What Is Employee Wellness?

Employee health management is a kind of enterprise management behavior. It uses modern medical and information technology to track and evaluate the health status of the employees of the company through the use of the company itself or with the help of third parties. Physical and mental health, reducing the cost of medical expenses, and improving the overall productivity of enterprises.

Employee health management

(Management Terminology)

Health management originated in the United States. The rise of health management is mainly due to the rise in medical costs, the development of commercial insurance and the advancement of medical health. The traditional American medical and health system is a system that focuses on diagnosis and treatment. 20% of the most unhealthy people occupy 80% of medical and health resources, while the other 80% of the population is likely to become the most unhealthy or ill. Sick individual. If we only focus on the sick people and ignore the influence of health risk factors in the non-sick people, the sick people will inevitably continue to expand, which will overwhelm medical expenses. Therefore, it is imperative to manage the health of non-sick people. Health management is the process of comprehensively controlling the health risks of individuals and populations. It is a planned and organized system aimed at improving social health awareness, improving healthy behaviors, and improving the quality of life of individuals.

Chinese name: Employee health management
Origin: United States

Nature: An enterprise management act
Content: Track and assess the health of employees through the company itself or with the help of third parties

Employee health management is a modern human resource management model. It is the reflection of human resource management mode from the management of "things" to the management of "people." Human resource management has experienced a change from the employment management model centered on the "commodity person" theory to the human capital operation model centered on the "knowledge person" theory. In the process of this evolution, the importance of people has become increasingly prominent, the individual needs of people have been continuously met, and human capital has gradually become the most important capital for enterprises. And employee health management actually embodies the humanistic care of employees, embodies respect for people and attention to human capital. This management mode caters to the needs of modern enterprise management and has considerable practical significance.

Why employee health management: the need for sustainable development

1. Conducive to improving organizational performance and corporate productivity

The Porter-Lawler incentive model states that, in addition to personal effort, job performance is also affected by personal abilities and qualities, external working conditions and environment, personal perception and understanding of organizational expectations and intentions, and perception of fairness of rewards And other factors. In the era of the knowledge economy, the importance of human capital has gradually become apparent, and the improvement of the organization's performance by enterprises must largely focus on the employees themselves. According to the Porter-Lawler incentive model, if other factors remain unchanged, if employees have a strong willingness to work and their ability to work effectively, their work performance will be more easily improved. On the one hand, the company's employee health management reduces the restrictions imposed on employees 'health risks and improves the quality of their human capital; on the other hand, it makes employees feel caring for the company, relieves employees' worries and optimizes Employees' motivation and willingness to work will further increase their efforts and performance.

In fact, the investment in employee health management can be converted into corporate profits, and the ratio of input to output is usually between 1: 1.4 and 1: 4. For example, after DuPont introduced employee health management, its absenteeism rate dropped by 14%, and the cost / benefit ratio reached 1: 1.42.

2. Helps strengthen corporate cohesion and promote sustainable development

Cohesion is the basis for the survival of an enterprise as a team, and it is also a necessary condition for the development and growth of an enterprise. This power makes the members of the organization willing to stay in the organization and contribute their ingenuity to the organization. Employee health management embodies the people-oriented management philosophy, which can enhance employees' sense of organization and belonging, and improve the cohesion of the enterprise. Practice has proved that in companies that implement employee health management, the turnover rate of employees has also decreased accordingly. The effect of IBM Taiwan's introduction of employee health management shows that the employee turnover rate dropped from more than 10% in 2005 to 8% in 2007.

Employee health management reduces the risk of brain drain, helps to form sustainable human capital, and lays a good foundation for the sustainable development of enterprises.

3. The health status of employees in Chinese companies is not optimistic

The health of employees in Chinese companies is worrying. According to a survey of office workers in 10 cities by the Ministry of Health, sub-healthy employees accounted for 48%, especially in economically developed regions, of which 75.3% in Beijing, 73.49% in Shanghai and 73.41% in Guangdong; Each individual participating in the market competition suffers more or less from chronic and psychological disorders. In addition, according to Mercer's 2008 Research Report on the Status of Employee Health and Welfare in China, the world's largest employee welfare consulting company, 88% of companies are concerned about their employees' current and future health. In this case, it is particularly necessary for the company to conduct employee health management.

