Worksite health promotion in European organizations: availability according to employers and employees

Abstract

A healthy workforce is in the interests of employers and employees alike. In this chapter, we investigate what organizations do to promote and facilitate employee health by studying the availability of worksite health promotion (WHP) in European organizations. We focus on four types of WHP programs: healthy nutrition, sports participation, ergonomic facilities and health checks. The findings show that employees generally less often perceive WHP to be available than is reported by the organizations themselves, but there are considerable differences across countries and sectors in organization- and employee-reported WHP availability. We also aimed to explain employee perception of WHP availability based on information and motivation theories and by the notion that employee perceptions may provide insight into the adequacy of the implementation of WHP in an organization. We find that the overall level of WHP provision and team manager reports of its availability positively contribute to employee perceptions of the availability of WHP. Furthermore, longer tenured, permanent, healthier employees are more likely to report that WHP is in place. Our results indicate that the organizational context is a relevant consideration when studying WHP.