Support to companies and other organizations may be provided in a number of ways, including providing consultancy advice and support as a specific contractual arrangement or as part of general service provision. Four specific ways in which a social security institution can facilitate the development of comprehensive workplace health promotion programmes (based on the Luxembourg Declaration) are presented below.
Developing quality standards for workplace health promotion practice is important for achieving a consistent approach across enterprises/organizations. It also helps to ensure that local practice is based on recognized good practice. The quality standards and information about them should be made widely available to client enterprises/organizations.
Providing information is an important aspect of workplace health promotion. Information raises awareness and enables people to make informed decisions. A number of very straightforward information tools can be found in many workplaces, including noticeboards, posters, leaflets, newsletters and intranet/internet sites. Each of these can be used to raise health awareness and encourage participation in activities designed to promote health and well-being. Information presented in attractive and engaging ways reduces the likelihood that an employee will ignore the message. Written text should be developed so that it can be understood by workers with low levels of literacy.
Other forms of communication offer greater scope and opportunity for an enterprise/organization to actively engage with its employees. These include face-to-face discussions, suggestion schemes, staff surveys and interactive intranet pages. Each of these calls for a response from employees.
Health campaigns (e.g. the Vision Zero Campaign of the ISSA, the World Tobacco Day or the World Day for Safety and Health at Work) provide a great opportunity for enterprises/organizations to become involved with health-related issues. Such campaigns often provide access to resources for use in the workplace that would otherwise not be available. However, many organizations are unaware that such campaigns exist and of how they can become involved, what is required of them and how to access campaign resources. Social security institutions have an important role to play in collating and disseminating campaign information.
Capacity building is necessary to develop sustainable workplace health promotion initiatives. Most forms of capacity building involve some form of professional development, ranging from shadowing, mentoring, online and e-training and e-coaching to attending courses and conferences.