Organizational Policy Development

Generally speaking, organizations create two types of policies. Organizations construct policies relating to their core activities: that is, the ways in which they provide added value to markets and societies. On the other hand, organizations also construct policies relating to their own internal structure and operations, most notably in regards to the work climate and conditions of employees. Both levels of organizational policymaking can have an important influence on human health.

Commers Health Consulting helps organizations improve the net health value of policies in both the core activities and internal organizational spheres. By refining, informing, and supporting the evolution of policy relating to clients’ core activities, Commers Health Consulting helps position organizations to create more net gain for health while in many cases providing more added value to those they serve. At the same time, by helping clients achieve health-supporting work climates and conditions, Commers Health Consulting helps clients protect and promote health among employees.

Often, clients find that important justifications exist for thinking about the health consequences of organizational policies. On the core activities side, civil society organizations are often concerned with fulfilling a socially-responsible mandate. Within the commercial sector, businesses hope to show that they not only benefit societies by paying wages and taxes, but take the health consequences of their profit-generating activities into account. Within the internal organizational sphere, both civil society organizations recognize the mutual interdependence of the productive capacity of an organization and the health of employees. Businesses understand that profits, both short- and long-term, are dependent on employees’ health, not the least because in a changing economy, innovation requires mental health.

Commers Health Consulting has provided organizational policy development assistance to such clients as the Pepijn en Paulus Foundation, Echt, The Netherlands, a foundation with over 900 employees providing services to over 1500 patients in the South Limburg region.