Policies alone are not enough: Workplace health development in the public, private and voluntary sectors

Coffey, M; Dugdill, L

Abstract

A 2001 survey of public (n¼28), private (n¼113) and voluntary sector (n¼64) workplaces
in Sefton, Merseyside indicated that there were significantly different levels of health-related policy
provision across the three sectors, with the public sector having the highest level of provision
(7.18 policies on average), followed by the voluntary (5.09 policies on average) and the private
sector (3.94 policies on average). Policies already in place were mostly based around health and
safety (89%), smoking (80%), sickness absenteeism (68%) and manual handling (49%).
Workplaces reported that in order to benefit their employees’ health they wanted to improve: the
physical work environment (38%); communications (31%); job content/organization (30%) and
wage levels (29%). In addition, they wanted to develop stress management (51%) and familyfriendly
(25%) policies. The major perceived barriers to implementing these policies were: lack of
time/monetary resources (70%); not having the skills/expertise (37%); knowing which issues are
priorities (25%); and knowing where to go to for help (17%). In order to achieve this, workplaces
would like support in the form of: advice/information (63%); free health and safety checks (52%);
training courses (49%) and monetary subsidies (49%). This study uniquely compares the public,
private and voluntary sectors, highlighting that the sectors with the most health policies in place
(public and voluntary) are also the sectors with the greatest number of reported difficulties,
e.g. absenteeism, recruitment and retention. Recommendations from this study are that a ‘onesize-
fits-all’ approach to health promotion would be inadequate to bring about changes in practice;
that health promotion campaigns should focus on addressing the contextual difficulties, e.g. lack
of resources, facing the voluntary and public sector, rather than on solely developing policy
provision; and that information and advice for workplaces should be tailored to this end.

Citation

Coffey, M., & Dugdill, L. (2006). Policies alone are not enough: Workplace health development in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Critical Public Health, 16(3), 233-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581590600986465

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2006
• Deposit Date: Feb 26, 2010
• Journal: Critical Public Health
• Print ISSN: 0958-1596
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 233-243
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09581590600986465
• Keywords: Workplace, health, policy
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09581590600986465