The Organizational Health Initiative at Saint Louis University is a collaborative initiative to bridge the gap between organizational health research and the practice of creating a healthy workplace.
We work with organizations to identify opportunities for change through projects targeting workplace stress, work-life balance, employee health and employee involvement.
Though the Organizational Health Initiative provides some training and intervention design work, its primary goals are:
- To assist organizations in the assessment of current organizational health and employee health issues
- To identify meaningful, high-leverage options for improvement
The Organizational Health Initiative builds on the work of the American Psychological Association's Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program. Our members provide research services for the national program, which recognizes organizations that have fostered a healthy workplace and provides resources for employees to help them better manage their well-being.
Organizational Health Initiative Services
The Organizational Health Initiative’s programs incorporate agenda-free assessments of the health of an organization and its employees. Through the use of online surveys, focus groups and other techniques, we provide organizations with a thorough comprehensive assessment and work with them to identify specific strategies for improving overall organizational health.
Because of its association with Saint Louis University, the Organizational Health Initiative has access to a variety of expertise in areas related to business, psychology, health and wellness, public policy, management, nursing and other domains. As such, our projects provide a bridge between organizations and topical experts as a means of solving underlying problems or increasing overall effectiveness.
How to Work with The Organizational Health Initiative
Though there are many benefits to creating a healthy workplace, a key consideration is the way employees allocate their personal resources of time, energy and money.
Every demand an employee experiences calls for the use of at least one of these limited resources. An hour spent meeting one demand leaves one less hour to spend meeting another.
Decisions about how to allocate these resources often result in a feeling of work-life imbalance, stress, anxiety, and work overload. These detract from the well-being of employees and have an adverse impact on employee performance, health, and retention.
With our assistance, organizations can intervene at all stages of the resource allocation process. We can help organizations identify these sources of inefficiency and identify programs and practices that would bolster employee energy and financial resources, decrease the number of needless demands employees experience, and improve the way employees allocate their personal resources.
Providing employees and employers with strategies tailored to their specific industry and worksite, the Organizational Health Initiative works with managers, supervisors and workers to increase productivity, efficiency, job satisfaction, and physical and mental health.