Healthy workers, healthy company – this means that in working life, health should not be limited to those areas regulated by law and the legal standard of safety at work and health protection, but should follow a comprehensive and systematic approach to health on the basis of, and as a component of responsible corporate governance.

Friendly Work Space

Migros has consistently followed and practised this comprehensive approach by means of a modern workplace health management programme based on a universal concept for prevention and health promotion, which gives equal consideration to both working conditions and individual health-related behaviour.

It is therefore no accident that no fewer than three Migros enterprises were among the nine Swiss companies which were granted the first “Friendly Work Space” labels by the Health Promotion Switzerland foundation.

The label is awarded to companies with a systematic and sustainable workplace health management programme, and should indicate to their employees that the certified business enterprises take their social responsibility seriously and actively support a healthy working environment. Migros’ internal social partners have a significant stake in the award. Yet again, their contribution confirms to Migros that health must be promoted and guaranteed, not simply for but above all with the employees.

Disability management

One of the key aspects of social responsibility in the context of health and work is support for and the reintegration of employees who have been ill or suffered an accident. The most important thing here is to actively promote and support the processes of reintegration, to initiate measures rapidly and to adapt these to the specific needs of employees who are ill or who have suffered an accident, and to apply them with the cooperation of all the relevant offices. It is important to mobilise all of the necessary resources that can contribute to a successful outcome.

Private public partnership – pilot project for further development of disability insurance

The 5th disability insurance review has established important preconditions for the targeted support for a disability management scheme such as that which Migros has already been aware of for some time, through early registration, early intervention, integration measures and the concentration of the 26 cantonal disability insurance offices into rehabilitation and service centres.

However, the tool kit can only be effective if new forms of cooperation can be established between the disability insurer and the business enterprises, grouping together skills and resources by simply cooperating on a case-by-case basis. To do this, new structures, instruments and procedures must be developed and tested in practice.

Here, too, Migros is looking for innovation. That is why in 2009, together with the Federal Social Insurance Office it developed a pilot project, the object of which is to create a joint national competence centre for workplace rehabilitation with an independent structural, financial and staffing base.

It is a new form of the private public partnership, which gives a whole new direction to cooperation with the rehabilitation of employees who are ill or have suffered an accident. The findings and decision-making bases obtained from it will be used in further development of disability insurance into rehabilitation insurance. Migros hopes that its example will also catch on with other business enterprises.