Healthy Workplaces and Productivity: A Discussion Paper

.......................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 5 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 7 1. Perspectives on health, work and productivity ........................................................... 8 Workplace wellness .................................................................................................... 8 Healthy organizations ................................................................................................. 9 Health and productivity............................................................................................. 11 Workplace factors and productivity.......................................................................... 12 2. Measuring Health and Productivity .......................................................................... 13 Measuring the costs and benefits of workplace health promotion............................ 13 Measuring productivity............................................................................................. 15 Measuring productivity-related health outcomes...................................................... 17 3. Characteristics of Healthy and Unhealthy Organizations......................................... 19 Job stress and productivity........................................................................................ 19 Work-life balance...................................................................................................... 21 Insights from High Performance Workplace models................................................ 22 The emerging healthy organization model ............................................................... 24 4. Economic Impact of Unhealthy and Healthy Workplaces........................................ 26 Costs of unhealthy and unsafe workplaces ............................................................... 26 The financial benefits of workplace health promotion programs ............................. 28 Individual health risks and productivity ................................................................... 31 5. Steps to Creating Healthy Workplaces ..................................................................... 33 What works ............................................................................................................... 33 Barriers and facilitators to creating healthy workplaces........................................... 36 Knowledge gaps........................................................................................................ 38 6. Conclusion and Recommendations for Action ......................................................... 40 Implications for employers ....................................................................................... 41 Implications for policy makers ................................................................................. 42 Implications for researchers...................................................................................... 44 References..................................................................................................................... 45 Healthy Workplaces and Productivity 3