Expert view: Organisational psychologist Rachel Lewis on the role of well-designed jobs in health
For most organisations, a wellbeing strategy and programme will involve three types of intervention – those focused on health promotion (eg, gym membership and smoking cessation interventions); those to support employees who are struggling (eg, employee assistance programmes and health insurance); and those to enable employees to cope better at work (eg, yoga sessions and mental health first aid).
Although these are all vital as part of an organisational wellbeing strategy, evidence suggests that also looking at integrating prevention into your wellbeing strategy will yield more positive outcomes, including a stronger return on investment.
Despite this, preventative strategies to support and manage wellbeing are not yet commonplace. These boost mental health and wellbeing at work by providing well designed jobs and healthy working environments.
Decades of research has identified those aspects of work most likely to sabotage mental health and wellbeing (often called psychosocial hazards), therefore revealing areas where organisations can improve. These include perceptions of demands, such as workload and time pressure, control and autonomy, and perceived equity and justice.
It is often hard to know where to start when integrating prevention into wellbeing strategies. To begin, here are my top three evidence-based tips:
1. Analyse and discover. Use data to discover how work is perceived by your employees, enabling you to focus on addressing those aspects of work that may present wellbeing risks and those groups most in need of support– and enhancing those aspects of work shown to increase and support wellbeing. This could involve looking at existing data (such as your staff survey or exit interviews) or conducting a wellbeing survey or audit.
2. Focus on increasing flexibility. One of the most common requests by employees since the pandemic is not for monetary rewards but increased flexibility. Consider how you could enhance perceptions of autonomy through your flexibility offering. This could be through hybrid or homeworking, but also include increased choice of rewards and benefits, variable annual leave offerings (such as mental health days) or choice over working hours and shifts.
3. Reflect on the equity of your reward and benefits offerings. Our research shows that many reward and benefit offerings are not equally accessible to underrepresented or marginalised groups – for instance, because of language differences, shift working or deskless working. Consult with diverse voices to improve the equity of your offering.
By incorporating preventative strategies, organisations can foster supportive and healthy work environments that address the root causes of wellbeing challenges, ultimately yielding longer-term benefits for both employees and the organisation.
