Corporate Health Management

 What does BGM mean?

BGM is an abbreviation for “operational health management“ (“betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement“), thus the company-internal observation, documentation and sensitization of the factors of the work environment that have an impact on the health. It investigates whether these factors affect the employees negatively.

Included in the investigation are: occupational safety, reintegration after long sickness and the analysis and documentation of the state of health of the employees.

Nowadays, the focus of BGM is rather health prevention – the goal is to help the employees to lead a healthier life through health-promoting measures. It does not only include a healthy workplace (workplace pollution) but also a healthy conduct of colleagues and managers.

Lack of exercise as a central problem

Therefore operational health management deals with work-related health factors that differ from company to company.

One similarity however gets more and more obviou. The lack of exercise provoked by long sitting periods and a lack of compensation due to ever increasing complex (mental) work conditions.

This “modern lifestyle” has imposed on many professionals a way of living which entails many health problems. In many cases, sickness provoked by a stressful daily routine like high blood pressure or overweight can be traced back to it. But also back pain is caused by the physical passivity of our daily work routine. According to recent inquiries, approximately 10% of the employees– especially with physically challenging jobs – suffer from back pain.

The caused sick leave can last up to several weeks. The following overall work deficit in 2013 was 40 million days of absence. This was specified in the health report of the German health insurance Techniker Krankenkasse in 2014.

Similarly, mental disorders caused by permanent stress load – without adequate compensation (like exercise) – lead to a drastic increase of “burn-out” based early retirements of more than 1000% between 2004 and 2012 (bptk, 2012).

BGM – a matter addressing employers and employees

This does not only reveal inconveniences for every affected person, but also means a challenge and responsibility for every employee.
The idea is to compensate the workload and to optimate the efficiency and working conditions.

The responsibility of maintaining good health is a central goal for both, employer and employee and has to be managed together.

According to experts, an expedient approach towards workplace health promotion is an effective way of preventing a rising sickness rate.

Our partner Corpus Training helps with preventive activity interventions, individual and trustable consultancy and concepts for practical implementation during the daily work routine.
They also offer apt ergonomics consulting and solutions like the standsome.
Corpus Training is our partner for more physical activity, a healthy lifestyle (diet, stress management) and more quality of life.

The guiding principle is the individual approach. Only taking into account the work environment is not enough. Individual potential and, even more importantly, personal aspirations, goals and their frameworks are the central matters.

Therefore, operational health management is an effective training for employees.

You are welcome to ask our experts here.