Worksite Health Promotion: Principles, Resources, and Challenges

ESSAY Suggested citation for this article: Sparling PB. Worksite health promotion: principles, resources, and challenges. Employee health has long been a priority of owners of businesses, small and large. As health care costs continue to escalate, the demand for worksite health promotion programs that improve workers' health and provide a return on investment has never been greater. However, as we close the first decade of the 21st century, the future of worksite health promotion — also known as worksite well-ness and more recently employee health and productivity programs — remains uncertain. The purpose of this essay is not to provide a research review or status report on worksite health promotion, as these are available elsewhere (1,2). Rather, the purpose is to remind us that successful worksite health promotion depends on the cooperation and collaboration of many different stakeholders and sectors. The importance of divergent groups working together is illustrated by examining the recent history of worksite health promotion and highlighting key underlying principles and information resources. Many of today's worksite health promotion programs originated from executive fitness programs that were created in the years after World War II. Initiated by business leaders who endorsed the benefits of a healthful lifestyle, the number of in-house corporate programs grew steadily throughout the 1970s. Well-appointed gyms staffed with fitness instructors and masseurs were standard fare for successful companies. These perks were typically restricted to upper management and, therefore, had little influence on health behaviors or health care provisions of most employees. However, from these beginnings, the seeds of worksite health promotion were sown (3,4). In the mid-1970s, the American Association of Fitness Directors in Business and Industry — known later as the Association for Fitness in Business — was organized to provide networking and conferences (N. Pronk, HealthPartners, personal communication, October 2008). During the next decade, employer benefits began to focus on broad health issues instead of focusing on fitness and were increasingly offered to employees of all job levels. Companies changed organizationally; they established new links between occupational medicine and human resources and strengthened previous relationships. The Association for Fitness in Business, a proponent of the shift from corporate fitness to worksite wellness, became the Association for Worksite Health Promotion. By the early 1990s, the Association for Worksite Health Promotion had more than 2,500 members and operated at national and regional levels. Then, because of widespread economic pressures and the resulting corporate …