The Healthier Workforce Center for Excellence (HWCE) will be designed to improve our understanding of effective, integrated employee health programs and to translate this evidence base into practice for the benefit of employed populations. While the value of creating integrated health protection and health promotion programs has been described, there are many uncertainties related to practical implementation of such programs. It is not clear, for instance, how integration should best be achieved with regards to the following variables: private vs. public sector; type of work setting (e.g., manufacturing vs. high-tech); number and variety of job types in the particular workforce; effectiveness, availability, and utilization of existing health protection and health promotion resources; and the relative impact of company-, group-, and individual-level interventions. The HWCE will explore the effects of different integrated health protection/health promotion programs tailored to meet the needs of three different work environments: a health insurance company, a manufacturing firm, and a public university workforce that is decentralized, with widely varying job types. The Center's goals are: (1) To examine the relationships among predictors for absenteeism, work-related injury, workers' compensation claims, healthcare expenditures, and overall health. ( 2) To implement, evaluate, and compare three integrated health protection/health promotion models for the private and public sectors: (a) a policy approach to achieving integrated employee health; (b) an intervention based around an integrated worker safety/health promotion committee and (c) an intervention using a health counselor to integrate the delivery of health protection and health promotion services in a public sector setting; and (3) To establish a learning network of interactive partnerships with employers, employee groups including unions, and health care organizations. The policy-focused project will be evaluated with time series and cost effectiveness analyses. The worker safety/health promotion committee project will employ a quasiexperimental design with a delayed intervention component. The health counselor project will be a randomized controlled trial. And the learning network/education and translation project will be examined primarily using formative and process evaluation measures. The Center's research will improve public health by helping to develop workplaces that address employee health in a more effective, integrated fashion. The Center will also develop a learning network with employers, worker groups, universities, and others so that research findings can rapidly be put into practice in many settings throughout the U.S.
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