Caring for Workers’ Health: Do German Employers Follow a Comprehensive Approach Similar to the Total Worker Health Concept? Results of a Survey in an Economically Powerful Region in Germany

Abstract

Similar to ‘Total Worker Health’ in the United States (USA), ‘Workplace Health Management’ in Germany is a holistic strategy to protect, promote, and manage employees’ health at the workplace. It consists of four subcategories. While the subcategories ‘occupational health and safety’ and ‘reintegration management’ contain measures prescribed by law, ‘workplace health promotion’ and ‘personnel development’ can be designed more individually by the companies. The present study focused on the current implementation of voluntary and legally required measures of the four subcategories, as well as companies’ satisfaction with the implementation. A total of N = 222/906 companies (small, medium, and big enterprises of one German county) answered a standardized questionnaire addressing the implementation of health-related measures, satisfaction with the implementation, and several company characteristics. In the subcategory ‘occupational health and safety’, 23.9% of the companies fulfilled all of the legally required measures, whereas in the category ‘reintegration management’, that rate amounted to 50.9%. There was a positive correlation between company size and the implementation grade, and as well between company size and the fulfilling of measures required by law. Companies tended to be more satisfied with higher implementation grades. Nevertheless, a surprisingly high proportion of the companies with poor implementation indicated satisfaction with the measures’ implementation.

Work-Related Health Literacy: A Scoping Review to Clarify the Concept

“…At work, increasing complexity, rapid changes, and the altered working environment as a result of globalization and digitalization are causing-amongst other things-an increase in self-employed people and the blurring of work-life and other areas of life [2][3][4]. As a consequence, state-imposed occupational health and safety measures that are established by companies at workplaces reach employees even less well during their "new" or mobile work [2][3][4][5], since even the implementation of legally prescribed measures for occupational health and safety in workplaces can be deficient [6]. In consideration of changes in work environments, including tendencies toward greater flexibility and altered employment biographies, managing one's own health is increasingly gaining in importance [7,8].…”

Attitudes of Company Executives toward a Comprehensive Workplace Health Management—Results of an Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study in Germany

“…In Germany, workplace health management (in German: Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement) is often referred to as a guiding ideal for implementing a comprehensive combination of health-related measures in companies and other organizations. The term 'workplace health management' encompasses the integration and management of all operational processes in a company with the aim of creating healthy working conditions and promoting the health of its employees [1][2][3][4]. As this definition suggests, workplace health management is a holistic approach, and there is a strong similarity between workplace health management and the 'Total Worker Health' concept that has been promoted in the USA [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…In recent years, this approach has further gained ground [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Workplace health management can be differentiated into the following four subcategories [4]: (1) occupational health and safety measures, (2) management of return-to-work processes of employees who were on long-term sickness absence (in short 'reintegration management'), (3) workplace health promotion measures, and (4) supporting personnel development. In Germany, these subcategories differ as to legal status: many occupational health and safety measures and some reintegration measures are mandatory by German law and thus must be observed by companies; in contrast, measures in the other two areas-workplace health promotion and personnel development-are voluntary [4,32].…”

“…From numerous studies that have been conducted in Germany and other high-income countries in the preceding two decades we know that implementation of workplace health management measures depends on company size: the more employees a company has, the more likely it is that workplace health management measures are implemented [4,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. In Germany's small and medium-sized companies (for a definition cf.…”

Addressing future work ability of employees in GP consultations: results of a cross-sectional study

“…In patient care, the general practitioner (GP) plays a key role. In addition, the GP may also play a significant role in all questions related to work and health [ 14 ], especially as many, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises do not have an occupational physician on a regular basis in Germany [ 15 ]. For this reason, employees of small and medium-sized companies are often dependent on the expertise and skills of their GP for work-related questions [ 16 ].…”