Worksite Health Promotion and Work Performance: Both Awareness and Use Matter

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Organizational Psychology
• Human Resources Management

Background:

• Worksite health promotion (WHP) programs are increasingly implemented to improve employee well-being and productivity.
• The relationship between employee awareness and utilization of WHP and their subsequent performance outcomes requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between employee awareness of, and engagement with, worksite health promotion (WHP) and their task and contextual performance.
• To differentiate the impact of awareness versus utilization of specific WHP initiatives (healthy menus, sports facilities) on employee performance.

Main Methods:

• Utilized multilevel cross-sectional data from the European Sustainable Workforce Survey, encompassing over 11,000 employees across 259 organizations.
• Employed generalized structural equation modeling to analyze the relationships between WHP awareness/use and employee performance metrics.

Main Results:

• Awareness of healthy menus and sports facilities demonstrated a positive association with both task and contextual performance.
• Utilization of healthy menus positively correlated with both performance types, while sports facility use was linked only to contextual performance.
• The impact of WHP utilization on performance was more pronounced for contextual performance compared to task performance.

Conclusions:

• Organizations should prioritize making employees aware of available WHP initiatives.
• Stimulating employee engagement with WHP programs is crucial for enhancing both task and contextual performance.
• A dual approach focusing on awareness and active utilization of WHP is recommended for maximizing organizational benefits.