Healthy and happy employees? Acknowledgement for the company

A calm, healthy employee is a treasure, also for the company. With this concept in mind, the local health authority (LHA) of Varese, the Union of Industrialists, and trade unions signed an agreement to promote the culture of prevention in the workplace, this morning, Monday 11 February. The agreement not only covers safety, but also healthy lifestyles.

A three-year project that is open to companies that wish to take part, that will lead to the allocation of a sort of “badge” for companies that promote health. “The idea of the whole project is not to select and focus on a limited group of companies in the area that exhibit excellent social responsibility, but to spread the good practices of promoting health in our local production system as much as possible, and thereby achieve a significant improvement in public health. We will only be able to achieve this if we involve large, but also small and medium-sized companies. The results in the scientific literature tell us that projects like WHP (Workplace Health Promotion) produce concrete results, in terms of the cost-benefit ratio of the investments in promoting health. The benefits are for the workers, but also for the companies, and can be measured in terms of less illness and less absenteeism, of more satisfied and motivated employees, of increased productivity, more competitive company environments, and a better quality of life.”

The local health authority in Varese will be making its experts available to companies, to share working procedures and instruments that have already been validated, with a view to efficiency in the selection of good practices, bearing in mind the particular characteristics of the area. The General Director of the LHA, Giovanni Daverio explained, “The shift made in the last few decades, from a culture of care to one of prevention, is important, but I think it is as important, today, to make an additional shift, from the concept of disease prevention to one of promoting psychophysical wellbeing, to achieve an effective return in terms of health; the sharing of aims by the various players throughout our province will create synergies that are essential to achieving institutional objectives; it is with this perspective that the LHA has begun a number of initiatives to spread good practices to the different areas of civil life, in order to have a concrete effect on lifestyles, and encourage the maintenance of good health.”

The aim of the “APS-WHP Varese” project is to go beyond the simple application of regulations concerning health and safety in the workplace, by involving the largest number of businesses possible. Two thirds of healthcare expenditure currently go on the cost of chronic illnesses; as a result, it is necessary to intervene in good time, also to limit the social costs.

Three different phases are planned: in the first year, the company will undertake activities that involve at least 2 of the 6 topic areas covered by the programme: in the second year, the number of topic areas must increase to 4; and, in the third year, the commitment must be extended to all 6 intervention areas. For each of the topic areas, the companies must organise at least three good practices.

·        Promoting a correct diet: the companies will be able to choose, from a list prepared by the LHA, to include fruit and vegetables in all meals served in the company canteen, to include bread that has a low salt content, or wholemeal bread, to fill the automatic distributors with fresh fruit and vegetables, or to put up posters showing the food pyramid.

·        Fighting smoking: the proposed initiatives include educational meetings in which at least 70% of the workers who smoke in the company must take part, courses on giving up smoking, company competitions, like “give up and win”, a written policy, implemented throughout, of “a smoke-free company”, an internal campaign, with posters against tobacco.

·        Promoting physical activity: in addition to the sensitisation meetings, companies can organise campaigns to promote cycling between home and the workplace, agreements with sports centres, internal sports initiatives, such as tournaments, walks and bicycle rides.

·        Fighting alcoholism, the use of drugs and the addiction to gambling: it is planned that company regulations should be produced concerning the use of drugs and alcohol, as well as courses and internal information campaigns.

·        Promoting personal and social wellbeing: companies should set up a crèche, or reach agreements with existing crèches, create initiatives to support the studies of employees’ children, and initiatives to integrate foreign employees, provide a place where people can go to talk about problems, and establish favourable conditions for employees for mortgages and supplementary health insurance.

·        Road safety and sustainable mobility: the companies must get involved in collective, home-workplace transport services, appoint a mobility manager in the company, and run safe driving courses.

At the time of entering the programme, and then, on a yearly basis, the employees of the company must fill in an anonymous questionnaire, to enable determining the effectiveness of the initiatives over time.

The agreement was also signed by the heads of the Health and Safety Departments of the trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL Varese, who undertake to encourage the spread of the initiative by involving the trade union representatives of the companies that join the APS-WHP Varese project. “Speaking about promoting health means guaranteeing not only the absence of diseases and illness, but, as the consolidated act on safety in the workplace says, ‘the state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing’,” said Salvatore Minardi, Salvatore Manta and Pietro d’Antone. “We need to look beyond the traditional prevention of professional dangers, which is achieved by respecting regulations. In the APS-WHP project, the social responsibility of the company towards people, inside and out, on the one hand, and an idea of health that includes battling all behaviours that are harmful to physical, psychological and social wellbeing, on the other, come into play. As organisations that represent workers, we believe it is important to spread, among companies and workers, a culture of health that encourages improving the individual and organisational quality of life.”