include:

  • The values and policies of decision-makers within organisations (private sector companies, public administrations, health care facilities, institutions in the area of education etc.) and outside at the level of social security and policy-making
  • The specific form of the culture of participation within and outside organisations
  • Leadership and management practices
  • The production concept and principles for daily work organisation
  • The provisions for job security
  • The quality of the working environment
  • Personal health practices & lifestyle habits

Healthy work is a social process and thus the result of action of various stakeholders in and outside of enterprises.

Healthy work is being developed and influenced at various levels which are not independent from each other:

  • Personal level
  • Enterprise / Organisation level
  • Local - regional community level
  • National level (social security provisions / national health policy, labour and social affairs policy)
  • European policy level

Healthy work impacts on the quality of working life and non-working life, and contributes to the level of health protection of communities and populations. It also impacts on microeconomic performance (productivity and innovation) and macroeconomic performance (efficiency of the health care, welfare and education sector, competitiveness of businesses at company, national and European level). Healthy work finally also contributes to social cohesion.

Healthy work is organised through processes both inside and outside enterprises which are based on the general management cycle, and specifically include infrastructure building and marketing.

Healthy organisations combine

  • Individual and organisation health;
  • Physical, mental, environmental, social and economic health at all levels.