Manager beliefs regarding worksite health promotion: findings from the Working Healthy Project 2

To explore differences in manager beliefs about worksite health promotion programs (HPPs).

Cross-sectional written survey.

Twenty-four manufacturing worksites, with 11,811 employees and 1719 eligible managers.

Sixty-six percent (1133/1719) of managers completed the survey; 1047 managers were categorized by level (169 senior, 567 middle, and 311 line supervisors).

Results are reported on overall manager beliefs (and by manager level) about importance, efficacy, barriers, and benefits of HPPs. Multilevel analysis modeled the influence of manager level, age, and experience with HPPs on beliefs about HPPs, while accounting for worksite-level effects.

Seventy-five percent of managers believed that offering HPPs is highly important. Eighty percent believed that HPPs improved employee health, 68% believed that they reduced health care costs, and 67% believed that they improved employee morale. Few significant differences by manager level were observed on the perceived importance of health promotion, employer responsibilities for health promotion and protection, and efficacy of health promotion strategies or perceived benefits. Senior managers (vs. line supervisors) were significantly less likely to believe that space or cost was a barrier to offering HPPs and were less likely than middle managers or line supervisors to believe that production conflicts were barriers to offering HPPs.

Targeted interventions to address manager beliefs, including differences by age, experience, and manager level, are worth consideration when planning worksite HPPs.