The Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) presented this week its program of Safe and Healthy Work Environments (ELSSA), a new strategy that seeks to promote a culture of prevention in organizations through the cooperation of government, employers and workers.
Employers can register on the ELSSA platformwhich will offer free self-assessments to detect areas of opportunity in matters of work riskscourses focused on promoting safe work environments, non-punitive advice, access to a network of sports, cultural and training infrastructure, as well as an annual recognition, among other benefits.
The IMSS defined five aspects in which the companies that adhere to the program must self-evaluate, these shed light on the hallmarks of an organization with a good level of occupational risk prevention:
- Prevention of accidents at work in the hands and ankles. It refers to the promotion of the proper use and management of machines and tools, as well as the improvement of work spaces, electrical installations and the handling of dangerous chemical substances.
- Prevention of musculoskeletal disorders in the back. This is the promotion of work environments that favor the identification, analysis, prevention and control of ergonomic risk factors.
- Health surveillance at work. They are the tools that a work center has to identify the impact that the activity and the work environment have on the health and well-being of the workers.
- Psychosocial risk prevention. It is the promotion of favorable organizational environments and compliance with NOM-035 of psychosocial risk factors.
- Health and wellness promotion. The actions that work centers have to promote healthy lifestyles with a focus on healthy eating, physical activity, breastfeeding and mental health.
The self-assessments that the companies that sign up to ELSSA will carry out in these five components will make it possible to identify the organization’s areas of opportunity. To make changes to their internal dynamics, they will have access to CLIMSS support material and courses. The social security authority hopes that the new safe work environment program will help improve the health and well-being of workers, increase the productivity of organizations, prevent the development of work-related illnesses and accidents, and reduce the demand for disabilities and deaths .
“The most important objective of ELSSA is improve health. This intervention is different because it takes and invites employers as a key agent. We recognize that the workplace is an important factor in achieving changes in health habits, so we are working in the environment. Before, we focused on people and told them: you have this condition and you must change”, Mauricio Hernández, director of Economic and Social Benefits of the IMSS, explained in an interview.
Unlike other strategies, explained the official, ELSSA encompasses the entire workforce of the work centers attached to the program, giving greater recognition to the work environment as a determining factor in the health and safety of employees and involving more employers and workers in prevention.
“With this gain in health and new perspective we also hope that increase productivity, because we will also have a healthier workforce, with greater satisfaction, with a better spirit to meet their goals. This is not new, we also have worldwide experience, we have taken up the experiences of the European Union and North America that tell us that for every dollar that is invested in this type of program, companies have a return of up to four dollars”, Mauricio pointed out. Hernandez.
How to obtain the badge?
Among the benefits of the ELSSA program is the delivery of a badge to companies that complete the evaluation and adjustment process, which is obtained with the following steps:
- Sign up for platform with the employer registry
- Register the plants, branches or work centers
- Carry out a self-assessment in five fields
- Certify at least one person as Monitor ELSSA
- register to Monitor ELSSA
- After this, all the work centers of the registered employer registry will obtain the ELSSA badge.
In addition to this recognition, the IMSS foresees other benefits, such as a decrease in the risk premiums of the member companies due to the reduction in their occupational accidents and illnessesas well as an information board where organizations can view disabilities in the workplace and the impact of the strategy on improving the health and well-being of employees.
Added to these benefits is access to the sports and cultural infrastructure of the IMSS and participation in the ELSSA International Congress, a space that will be held every year to discuss old and new problems of health at workas well as to present innovative solutions to these problems.
According to the IMSS, only companies registered with the institute can register with ELSSA. The program is not linked to the continuity of the economic activities of the participating businesses, it is voluntary, and the self-assessments can be presented again after making the modifications. One feature of the platform is that companies can comply in stages with each component of the program.