Deeper understanding of employee health management: more than just diagnosis and treatment

The concept of employee health management has existed for a long time, but there are different understandings of what exactly is employee health management and the content of employee health management. Many people think that employee health management is to improve the company's medical insurance system, conduct regular physical examinations of employees, and propose targeted solutions. Some people also equate employee health management with EAP (Employee Health Management Plan) to introduce EAP for enterprises. After that, the employee health management system was established. These cognitions, I think, are all biased.

1. Employee health management rooted in the "people-oriented" corporate culture

From the perspective of corporate culture, employee health management is actually a concrete embodiment of the "people-oriented" corporate culture in the field of human resource management. The "people-oriented" corporate culture emphasizes the dominant position of employees in the development of the company. It is based on human nature and human needs, respects the choice of employees, meets the diverse needs of employees, and provides employees with a larger development stage and fuller development. Conditions and strive to maximize human value. Because only by maximizing the value of humans, it is possible to maximize the value of the enterprise. The implementation of employee health management is to place employees' physical and mental health in a decisive position. Through a series of prevention and diagnosis and treatment behaviors to improve the health of employees, it reflects the company's humanistic care for employees and also creates maximum value for employees. With better conditions, employee health management is inseparable from the "people-oriented" corporate culture. Leaving corporate culture to talk about employee health management is like water without a source and a tree without a root.

In real life, on the surface, many companies seem to be very concerned about the health of their employees. They think that employees' medical insurance and regular physical examinations are the management of their health. In fact, if we do not establish a people-oriented corporate culture, and do not really attach importance to the subjective status of employees in the enterprise, it is not really an effective employee health management system.

2. Employee health management includes dual management of physical and mental health

The connotation of employee health management is very rich. It not only does not include the content of employees' physical health management, such as conducting a comprehensive physical examination of employees, establishing a health file, conducting regular health assessments, etc .; it also includes the psychological health of employees Necessary follow-up and coaching, such as setting up a psychological counseling hotline, setting up a counselling specialist and an employee mutual help group. With the acceleration of the pace of life and the increase of competition pressure, the psychological problems of employees have become an important issue in enterprise management. The main purpose of managing the mental health of employees is to eliminate the negative impact of high-load work pressure, promote the mental health of employees, thereby reducing management costs and improving corporate performance.

From the current situation, the physical health of employees is easy to pay attention to, and mental health is often ignored. A survey of occupational mental health management of Chinese enterprise employees conducted by Chinese health organizations and the EAP Association shows that 99.13% of working white-collar workers suffer from workplace psychological factors such as "stress", "depression" and "burnout"; 56.56% of Respondents are eager to get psychological counseling, but have never tried it; 79.54% of workplace professionals realize that "occupational mental health" affects work.

3. The focus of employee health management is on prevention and control, not on ex post

Employee health management is a process of tracking and evaluating the health status of employees, so its focus is on prevention and control, not on making up after the fact. At present, most of China's employee health management is of the type of "aftercare", that is, if there is a problem with health, we will try to solve it. A typical example is that the concern for employees' health issues is too much dependent on basic medical insurance, which is a low-level ex post medical payment system that cannot play a role in prevention and control at all; and regular medical examinations are also There are more forms than contents, and it is difficult to really play the role of evaluation and diagnosis. From this perspective, China's employee health management is still in its infancy.

The Foxconn incident is a good proof of this. Because there is no systematic health management system and a lack of good communication channels for employees, the psychological tension and depression of employees cannot be alleviated for a long time, so until the tragedy Foxconn executives only realized the importance of employee health management and adopted a series of measures such as improving employee care centers and setting up employee care hotlines. Had Foxconn realized this in advance, perhaps the tragedy would not have happened.

Multi-pronged culture, system and management

1. Establish a culture of respect for employees

As mentioned earlier, employee health management is rooted in a "people-oriented" corporate culture. Therefore, to implement employee health management, we must start with the corporate culture. First of all, enterprises should establish a humanistic management concept, create a cultural atmosphere that respects employees and values employees, and build a "people-oriented" corporate image. Secondly, in specific management practices, implement flexible management and caring management, listen to employees' needs, help employees to progress, involve employees in decision-making, etc., so that employees can truly experience the feeling of respect and find a sense of belonging.

2. Create a comfortable working environment

A comfortable working environment is conducive to physical and mental health, and it is also conducive to mobilizing employees' work enthusiasm and exerting their creativity. For example, the working environment is optimized from the aspects of space, decoration, light, cleanliness, etc., to provide employees with a comfortable office environment; for some boring repetitive labor, through the form of workplace exercises, playing background music, etc., to relieve stress, The purpose of regulating emotions. In this regard, Google's approach may be worth learning from. Google's headquarters is located in the beautiful environment of Mountain View, California. The design of the office building is unique. Employees use scooters to travel to different workplaces. In order to meet the leisure needs of employees, Google has specially built a unique rest area. For personalization needs, Google pays the budget to let employees set up their own offices, and so on.

