Health is man's most valuable asset. The management board, personnel management and the joint works council of Outokumpu VDM GmbH are committed to this WHO (World Health Organisation) principle. The health and contentment of the Company's employees have top priority. All are agreed that the Company must invest in the health of its employees. In this context, good health is understood to be:
… the competence or ability to resolve problems and regulate emotions in such a way that a sense of psychological and physical well-being especially a stable self-esteem and a supporting network of social relations is maintained or restored.
Source: Badura;B. (2010): 32
A company health-care policy contributes towards employee-oriented corporate governance and is therefore an integral part of Outokumpu VDM GmbH's corporate strategy. Healthy and motivated employees are Outokumpu VDM GmbH's most important asset, and they make important contributions to the company's success every single day. Such a situation can only be achieved and maintained where there is mutual respect and recognition.
Our objective for the future is to grasp the demographic change as an opportunity and turn it to good account, recognizing the potential of older employees and thus creating generation-spanning synergies in the field of knowledge management. Modern working life places high demands on employees. Investing in skills, qualifications and health programmes must therefore be accorded top priority so as to counteract the absenteeism and reduced fitness for work resulting from the demographic change. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to find skilled personnel and to adequately prepare both the technical and managerial staff for the person-to-person interfaces that the tasks of the future will involve. Work intensification, increasing stress, and job insecurity in times of change are taking an increasing toll on psychological health. Working against this will be one of the key tasks of Company Health Management. Maintaining an employee-oriented corporate culture, establishing a health-conducive style of leadership, promoting trust in the organization and social networks, keeping a healthy work-life balance, conducting regular employee surveys, training managerial staff and seeking face-to-face dialogue with employees are the tasks linked to a future- and employee-oriented health policy.
The vision of a Company Health Policy as part of the Mission Statement constitutes an essential element of Corporate Health Management. Here, Outokumpu VDM GmbH has committed itself to promoting organizational structures and processes in its Corporate Health Management that make health-conducive behaviour possible for the employees. This is done on the basis of health-conducive job design and organizational development in the context of Corporate Health Management.
"Healthy work in a healthy organization" – this is our claim!
