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The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion
01/06/2007 - Submitted by: Argyro Kazaki
The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion established in 1996 and funded by the European Commission, has national contact offices in 28 countries. It is an informal network of national occupational health and safety institutes, public health, health promotion and statutory social insurance institutions. It aims to contribute to improving workplace health and well being and reduce the impact of work related ill health on the European workforce. It is involved in a number of Workplace Health Promotion Initiatives on a range of subjects including disseminating good workplace health in Eastern European countries and healthy work in an ageing Europe.
Vision and Mission
The members of the ENWHP work together towards the vision “ healthy employees in healthy organisations” and are committed to developing and promoting good workplace health practice, which in turn contributes to a high level of health protection and sustainable economic and social development in Europe.
A basic consensus on the common goals, the vision and mission was developed and laid down in the Luxembourg Declaration on WHP in Europe in1997.
Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) is the combined efforts of employers, employees and society to improve the health and well-being of people at work.
This can be achieved through a combination of:
- improving work organisation and the working environment
- promoting active participation
- encouraging personal development.
(Luxembourg Declaration 1997)
Joint Initiatives
Between 1996 and the present, the ENWHP has successfully completed the following European joint initiatives:
- European Project ”S uccess Factors and Quality of Workplace Health Promotion”
- European Project ”W orkplace Health Promotion in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)”
- European Project ”W orkplace Health Promotion in the Public Administration Sector”
Add the 4th and 5th initiatives
Achievements
Based on the common understanding of workplace health promotion the Europe-wide ENWHP initiatives have achieved the following:
- The ENWHP has compiled a European Quality Criteria and Good Practice Documentation for private and public sector enterprises. 66 models of good practice have been identified among larger enterprises, 48 among SMEs, and 34 in the public administration sector.
- The ENWHP carried out an analysis of successful strategies to enhance the further dissemination of good workplace health practice, which has formed the basis for a set of policy recommendation documents and technical reports on the current status of Work Health Promotion in SMEs and public administrations.
- The ENWHP contributed to marketing and communicating good WHP practice and new strategies at national and European levels. By holding European conferences in Bonn (1999), Lisbon (2001), Barcelona (2002) and Dublin (2004) and with other activities, key stakeholders at European and national level have been successfully convinced to include WHP into their agenda and to support promoting strategies which facilitate the future dissemination of good WHP practice at enterprise level.
- The ENWHP has supported the development of national supportive infrastructures for the dissemination of good workplace health promotion practices by organising national forums for WHP in a number of participating countries.
- In order to strengthen a wider implementation of good practice the network developed a European toolbox for effective instruments and tools including a collection of key arguments for investments in WHP (business case).
- The network has also addressed the impacts of demographic change in the world of work and identified numerous models of good WHP practice which can help to develop healthier workplaces for an ageing workforce.
Current Initiatives
The network is currently implementing a major initiative in order to support the integration of the new Member States into the operations of the network. Under the title "Dragon-fly", the Polish member organisation is leading a project which analyses the specific framework conditions for the new countries in the fields of workplace health promotion. In addition, the network has been hosting a series of stakeholder meetings in the new countries in an attempt to invite as many as stakeholders as possible to become actively involved in the process of joint learning and good practice dissemination.
Furthermore, ENWHP is also supporting the initiative organised by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health to address future challenges for policies and strategies in the world of work to encounter the impacts of global economies and demographic changes.
Future Initiative
MoveEurope – Campaigning for Improved Lifestyle-related Workplace Health
The next and 7th ENWHP initiative, titled "MoveEurope“ will begin this year, a project involving a campaign organised by the European Network to promote a healthy lifestyle at work. The project will focus on physical exercise, nutrition, mental health and smoking prevention.
The campaign is planned to last 3 years (2006 – 2008) and targets interested companies/organisations, external experts in the fields of Occupational Safety and Health and Public Health as well as other national and European Organisations and Stakeholders.