Health Promotion At The Workplace

Health promotion at the workplace

 Introduction

Professionals addressing the study of health from this approach conceive their different field of action from what could be defined as a medical approach to the study of occupational health. PSO is a new specialty of psychology with basic and applied character, which results from the integration of public health content with preventive medicine, clinical psychology and health psychology, applied in the context of work organizations.

The healthy environments and the health of workers are essential conditions for the effectiveness of people and for the performance of organizations. Therefore, the PSO seeks to take care of people’s health and develop healthy environments, as both fronts are inseparable. More and more studies consider that the workplace can be a privileged place for the prevention of psychological disorders and to promote better mental health.

Developing

The European Agency for Safety and Health at work defines the promotion of health in the workplace such as: the common effort of entrepreneurs, workers and society as a whole for improving the health and labor well -being of workers. For that organization, that effort can be articulated in four types of actions:

1.  The improvement of the organization of work through measures that allow the workday to be more flexible; Flexible jobs, for example through teleworking and home work; and permanent learning through rotation and diversification of jobs.

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2.  The improvement of the work environment promoting support among colleagues, offering employees the possibility of participating in the process of improving the work environment, and providing healthy eating in workplaces (for example, dining rooms, food vending machines, etc.).
3.  Promote employee participation in healthy activities and sports activities.
4.  Promote personal development offering courses on social competences, stress management, and programs to avoid smoking or alcoholism.

Occupational Health Psychology 

The discipline that addresses the study of psychosocial risks at work, and the quality of working life is the psychology of occupational health (PSO). Its objective is that people can produce, serve others, develop, and be valued in the exercise of their work activity, in addition to having the possibility of using their talent, their knowledge, and their skills and skills, as a way to achieve High performance, while receiving high job satisfaction and well -being at work.

Professionals addressing the study of health from this approach conceive their different field of action from what could be defined as a medical approach to the study of occupational health. PSO is a new specialty of psychology with basic and applied character, which results from the integration of public health content with preventive medicine, clinical psychology and health psychology, applied in the context of work organizations.

The healthy environments and the health of workers are essential conditions for the effectiveness of people and for the performance of organizations. Therefore, the PSO seeks to take care of people’s health and develop healthy environments, as both fronts are inseparable.

Promote psychosocial health in the workplace is to promote the public health of the population, since people of working age spend most of their vigil time in labor contexts, or developing a work activity at home. For this reason, the promotion of occupational health and the prevention of diseases and occupational accidents related to psychosocial risks should be a public health matter for governments. 

As the European Agency for Safety and Health at work has pointed out, the promotion of health in the workplace is not only to comply Institutions actively contribute to the improvement of mental health, well -being and the quality of working life of their workers, taking into account their needs, promoting participation in the organization, and the healthy design of workplaces.

Advantages of teleworking

There are many benefits that this new professional performance contributes.On the one hand, it eliminates the need for displacements to attend work. This translates into less congested and contaminated cities. And in people who save time and money in transport that can be used for more productive purposes.

Apart from the transport, who works remotely can better combine his professional and personal life. An obvious case of improvement is offered to us by those who have just become mothers or fathers and who want to spend more time with their newborns after the first weeks with paternity or motherhood.

The benefits do not end there. Companies that allow you to work remotely to your staff also find their advantages. To begin with, they manage to access a greater number of applicants to cover their positions, since they can hire outside their geographical area. Thus, a Spanish technology company could hire someone who lives in London if she is the person who best suits her needs.

And, at the same time, they obtain significant energy savings in traditional facilities (heating, lighting, air conditioning etc.). Finally, it is worth mentioning that loyalty also increases when teleworking is allowed. In many cases, employees and employees become ambassadors and ambassadors of the company that advocate it and recommend it to their relatives. Some recommendations to successfully implement teleworking are:

•  Start up. For example, employees could be offered to work from home on the last Friday of the month, provided that their physical presence is not required on that day.
•  Carry out training activities for teleworking
•  Invest in digitalization. Computers, telephones, access networks, and applications. Everything must be ready. It is preferable to ensure that everything works before throwing us.
•  Promote a culture of communication and trust. Since we will not be face to face, it is necessary to ensure that there is a fluid communication. Internal chat applications and video call like Slack or Skype have become fundamental pillars.
•  Establish mechanisms for evaluation and efficiency of the work modality from home.

conclusion

For the company, teleworking is a tool that in certain sectors allows significant cost savings: infrastructure maintenance (offices, computer equipment, auxiliary staff, supplies, etc.) And we must not pay the payment of displacement pluses. In addition, if employees are motivated and distance work has been organized correctly, increases in productivity can be achieved and improve the motivation and fidelity of employees, retaining talent.

Other studies also aim to improve productivity. The prestigious Forbes magazine concludes in a recent article that if we assume that a work in question can be done at a distance, most people increase their productivity when they perform it in this way. For employees, the advantages of teleworking seem clear: working at a distance from home allows you to better reconcile personal and family life with the professional and can mean a considerable reduction of expenses (displacements out of home, etc.) And also of time.