£1.5 million project tackles Britain's workplace health crisis
By: Communications
Fewer late-night emails and greater flexibility at work could help keep millions of people healthier, according to experts at the University of East Anglia.
Around 1.8 million UK workers experience poor mental or physical health because of their jobs, while around 300,000 people leave the labour market each year with a health condition.
Rather than focusing on how to keep people working when they become ill, researchers looked at how employers could create jobs that help people stay healthy in the first place.
Now, they have created a blueprint of simple but potentially transformative measures to help employers create healthier jobs - including flexible working, fair pay, greater job security and a stronger employee voice.
The online resource forms part of the Creating Healthy Jobs project - a £1.5 million initiative to explore how better job design could improve the nation’s health, reduce inequalities and help more people remain in work.
The project is led by the University of Warwick and brings together researchers from UEA, Cardiff University and the University of Birmingham.
Prof Kevin Daniels, from UEA’s Norwich Business School, said: "Work should be good for your health, not bad for it.
"For too long we've focused on fixing workers when they become unwell, rather than fixing the jobs that may be making them unwell in the first place.
"The challenge isn't simply keeping people in work. It's creating work that keeps people healthy."
What makes a healthy job?
Drawing on research, policy and workplace evidence, the online resource identifies 32 features of healthy work across seven areas, ranging from work-life balance and job design to pay, job security and employee voice.
Recommendations include flexible working, planning shifts in advance, limiting excessive working hours, reducing unnecessary out-of-hours emails, creating opportunities for staff to interact with each other, see how their work improves the lives of customers and how to improve how the work is done.
The resource also highlights the importance of giving employees more control over their work, opportunities to develop new skills, supportive management, fair pay, secure employment and a meaningful voice in workplace decisions.
Prof Daniels added: "A healthy job is about more than avoiding injury. It means giving people greater control over their work, supporting a healthy work-life balance and creating a culture where they feel valued and respected.
"Simple steps such as flexible working, better shift-planning, limiting excessive hours and reducing out-of-hours emails can make a real difference to wellbeing.
"By creating healthier jobs, employers can improve productivity while helping people stay healthier for longer."
What's next?
The next phase of the project will explore how healthy jobs vary across sectors, regions and demographic groups, helping employers and policymakers better understand how healthier work can improve workforce health.
The team hope their findings will provide employers and policymakers with a practical roadmap for creating healthier, more sustainable jobs across the UK.
Prof Chris Warhurst, Director of the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick and principal investigator of the project, said: "The high rate and cost of job-related ill health have been described as a national crisis.
"What matters is finding the tipping point between jobs that are bad or good for health. Let's not only debate how we keep people working, but how work can keep people healthy too.
"By understanding what makes work healthy, we can help employers and policymakers create jobs that support both wellbeing and long-term economic prosperity."
Creating Healthy Jobs is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through its Work and Health Research Initiative.
For more information, visit the Healthy Jobs Framework.
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