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

Hoge, Aileen; Ehmann, Anna T.; Rieger, Monika A.; Siegel, Achim

doi:10.3390/ijerph16050726

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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

Aileen Hoge

^†,

Anna T. Ehmann

^†

Monika A. Rieger

^‡

and

Achim Siegel

^*,‡

Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Health Services Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Wilhelmstraße 27, 72074 Tübingen, Germany

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

Equal contribution (shared first).

^‡

Equal contribution (shared last).

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(5), 726; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050726

Received: 30 January 2019 / Revised: 22 February 2019 / Accepted: 26 February 2019 / Published: 28 February 2019

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Using Total Worker Health® to Advance Worker Health and Safety)

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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. View Full-Text

Keywords: workplace health management; total worker health; workplace health promotion; occupational health and safety; company reintegration management; return to work; cross-sectional survey; Germany

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Hoge, A.; Ehmann, A.T.; Rieger, M.A.; Siegel, A. 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. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 726. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050726

AMA Style

Hoge A, Ehmann AT, Rieger MA, Siegel A. 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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(5):726. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050726

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoge, Aileen, Anna T. Ehmann, Monika A. Rieger, and Achim Siegel. 2019. "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" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 5: 726. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16050726

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