Practices and combinations of practices for health and wellbeing at work

What is the issue?

Although there is evidence supporting the links between workplace health and wellbeing, employee engagement and work performance, we have less evidence to show that single workplace health interventions by themselves improve each of these areas.

New research could consider whether certain combinations of practices are more effective than other combinations, or effective for some types of organisations and not others.

How are we helping?

RAND Europe and the University of East Anglia have been commissioned by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) to explore the factors underpinning the implementation of health and wellbeing practices that foster higher levels of productivity, staff engagement, health and wellbeing in organisations.

A central concept of the research will be to study the interplay between productivity, wellbeing and high quality work — that is work characterised by, for example, workers having a say in how they do their work, clear roles and performance expectations, manageable work demands, supportive co-workers and job security.

Specifically, the project objectives are to:

• Provide answers on which sets/combinations of practices are best implemented, considering for example whether they are more suited to types of individuals or specific organisational contexts;
• Determine how organisations implement health and wellbeing practices that are effective for improving workplace health, wellbeing and indicators of performance;
• Generate actionable knowledge, in the form of tools, briefings, direct engagement with organisations and/or intermediaries and other means of dissemination, to assist organisations in their efforts to improve workplace health, wellbeing and performance.

As part of this effort, we have developed a web compendium of free, evidence-informed workplace wellbeing resources that draws upon cutting edge research and insider insights.

Visit the website

The study includes the use of data from Britain's Healthiest Workplace Survey, a collection of data from over 600 organisations, and will develop the evidence base on how organisations implement different combinations of practices. This will act as both a guide to practice and a basis for further refinement and development in future research.

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