Building a culture of healthy living in the workplace

Abstract

Workplace settings, including hybrid, remote, and home-based environments, are key places to support employees and their families to live healthfully since so many adults spend significant amounts of time at work. Employers can create a culture of healthy living at their workplaces and do so intentionally through process and practice. They can establish organizational policies, systems, work processes, architectural design practices, and employment benefits designs to support healthy behaviors for their employees and their families. Employers also can ensure health insurance approaches that provide equitable access to quality health care. They can ensure livable wages for all staff and provide a host of other important healthy living support mechanisms, using incentives and communications. Organizational executives and upper managers play a critical role in modeling these shared values at the workplace and participatory approaches need to be implemented to give all workers opportunity to meaningfully engage. Corporate leaders can reinforce a healthy living culture with role modeling and by ensuring resources are available and accessible—to do so, a set of workplace factors should be implemented that, cumulatively, reach a tipping point toward the creation of a healthy workplace culture. Employers can both influence and be influenced by the communities in which they are located. Recognizing regional culture, participating in strategic relationships, investing in the community, and providing volunteer and civic engagement opportunities all contribute to the support of healthy living strategies in the workplace. When employers pursue a workplace culture of health, they not only do good by their employees, but they also increase the likelihood that their company may outperform their market competition.