Beneficial effects on employment and preventive health care: the concept and results of counselling processes from a German project.

Since December 1998 a project of working time counselling named "Design of Modern Working Times" is supported by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and the European Union; AWiS-consult is entrusted to carry out this project. The service offered to all companies, institutions, work committees, and employees interested covers information, assessment of existing working time schedules, development of alternative or new working time schedules, and accompanying implementation processes. Up to June 2001 nearly 300 inquiries were worked on, most of them from industry, service companies, and from the field of care and hospitals. Working time design in this project aims not only at work safety and health care but also at beneficial effects on employment. In a special campaign from May 2000 to May 2001, 61 companies were supported by AWiS-consult, with the result of more than 400 new employees and 16 companies with employment secured, so the combination of preventive health care and beneficial effects on employment by working time design can be assessed as successful.