Employee Wellbeing Flashcards
Employee wellbeing definition
Part of wellbeing perceived to be determined and influenced by work and workplace interventions.
Subjective and considers material, social, emotional and developmental dimensions
Measures of employee wellbeing
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale
Satisfaction with Life Scale
HSE Indicator Tool
The Great Place to Work® employee survey
Why is wellbeing important?
9.9 million days lost to stress in 2014/15 (HSE, 2015).
Burnout, depression and reduced performance and absenteeism (McTernan et al., 2013)
Heart disease (Terril, 2012)
EU cost of depression 617 billion euros
Stress Definition
The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work
HSE (2016)
Causes of Stress
HSE, 2016
High demands Lack of control Lack of support Relationship conflict Change Poor work-life balance No development
A disparity between the job requirements and the resources
Theories of Stress approaches
Structural approach:
Focus on specific elements of work and how they interact to result in negative emotional state (demand-control- support model).
Transactional approach:
Focus on psychological mechanisms involved in the process of stress (cognitive appraisal and transactional model of work-stress.
Work-home conflict outcomes
Health: burnout, depression, substance abuse, emotional exhaustion, problem drinking in men
Work: lower satisfaction, performance and commitment, greater turnover and absenteeism
Family: reduced marital and family satisfaction
Role Strain Theory
Greenhaus and Beutell (1985)
Conflict arises from managing work and home life.
Conflict types:
Time based
Strain based
Behaviour based
Time based conflict (role strain theory)
When multiple roles compete for an individual’s time.
E.g. accessing work emails in the evening, when you need to be with family
Strain based conflict (role strain theory)
When strain from one role begins to affect another role.
E.g. work related stress may cause fatigue and anxiety that is taken home
Behaviour based conflict (role strain theory)
When there is an incompatibility of behaviours necessary for two roles.
Conservation of Resources
Hobfoll (1989)
Theory of stress
People seek to acquire and maintain resources.
Loss of resources = stress.
Two principles:
Primacy of resource loss
Resource investment
Resources are depleted when job demands are too high so job cannot be completed.
Primacy of resource loss (COR)
More harmful for individuals to lose resources compared to benefits from gaining them resources
Resource investment (COR)
Hobfoll (1989)
People will invest resources in order to protect against and recover from loss and to gain resources.
Effort-Recovery model
Meijman & Mulder, 1998
Theory of recovery
People need time for the psychobiological systems to return to ‘normal’.
If not = spiral of accumulating fatigue
Recover = removal of demands put on individual
Allostatic Load theory
McEwan, 2006
Theory of recovery
Chronic stress causes accumulative wear and tear on the body.
The stress response fails to switch off.
Minimizes an organism’s ability to cope with uncertainty in the future
Recover = removal of demands put on individual
Passive and active recovery theory
Geurts & Sonnentag, 2006
Theory of recovery.
Recovery after work (external) is necessary when recovery during work (internal) is insufficient.
Long hours and cognitive stress processes (rumination) impeded recovery.
Incomplete recovery = chronic health problems
Benefits of teleworking
Employee-oriented schedule flexibility linked to good work-life balance (Byron, 2005)
Mitigates work-home conflict (Allwn et al, 2013)
Downsides of teleworking
Increased social isolation (Martin & MacDonnell, 2012)
Blurring boundaries leading to poor work-life balance
DWP (2006)
Work good for physical and mental health.
Unemployment associated with lower wellbeing.
Jobs should be safe and accommodating.
Benefits of work outweigh risks of unemployment.
Transactional approach to stress
Considers individual differences.
Stressful stimuli cause different reactions in different people.
Depends on cognitive evaluations of situations and coping resources available.
Differences in coping strategies.
Resilience
The capacity to remain flexible in our thoughts, feelings and behaviours when faced with a life disruption or pressure
Positive Psychology
Positive effect linked to positive outcomes in:
Decision Making Creativity
Broaden and Build theory
Fredrickson (2001)
Positive psych theory of resilience.
Positive emotions broaden awareness and encourage varied and exploratory thoughts/actions.
Over time the broadened behaviour builds skills and resources.
