Benefits of Healthy Workplace certification
The main benefits of the “Healthy Workplace” certification model are:
- To improve the health, well-being and safety of employees in a sustainable manner. The health, safety and well-being of workers are of fundamental importance not only to the workers themselves and their families, but also to the productivity, competitiveness and sustainability of businesses and, consequently, to the economies of individual countries and the world.
- Continuously reducing accidents and ill health. Healthy workers are an organisation’s most important asset.
- Systematising aspects of healthy work environments (physical and psychosocial environment, health resources and the company’s involvement in the community), thereby facilitating legal compliance.
- Enhances the company’s competitive advantage by improving its image, boosting employee motivation and facilitating compliance with customer requirements.
- Enables integration with other systems that comply with standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 or IQNet SR10.
Requirements for the "Healthy Workplace" certification
The auditable “Healthy Workplace” model developed by AENOR sets out the requirements for a management system for organisations committed to the principles and recommendations regarding healthy workplaces, and which wish to continuously promote and protect the health, safety and well-being of workers and the sustainability of the working environment.
This model establishes a healthy workplace management system based on the methodology of continuous improvement or the Deming cycle (PDCA or PHVA).
The organisation must base its actions on initiatives regarding healthy work environments in:
- Business ethics, applying good practices based on key scenarios where actions can be taken to improve healthy work environments:
- 1.- Physical environment (chemical, physical, biological and ergonomic factors, etc.).
- 2.- Psychosocial environment (organisational culture, management style, work-life balance, harassment, etc.).
- 3.- Health-related factors (physical inactivity, poor diet, consumption of harmful substances, mental health, ageing, etc.).
- 4.- Company involvement in the community (workers’ families, transfer of knowledge to the community, environmental aspects, etc.).
- Business interest in adopting improvement objectives as well as the management system requirements set out in this model and any other requirements to which the organisation subscribes or which it establishes.
- Legal obligation. This involves complying with the legal obligations applicable to an organisation.
In addition to the general principles of a healthy workplace described above, the organisation should take the following into account:
- Employer behaviour based on core values. Healthy workplace programmes must be integrated into the organisation’s objectives.
- Involving workers and their representatives. Workers affected by the programmes must be involved in their planning, implementation and evaluation.
- Gap analysis. It is important to assess the current situation, then determine what is to be achieved and make plans to bridge the gap between the two situations.
- Learning from others. It is important to have experts who have received special training in healthy work environments.
- Sustainability. It is important to integrate healthy work environment initiatives into the company’s strategic plan.
- Importance of integration. Strategic planning must incorporate the human aspect.