Even small steps can put an organization on path toward a safer and healthier workforce. The following package of Simple Steps to Get Started is intended to provide the basics for getting started on an organizational approach that integrates health protection and health promotion.

First, review NIOSHEssential Elements of Effective Workplace Programs and Policies for Improving Worker Health and Wellbeing. This document, a key part of Total Worker Health™, is intended as a guide for employers and employer-employee partnerships wishing to establish effective workplace programs that sustain and improve worker health. It includes foundational principles and safeguards in moving a workforce towards a state of total worker health, including protecting employee privacy and avoiding incentives that can penalize workers.

After understanding these guiding principles and necessary protections, review Ideas You Can Implement Right Now, and print the Worksheet to Help You Get Started. Combined, these two resources provide concrete ideas and steps to help you begin developing an integrated approach that creates an organizational culture of safety, health and well-being.

Simple steps to get started (visit NIOSH’s web site)

NIOSH Essential Elements of Effective Workplace Programs and Policies for Improving Worker Health and Wellbeing
A document that identifies twenty components of a comprehensive work-based health protection and health promotion program and includes both guiding principles and practical direction for organizations seeking to develop effective workplace programs.

Ideas You Can Implement Right Now to Integrate Health Protection and Health Promotion
Provides low-cost, easily achievable ideas for a workplace that better supports Total Worker Health.

Worksheet to Help You Get Started on Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation
Easy-to-read steps help you begin more systematically planning an integrated approach in your workplace.

Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 800-CDC-INFO; (800-232-4636)