What Makes a Workplace Healthy?

The World Health Organisation’s definition of a healthy workplace is: “…one in which workers and managers collaborate to use a continual improvement process to protect and promote the health, safety and well-being of workers and the sustainability of the workplace.”

It’s worth considering that sentence piece-by-piece. It’s about a process; it requires collaboration; it aims higher than ‘ticking boxes’ (eg well-being); and it includes the health of the organisation itself, not just the people who work there.

Given this definition, is yours a healthy workplace? What would need to change to make it so?

The World Health Organisation has gone further. In 2009 they brought together 56 experts from 22 countries and the ILO, along with international worker and employer representatives and NGOs. The result was a process for developing healthy workplaces that combines evidence-based approaches and principles of health protection and health promotion.

You can download their model for action here.

" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talk to us at Working Wise about our tools and processes to help you manage your workplace health risks.