4 Pillars of Workplace Health

The Healthy Place to Work® model consists of four broad pillars of wellbeing, each of which comprises several elements. More detail reading about the four pillars is available in our White Paper “The Science of Wellbeing”.

The pillars are:

  • Purpose
  • Mental Resilience
  • Connection
  • Physical Health

Our model implicitly recognises that mental and physical health are interrelated, as it maps to the biopsychosocial model of health which was first formulated by the American psychiatrist George Engel in 1977 and which is widely used by healthcare professionals. This states that our biological health can be affected by psychological and social factors and vice-versa.

The Connection pillar recognises that we operate in a social environment and assesses key aspects of our relationships both inside and outside of the workplace. The extent to which we feel connected to other people, whether in the workplace or outside in wider society, affects our mental health. A strong feeling of Connection can help to strengthen our mental resilience and reinforce our purpose.

The next two pillars look at our internal psychological environment. Mental Resilience measures aspects of our ‘mental toolkit’ such as our beliefs about our self-efficacy and our orientation for personal growth that give us mental strength. It also measures some factors that can have a big impact on our mental health such as workplace and financial pressures.

The Purpose pillar looks at the things we consider important in our personal and work lives and the extent to which there is alignment between the two. A sense of purpose helps individuals to be mentally resilient and to foster connections both inside and outside the workplace.

The final pillar, Physical Health, covers the visible and tangible aspects of biological health such as diet, exercise, and the physical working environment. The demographic section of the Healthy Place to Work® survey also includes several indicators of health, and these mainly inform the Physical Health pillar.

To explore the Healthy Place to Work® model in more detail, download our White Paper “The Science of Wellbeing”.