Focus on workplace health

In its overall strategy “Health 2030” the Federal Council summarises this goal as “promoting health in the working environment”. It’s obvious that the workplace setting can play a major role in contributing to the health of the population. An employee spends an average of 20 to 30 per cent of their time in the workplace every working day. Switzerland attaches great importance to health in the workplace. Occupational health and safety and occupational accident prevention are embedded in the legislation. The Employment Act requires employers to take appropriate mea-sures to protect the health of their employees.  A growing number of companies in Switzerland are also employing voluntary workplace health management (WHM) measures. A survey carried out in 2020 by Health Promotion Switzerland (GFCH) showed that 75 per cent of companies with more than 50 employees are now implementing health promotion measures, 26 per cent of them systematically. This edition of spectra looks at the current status of WHM in Switzerland. How has this area developed? What goals are being pursued in the context of WHM? What tasks does the FOPH perform? 

How is WHM defined? “WHM is the systematic optimisation of factors relevant to health in the workplace. By shaping company structures and processes, it creates the conditions for employees’ good health and in this way contributes to the success of the company. WHM requires everyone in the company to get involved, it is integrated into company management and is visible in the way the corporate culture is lived.” This is how WHM is described in the charter of the institutional WHM platform (IP WHM), a platform set up by the FOPH to bring together central national actors involved in health in the workplace setting. The aims of WHM are thus to reduce stress in the workplace and to strengthen individual resources. Good working conditions and quality of life in the workplace sustainably promote health and motivation while at the same time increasing productivity, quality and innovative power in the company. WHM is a relatively young branch of health promotion and prevention in Switzerland. The basis for implementing WHM in Switzerland currently comprises the Federal Council strategy mentioned above and the Strategy for the Prevention of Non-communicable Diseases (NCD strategy). The measures foreseen in the NCD strategy support not only the expansion of WHM within companies but also the voluntary commitment of the business world to facilitating a healthier lifestyle, for example by offering healthier products or opportunities for physical activity.

The aims of WHM are to reduce stress in the workplace and to strengthen individual resources.

Comprehensive WHM includes a focus on mental health in the workplace since stress, mobbing and burnout are frequently encountered negative factors. “Managers and employees alike need to know what it takes to ensure health in the workplace, including mental health,” says Lea Pucci-Meier, mental health project lead at the FOPH. It is clear that work is not only a risk factor for mental health but also an important protective factor. Prevention of psychosocial stress factors in the workplace is a declared focus area of the Health 2030 strategy.

In Switzerland, many actors are involved in workplace health at both cantonal and national level. To make the situation clearer, the IP WHM has put together a graphic showing the various actors and their roles and has divided them into three categories: (1) workplace health promotion, (2) occupation health and safety and (3) absence management and reintegration (handling absences and the return to work after illness or an accident). What role does the FOPH play in this landscape? The Office performs coordination tasks, records data and funds studies. The FOPH is a member of the IP WHM and talks regularly to other actors through this platform. “This partnership is important,” says David Hess-Klein, a member of the scientific staff at the FOPH. “We’re trying to approach the problems jointly and from a number of perspectives. Everyone contributes to the solution.” One of the research projects planned by the FOPH, for example, is an analysis of new ways of working and their impact on health. The background to this is that the working environment is undergoing major changes. On the one hand this is positive because fewer accidents happen in a fully automated warehouse, for example, and new construction machinery increases the safety of forestry workers. At the same time, however, this development can also have negative effects if people increasingly work at home in the evening and at the weekend. The planned analysis is designed to look at these aspects of the new ways of working and to identify ways of preventing the risks.

«Auf jeden Fall gibt es im Bereich BGM noch viel zu tun», so David Hess-Klein. Neben den erwähnten Massnahmen besteht zum Beispiel noch Potenzial bei Menschen, die von Arbeitslosigkeit bedroht sind. Ein umfassendes BGM beinhaltet auch die Integration von Mitarbeitenden, die aufgrund gesundheitlicher Probleme oder anderer Faktoren (z.B. Alter) aus dem Arbeitsleben auszuscheiden drohen. Ein weiterer Bereich, der in den kommenden Jahren im Fokus stehen wird, sind die KMU. Viele grosse Unternehmen haben BGM mittlerweile fix in ihre Strukturen integriert und setzen dieses systematisch um. KMU mit weniger als 50 Mitarbeitenden haben aber oft nicht die personellen Ressourcen, um BGM firmenintern konsequent umzusetzen. Hier entwickelt zum Beispiel Gesundheitsförderung Schweiz spezifische Angebote für kleinere Betriebe.

The goal of the FOPH is for WHM to become more widely established in the future. This means that managers need to be involved. “Managers play a central role in implementing WHM,” Hess-Klein says. Further effort is required here. Managers need to be persuaded of the benefits – for the health of their employees and for their own company. Because WHM initially makes demands on companies in terms of both funding and human resources. Specialists within the company need to be trained, money is needed to implement WHM measures, and the benefit is not usually evident straight away. However, numerous studies have documented the medium- and long-term benefit of WHM.