Culture of Health

Accelerating productivity, reputation, and talent management

While the United States is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, it is far from the healthiest. Our nation’s high burden of disease affects businesses every day, holding us all back. From sick employees and families reducing workplace productivity, to product recalls and failures, to environmental scandals like toxic chemical emissions, businesses are actively shaping – as well as being shaped by – the state of the country’s health and well-being.

In the interest of both strengthening their business and benefiting the greater good, many organizations have been adopting a Culture of Health, a movement that maximizes good health and well-being of employees, consumers, community, and environment, ultimately contributing to a healthier population and economy.

To advance building a Culture of Health, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health developed three unique programs to train executives and corporate teams to develop and implement Culture of Health practices in their organization:

• Improving Your Business Through a Culture of Health (named Runner Up for Best Online Program of 2018)
• Driving Business Performance: Culture of Health for Executive Leaders (ran May 2019)
• Innovating Business Strategies: Culture of Health for Executive Teams (ran September 2019)

The Business Case for a Culture of Health

Every organization – public, private, or non-profit – has an impact on the public’s health. By implementing a Culture of Health, businesses not only take responsibility for their influence, but also have the opportunity to reap benefits and rewards in many ways, including:

1. Reducing costs:
   • Minimize losses associated with “presenteeism” (working while ill) and absenteeism
   • Decrease illnesses, injuries, and fatalities, resulting in cost savings
2. Increasing revenues and profits:
   • Facilitate economic growth by shaping a healthier and more efficient workforce
   • Shape healthier communities that have more disposable income to spend on products and services
3. Enhancing reputations:
   • Improve consumer perceptions and public reputation by helping to solve important societal challenges
   • Enhance current and potential employees’ view of the company to retain and attract top talent

By working to implement a Culture of Health, businesses have the opportunity to positively influence what is known as the Four Pillars:

• Employee Health: the treatment of its workers
• Consumer Health: healthfulness and safety of its products and services
• Community Health: health and safety efforts in location of doing business
• Environmental Health: impact of operations on the environment

Support for these programs was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.