Work-site health promotion in Germany results of the IAB - Establishment panel 2002 and 2004

According to the answers of employers to the representative IAB establishment panel 2004, one-fifth of the companies in Germany voluntarily carried out or financially supported measures for the protection or promotion of the health and well-being of their work force. The proportion of health-promoting companies was above average in all East German federal states as well as in Bavaria, in Saarland and in Lower Saxony. North Rhine-Westphalia was precisely average. In East Germany, almost one-fourth and in West Germany just under one-fifth of all companies surveyed carry out health-promoting measures. Work-site health promotion varies considerably depending on the corresponding federal states, industrial branches and company sizes. Work-site health promotion has up to now, been concentrated in big companies and groups. An under-representation of work-site health promotion is observed above all in small and very small companies and particularly in the catering trade. Work-site health promotion was principally determined by analyses of sickness leaves and surveys on health protection in the work place which were mentioned in about 9% and 8% of the companies interviewed. 6% of the companies provided courses on health-relevant ways of behaviour. About 4% of the companies maintain health circles and 5% realised other health promoting measures. Further correlation analyses reveal that in companies with a workers council/staff council, work-site health promotion was significantly much more common. This correlation is especially strong in small and medium-size companies. The longitudinal analysis of the IAB establishment panel 2002 and 2004 reveals much dynamism in work-site health promotion. On the one hand, half of the companies involved in worksite health promotion in 2002 had stopped their commitment to work-site health promotion by 2004. Sustainability remains one of the biggest challenges in work-site health promotion. On the other hand, a bit more than one tenth of the repeatedly interviewed companies started health-promoting activities in 2004. According to the longitudinal data set, altogether 29% of the companies were reached by work-site health promotion measures (for the years 2002 and 2004).