The participation of manufacturing employees in workplace health promotion programmes : determinants and barriers

Workplace health promotion programmes (WHPPs) are of growing interest to employers. They are treated as practices combining corporate social responsibility (CSR) and human resources (HR) objectives. However, when it comes to employees, the interest in these programmes is unsatisfactory. This raises the need to study the determining factors in employee participation in such company schemes. The aim of this article is (1) to examine the socio-demographic determinants for participation in workplace health promotion programmes by workers in manufacturing companies and (2) to identify barriers to participation in these programmes. A two-stage procedure was used. First, the data provided by one manufacturing company in Poland concerning the participation of employees in the workplace health promotion programmes were analysed. Next, a survey among 228 employees of this company was conducted. As a result, the socio-demographic determinants of employee participation in workplace health promotion programmes were established. Five groups of barriers to the participation of employees in workplace health promotion programmes were also identified. Eventually, recommendations for building these programmes as well as for further research into employee participation were proposed.