The employer’s role in creating a healthy lifestyle – expectations of the millennial generations

Abstract

The quality of life, meaning the degree of human’s satisfaction derived from the whole of the existence, involves both – the private and professional spheres of life. One of the most important determinants of the quality of life is health, which in more than 50% depends on the person’s lifestyle. Due to the fact that lifestyle is a result of individual actions undertaken by the individual and its home and work environment, it is assumed that one of the employer’s tasks is shaping pro-health behaviors. Promoting healthy lifestyles is particularly important for young people who are just entering adulthood. Those people, also known as Millennials, go to school and work simultaneously. As a consequence, young people’s health awareness is not only parents, teachers or school nurses’ matter to teach anymore, but also employers’ from whom young people gain first work experiences. It needs to be indicated that empirical studies prove that representatives of the Millennium generation are characterized by unhygienic lifestyles and the need for services that shape a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of this paper is to identify the expectations of youngsters (representatives of Millennium generations) regarding the role of employers in shaping a healthy lifestyle. The article consists of theoretical and empirical sections. Theoretical parts were based on literature, which include publications devoted to a healthy lifestyle, health promotion in the workplace, and the characteristics of Millennial generations. The empirical part of the paper contains the results of the author’s our own research conducted in 2017 among representatives of the Millennium generations. The results show that young people do not manifest healthy behaviors. At the same time, they expect from their employers to promote healthy lifestyle.