Employees at Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Many enterprises have succeeded in recent years in sensitizing their employees to health issues at work and in initiating projects on promoting health in the workplace. These activities include improvements in work and process structures, encouragement of employee participation or the personal empowerment of employees. They have helped to increase health and well-being of employees substantially. That, in turn, is beneficial to the company: After all, its own ability to perform economically depends in large measure on having qualified, motivated and healthy employees.

Until now, these approaches to workplace health promotion have been confined mainly to large companies. However, the majority of businesses in Austria and in the EU are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The latter employ more than two thirds of the total workforce. Their structures are completely different than those of large companies. This fact has pros and cons when it comes to health promotion in the workplace. On the pro side, the owners have greater influence on shaping work processes and the work climate is characterized by more of a family atmosphere and by simpler organizational structures. These aspects offer great potential for health promotion. On the con side, SMEs often lack the resources and structures for carrying out projects on workplace health promotion. They need assistance.

Creating a supportive environment and developing new tailor-made strategies are two central aims Fonds Gesundes Österreich pursues in its studies and model projects on workplace health promotion for SMEs. We also work for progress in this area by staging professional conferences and in our regular project funding activities.