Public health, business, and the shared value of workforce health and wellbeing
Authors: Nicolaas P Pronk
Journal: The Lancet Public Health (2019)

From a corporate perspective, the health and wellbeing of the workforce have long been considered a cost instead of an investment. However, progress in public health research has provided evidence that improvements to the health and wellbeing of workers have the potential to improve productivity, corporate performance, and community prosperity.1Virtanen M Ervasti J Head J et al.Lifestyle factors and risk of sickness absence from work: a multicohort study.Lancet Public Health. 2018; 3: e545-e554Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (62) Google Scholar, 2van den Brand FA Nagelhout GE Winkens B Chavannes NH van Schayck OCP Effect of a workplace-based group training programme combined with financial incentives on smoking cessation: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.Lancet Public Health. 2018; 3: e536-e544Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (31) Google Scholar, 3Pronk NP Baase C Noyce J Stevens DE Corporate America and community health: exploring the business case for investment.J Occup Environ Med. 2015; 57: 493-500Crossref PubMed Scopus (16) Google Scholar, 4Fabius R Thayer RD Konicki DL et al.The link between workforce health and safety and the health of the bottom line: tracking market performance of companies that nurture a "culture of health".J Occup Environ Med. 2013; 55: 993-999Crossref PubMed Scopus (71) Google Scholar Public health interventions can use the workplace to achieve major health and wellbeing gains among much of the population but, to do so, evidence of effectiveness needs to be shown in the context of a convincing narrative that will persuade business leaders to invest and allocate resources. Creation of such a narrative demands visionary leadership that promotes social objectives to optimise business performance. To persuade businesses that investment in worker health and wellbeing through partnerships with public health agencies is a sound business strategy, evidence of such efforts should be considered in the context of multisectoral programmes, policies, and practices. Workplace policy proposals should be reviewed for their potential effects on health, safety, and wellbeing, and policy makers and businesses should set goals to create positive social, physical, and economic environments.5Kottke TE Stiefel M Pronk NP "Well-being in all policies": promoting cross-sectoral collaboration to improve people's lives.Prev Chronic Dis. 2016; 13: e52Crossref PubMed Scopus (33) Google Scholar Business and industry need to be actively engaged in shaping the narrative around health equity because they represent important partners in preventing a widening of health disparities. To accomplish these tasks, leadership, partnerships, and resources are necessary. It will take leaders from both public health and business to build partnership models that reflect an alternative way of thinking that is designed to simultaneously benefit society and maximise profit while mobilising resources and activating funding mechanisms from federal and private sources. This approach to creating shared value will generate social value in the interests of public health and allow business to gain long-term competitiveness.6Porter ME Kramer MR for the Harvard Business ReviewCreating shared value.https://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-valueDate: 2011Date accessed: February 5, 2019Google Scholar The creation of shared value through research, partnerships, and evidence-based health and wellbeing solutions will elucidate the connections and alignments between business, community, and prosperity. Public health research could generate results that can be placed in context as a convincing narrative to support decision makers in allocating the necessary resources to build cultures of positive health and wellbeing in the workplace that are connected to the community. Such endeavours have the potential to make visible the value of investments in workplace health and wellbeing that reach far beyond the workplace itself. I declare no competing interests. Lifestyle factors and risk of sickness absence from work: a multicohort studyLifestyle factors are associated with sickness absence due to several diseases, but observational data cannot determine the nature of these associations. Future studies should investigate the cost-effectiveness of lifestyle interventions aimed at reducing sickness absence and the use of information on lifestyle for identifying groups at risk. Full-Text PDF Open AccessEffect of a workplace-based group training programme combined with financial incentives on smoking cessation: a cluster-randomised controlled trialFinancial incentives in addition to a smoking cessation group training programme can significantly increase long-term smoking abstinence. The results of the current study could motivate employers to facilitate a workplace smoking cessation programme with financial incentives to help employees to quit smoking. Full-Text PDF Open Access