3. Improve the company's incentive and communication mechanism

Through the improvement of the company's incentives and communication mechanisms to address the worries of employees and clear the obstacles to the healthy development of employees. Pay attention to the personal development of employees, provide broad development space, improve career promotion channels, give employees motivation and hope; provide a competitive salary and reward system, and encourage employees to move in a positive and healthy direction. At the same time, establish smooth communication channels, so that employees, and superiors can have equal dialogue, exchange information, and exchange ideas. Actively organize various forms of cultural and sports activities to relieve work pressure, enhance emotional communication between employees, and improve team cohesion.

4. Set up positions related to employee health management

Strengthen investment in human resources, set up positions related to employee health management, and manage and supervise employee health. For example, Huawei first established the Chief Employee Health and Safety Officer in 2008 to further improve employee protection and occupational health plans. In addition, Huawei has also set up a health guidance center to regulate employees' food and beverage, drinking water, office and other health standards and disease prevention, and provide health and psychological consultation. Some Fortune 500 companies such as GE and Dow Chemicals have also set up positions in Asia-Pacific or China as health consultants to manage and supervise the physical and mental health of the company's employees.

5. Implement the EAP plan

EAP (Employee Assistance Program), or "Employee Assistance Program", is a set of system services provided by an organization to employees. It provides professional employees with diagnostic, counselling, consulting, and training services to solve various psychological and behavioral problems of employees. Problems to improve employee performance in the organization. EAP mainly includes three aspects of primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention. The functions are to eliminate the source of the problem, education and training, and psychological counseling and counseling for employees. It is understood that a considerable number of Fortune 500 companies have established EAP. A large number of foreign companies, especially IT companies, such as HP, Motorola, Cisco, Nokia, Ericsson, Coca-Cola, DuPont, and Procter & Gamble, have launched their EAP projects in China. Many local companies, such as Lenovo Group and Chongqing Mobile, also recognized the importance of employee health management and introduced EAP projects one after another.

If you build the Great Wall, talent is the cornerstone; if you build a building, talent is the pillar; if you build an enterprise, talent is the guarantee of success. If you want to make your business bigger and you don't want to be a small workshop owner, you must value talent. No matter what cause, talent is the guarantee of success.

Talent is the primary productive force, and healthy talent is the core competitiveness of an enterprise. According to a report by China Youth Daily-Youth News, the Ministry of Health conducted a survey of office workers in 10 cities and found that 48% of them are in a sub-health state. Coastal cities are higher than inland cities, and mental workers Manual workers, middle-aged people are higher than young people. At the same time, a set of data released by the affiliated agencies of the Ministry of Health in July 2002 showed that the proportion of Beijingers in a "sub-health" state was 75.3%, Shanghai was 73.49%, and Guangdong was 73.41%.

Employees are the life of an enterprise and the most important factor that brings benefits to the enterprise. They are not only workers but also vital intellectual capital. At present, most domestic enterprises' understanding and understanding of "health management" is medical examination and employee welfare. In fact, "health management" is a management system. Although the country has implemented a social security system and provides corresponding medical insurance for company employees, the existing medical insurance can only meet the most basic medical needs of employees, and can only be used when employees are ill, but when employees are in "sub-health" The social security system and high-risk conditions, the social security system cannot provide any solution. At the same time, when employees are in a doldrums due to their sub-health status or physical adjustment, the loss caused by such inefficient work is huge, and the ultimate loss is the company itself.

Drucker said in his "Management Challenges for the 21st Century": "In the 21st century, the most valuable assets of organizations (including businesses and nonprofits) will be knowledge workers and their productivity." Globalization and the knowledge economy The arrival of "personal" is again capitalized, it is no longer a title and position, but a responsibility to the organization, to itself, is the most valuable asset of an organization. As a result, the value of knowledge workers and managers as individuals and the value of the organization are more and more closely linked, and the answer sometimes does not come from the traditional management category, and "health management" emerges from time to time.

What Is Employee Wellness?

Employee health management

(Management Terminology)

IN OTHER LANGUAGES

RELATED ARTICLES

How can we help?