Healthy Workplaces and Productivity: A Discussion Paper

Abstract

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