The Campbell Institute – the National Safety Council center of excellence for environmental, health and safety management – has released a white paper entitled Workplace Wellbeing: Bridging Safety and Health to demonstrate how a true culture of health and safety relies not only on a strong safety program, but one that also focuses on worker wellbeing. The white paper features real-world experiences of nine Institute members, outlining the major successes and challenges they have experienced when developing and maintaining their wellbeing programs.
“Employee health and wellbeing is not just an emerging topic, but one that is gaining momentum,” said John Dony, director of the Campbell Institute and director of environmental, health, safety and sustainability at the National Safety Council. “As many Campbell Institute members have known for several years and want to share, maintaining a sustainable business requires moving beyond just workplace safety to include overall employee health and wellness.”
Integrated health and safety, or wellbeing, lies at the intersection of health protection – safety – and health promotion – wellness. It is the blending of health and safety programs to enhance overall worker wellbeing and prevent work-related injuries and illnesses. Wellbeing includes physical, mental, emotional, social and economic health.
The white paper provides five key takeaways to assist others in the pursuit of putting a wellbeing program in place:
- Pilot health and wellbeing programs with stakeholder input
- Craft good communication
- Experiment with incentive structures
- Engage employees through organized activities
- Connect wellbeing to safety
Organizations contributing to the research include BNSF, Cummins, ISN, Mosaic, NASA, Norfolk Southern, Owens Corning, United Rentals and USG.
