The Future of Work: The Role of Well-being
For decades we have learned the importance of the workplace and its impact on our daily lives. COVID has brought these issues to the surface as we adapt to changing workplaces and working conditions. We have seen a call-to-action focusing on areas of mental health and addressing burnout as workers navigate the blurred lines between work and home lives. It has been reported that nearly half of workers said mental health issues have impacted them since the start of the pandemic.
We have also seen the existence of supportive leadership and supervisor engagement to be related to well-being and job satisfaction for employees; even during these times that have been referred to as “the great resignation” with employees feeling overwhelmed and burned out.
Leading organizations also prioritize the importance of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion on a systematic level. This prioritization helps to create anti-racist workplaces and a no-tolerance policy of discrimination in the workplace, as well as to provide inclusive opportunities and advancements for employees at every level of the organization, all of which further employee well-being.
The pandemic has furthered the development of flexible workplace environments in many industries. Whether work is remote or not, full-time or part-time, research informs us that giving employees a level of autonomy and flexibility to schedule their own time off to meet personal needs can create a positive and productive workplace.
Allowing your workforce to manage their work-life needs, such as scheduling medical appointments or caring for a sick family member, benefits employees, and employers. An Inc.com article highlighted that over 50% of employees who participated in a Mental Health America (MHA) survey were afraid to take time off to take care of their mental health.
Occupational health and safety researchers and practitioners and human resource professionals have identified topics and areas related to the future of work and well-being.
Here are some emerging topics and programs to consider adding to your workplace strategies that can support the future of work and the safety, health, and well-being of workers:
Total Worker Health®
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines Total Worker Health® as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from worker-related safety, and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness-prevention efforts to advance worker well-being. Total Worker Health (TWH) is an approach and holistic model that takes into account organizational factors impacting workforce well-being. These areas include healthy work design, leadership and employee training, and development, as well as preventing injuries and illnesses among the workforce.
NIOSH has funded ten Centers of Excellence for Total Worker Health®. The Centers engage in related research and practice to advance knowledge and research to keep workers safe, healthy, and well for a productive workforce. The Centers each offer multidisciplinary efforts and engage in TWH research projects, outreach, and educational opportunities. The ten NIOSH Centers of Excellence include:
— California Labor Laboratory
— Carolina Center for Total Worker Health® and Well-being
— Center for Health, Work & Environment
— Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace
— Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center for Work, Health and Well-being
— Healthier Workforce Center of the Midwest
— Johns Hopkins P.O.E. Total Worker Health® Center in Mental Health
— Oregon Healthy Workforce Center
— The University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Healthy Work
— Utah Center for Promotion of Work Equity
NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ)
The NIOSH WellBQ was developed by NIOSH and the RAND Corporation to provide an opportunity to analyze worker well-being. The questionnaire states that it focuses on measuring “worker well-being across multiple, including individuals’ quality of working life, circumstances outside of work, and physical and mental health status.” WellBQ assesses 5 domains and measures well-being through workplace evaluation and experience, workplace policies and culture, workplace physical environment and safety climate, health status, as well as home, community, and society. The NIOSH WellBQ includes an implementation guide with the questionnaire to administer.
Leadership and Manager Training and Development
Studies demonstrate that increasing supervisor and peer support, and decreasing job strain can play a key role in safety practices and improved physical and mental health in the workplace. Supervisors and managers that actively role model safe and healthy practices, as well as support work-life balance for their employees can help promote a culture of safety, health, and well-being practices. Research has shown that supervisors and managers that participated in safety and health training, activities to self-monitor their engagement to support workers in work-life challenges, in addition to discussions around making their workplaces processes more efficient are shown to improve the overall well-being of the workforce.
Occupational and safety professionals incorporate well-being in their practices
The first international standards (ISO) in occupational safety and health management address psychological health and safety at work. ISO 45003 addresses areas that previous occupational safety and health could not meet, such as psychological health relating to poor leadership and organizational culture, poor communication, and excessive pressure in the workplace. ISO or the International Organization for Standards is a global network with representatives from different national standards organizations focused on the organizational development of worldwide technical, industrial, and commercial standards. Additionally, professional associations in safety such as the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) are engaging their members to engage and develop a workplace culture to normalize the discussion around mental health and well-being, as well as TWH.
Human Resources prioritize employee mental health
The HR community emphasizes the value of implementing resilience and well-being strategies in their workforce. Industry surveys have found that stress and burnout are the highest reported mental health concerns during the pandemic and that only “3 in 10 surveyed employers stated their well-being and caregiving programs effectively supported employees.” The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) foundation shares strategies to improve health and employee well-being, including focusing on benefit programs targeting child or elder care, and opportunities for paid time off and flexible work.
The aging workforce
The U.S. Bureau of Statistics reports that 1 in 5 working Americans are over the age of 65. The National Center for Productive Aging and Work (NCPAW) are researching different health and safety outcomes this working population faces such as chronic conditions (i.e. arthritis and hypertension), safety (older workers face fewer injuries due to experience on the job), and benefits of an age-friendly workforce (lower levels of stress at work, institutional knowledge, and more cautious on the job). NCPAW promotes productive aging and the well-being of the older workforce. Putting strategies in place to accommodate an aging working population is key to ensuring practices and policies accommodate all working-age groups.
Strategic Foresight for occupational safety and health
This newer NIOSH focuses its studies by looking at the future to prepare for different scenarios that could help identify early signs of change or weakness and prepare for events and trends through predictive models and frameworks. This proactive planning can anticipate different future scenarios and has been practiced for decades by the military, public policymaking, business development, and emergency preparedness. There are six states of planning in the Strategic Foresight Framework: Framing, Scanning, Futuring, Visioning, Designing, and Monitory. Learn more about the Strategic Foresight on NIOSH’S Science Blog.
NIOSH’S Future of Work research
NIOSH’s Future of Work research focuses on the intersections of the workplace and the workforce. The goals to meet NIOSH’s Future of Work initiatives and priority topics include:
— Performing, compiling, and synthesizing studies on the future of work.
— Featuring current research and raising awareness about research projects related to the future of work.
— Promoting research among new industries, technologies, organizational designs, job arrangements, automation, ways to control risk, and other workplaces.
— Monitoring changes and connecting trends in the workplace, work, and workforce to prepare for the future.
Among all of this, in the occupational health and safety world, a stream of discussions has focused on work as a social determinant of health. Dr. Brad Wipfli and co-authors of an article in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine discusses, “The workplace also drives health inequities through characteristics like job demands, benefits, compensation, access to healthcare, power/prestige, social networks, exposure to hazards, and more. Occupational risks and benefits interact and accumulate over time.”
Moving forward as we look into the future of work, a focus on addressing the gaps of well-being research is critical to help workplaces improve workplace culture, in addition to engaging and retaining our workforce.
Article by: Helen Schuckers, MPH, Dissemination Specialist and Research Associate at Oregon Healthy Workforce Center and Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU. Visit our workplace safety, health, and well-being resource at YourWorkpath.com.
This work was supported by the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Total Worker Health® Center of Excellence [grant number U19OH010154]. This work was also partly supported by the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at Oregon Health & Science University via funds from the Division of Consumer and Business Services of the State of Oregon (ORS 656.630).
Total Worker Health® is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Participation by Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (OHWC) does not imply endorsement by HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. OHWC is housed within the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU, Grant: NIOSHU190H010154.
