Flexible working, fewer out-of-hours emails and greater employee control are among the measures researchers say could help prevent work from damaging employees’ health.
Employers should focus more on designing jobs that help people stay healthy, rather than only intervening once employees become unwell, according to researchers behind a new £1.5 million project.
The Creating Healthy Jobs project has produced an online resource identifying 32 features of healthy work across seven areas, including work-life balance, job design, pay, job security and employee voice.
The project comes amid concerns about the impact of work on health, with around 1.8 million UK workers experiencing work-related physical or mental ill health and around 300,000 people leaving the labour market each year with a health condition.
Led by the University of Warwick, the project brings together researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), Cardiff University and the University of Birmingham.
Professor 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 resource sets out practical measures employers can take to create healthier jobs.
These include offering flexible working, planning shifts further in advance, limiting excessive working hours and reducing unnecessary out-of-hours emails.
It also recommends giving employees greater control over their work, opportunities to develop new skills and a meaningful voice in workplace decisions, alongside supportive management, fair pay and greater job security.
Creating opportunities for employees to interact with colleagues and understand how their work benefits customers or service users are also identified as features of healthier work.
Daniels said: “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.”
Moving from individual wellbeing to job design
The research reflects a shift away from placing responsibility for workplace wellbeing primarily on individual employees and towards considering how the structure and conditions of work itself affect health.
The next phase of Creating Healthy Jobs will examine how healthy work differs across sectors, regions and demographic groups, with the aim of helping employers and policymakers understand how job design could support workforce health and help more people remain in employment.
Professor Chris Warhurst, Director of the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick and principal investigator of the project, said: “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.
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