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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2013

Gen Barron

Medtronic needed a comprehensive, integrated, measurable and global approach to employee wellness. Its primary focus was putting the critical factors of prevention and early…

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Abstract

Purpose

Medtronic needed a comprehensive, integrated, measurable and global approach to employee wellness. Its primary focus was putting the critical factors of prevention and early detection at the forefront of its employee health rewards. The ability to monitor and measure health and wellbeing across the organization was also vital in giving Medtronic key insight, through analytics, into the impact that employee health had on the business. This paper aims to examine this approach.

Design/methodology/approach

Medtronic's Total Health global employee wellness brand focused on investing in health rather than the cost of treatment and improving employee health through behavior change. Seeing that the web was critical to delivery and collection of information in this environment it sought an online health and wellbeing platform with the capability to be deployed globally.

Findings

Initial health assessments conducted through the online platform have provided essential baseline data to understand overall global health trends as well as territory specific differences and priorities. Medtronic has been able to establish an average employee health score. Digging deeper it has noted priority health indicators for global employees based on the number who are recorded to be “at risk” in each case.

Originality/value

Successful use of analytics and web‐based tools has helped Medtronic accelerate towards its vision of personalized, consistent wellbeing support for all employees. It now has greater insight into their health status to define the right strategy, and the tools to drive targeted initiatives where they are needed.

Details

Strategic HR Review, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-4398

Keywords

Abstract

Details

The Healthy Workforce
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-499-1

Article
Publication date: 3 November 2023

Brian Gregory and K. Nathan Moates

The purpose of this research is to more deeply understand how stress impacts the physical and mental health of employees and what management can do to attenuate the impact of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to more deeply understand how stress impacts the physical and mental health of employees and what management can do to attenuate the impact of stress on employee health. While the relationship between stress and employee health has received some empirical support in the literature (e.g. Cooper and Cartwright, 1994), less is known about workplace variables that may mitigate the negative effects of stress on health. This study aims to contribute to the literature by exploring three important workplace variables that could lessen the negative effects of stress on health.

Design/methodology/approach

A diverse group of employees from two healthcare organizations in the United States of America were surveyed about their work environments, job stress, mental health and physical health. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to investigate three unique workplace mitigators of the stress-health relationship.

Findings

Results support perceived organizational support, procedural justice and managerial perspective-taking as variables that serve to make individuals hardier to the health consequences of stressful work. However, different moderating processes seem to account for mental health (perceived organizational support) and physical health (perspective-taking), while procedural justice mitigates the effect of stress on both mental and physical health.

Originality/value

This study contributes to an enhanced understanding of the relationships between stress and mental and physical health in the workplace. In particular, three workplace factors associated with managerial practices were identified that organizations can utilize to protect employees from the negative health consequences of stressful work. These findings can assist managers and organizations who are interested in improving employee health.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2023

Natalie Martin, Maria Brann and Elizabeth Goering

A culture of health within an organization offers benefits such as managing healthcare costs and supporting employees in becoming and staying healthy. This study aims to identify…

Abstract

Purpose

A culture of health within an organization offers benefits such as managing healthcare costs and supporting employees in becoming and staying healthy. This study aims to identify successful organization's strategies utilized to socialize employees into a culture of health.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 representatives from organizations recognized for their success in creating a culture of health. Grounded theory analysis of collected data was used to identify themes related to the goals of this study.

Findings

New employees are socialized into the culture of health during the recruitment process, at new employee orientation and throughout the early employment period. Existing employees are also continually socialized using a variety of on-going communication strategies. This process is consistent with Jablin's organizational assimilation model, and this study offers the opportunity to use this model to help understand organizational health.

Practical implications

Organizations desiring to create a culture of health can support this culture by incorporating socialization strategies into the recruitment, hiring and new employee on-boarding process.

Originality/value

Though strategies have been shown to be helpful in socializing new employees into organizations, limited research has explored the relationship between socialization and a culture of health. Results from this study offer insight into how organizations that have been recognized for their success in creating a culture of health socialize new and existing employees to create and maintain a culture that supports health and well-being. Also, this study applies socialization theories to health within the workplace, offering new insights both theoretically and practically.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 16 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2023

Charlotte Brøgger Bond, Mette Jensen Stochkendahl, Karen Søgaard and Lotte Nygaard Andersen

Health ambassadors are co-workers assigned to facilitate healthy choices amongst the ambassadors'' colleagues and are increasingly used in workplace health promotion. In a…

Abstract

Purpose

Health ambassadors are co-workers assigned to facilitate healthy choices amongst the ambassadors'' colleagues and are increasingly used in workplace health promotion. In a municipality in the southern region of Denmark, occupational health and safety (OHS) representatives were appointed as health ambassadors to facilitate the development of healthy lifestyle initiatives at the ambassadors' workplace and the uptake of various health offers from the municipality's workplace health programme amongst the ambassadors' colleagues. The aim of this study was to understand how employees and managers from the municipality experienced the health ambassador-facilitated implementation of the health programme.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was designed as an interview study with (n = 13) semi-structured interviews. Using purposeful sampling, the authors invited participants who held different positions (e.g. managers and regular employees) on two different work teams in the municipality. The work teams (a construction team and a healthcare team) differed in gender profile and work tasks but were both categorised as physically heavy work. Malterud's systematic text condensation was used to devise the strategy for the analysis.

Findings

The authors' findings show that the employees considered health a private matter that the workplace should not interfere with, and this challenged the implementation of the health programme. Secondly, the health ambassadors were not properly trained to facilitate health initiatives amongst the ambassadors' colleagues; instead, the managers were the driving force in the implementation of health initiatives.

Originality/value

The study provides useful insights into the processes of implementing health in the workplace and emphasises the importance of involving employees in design and planning of initiatives for workplace health promotion.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2017

Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to…

Abstract

Purpose

Most workplace health promotion efforts have failed to consistently and sustainably encourage employees to take responsibility for their health. The purpose of this paper is to explore a potentially high-impact solution – Health Codes of Conduct – for engaging and motivating employees to assume responsibility for their health.

Design/methodology/approach

This mixed methods study draws on interview and survey methodology with a sample of 149 working adults to examine the feasibility of Health Codes of Conduct. Descriptive and inferential statistics are calculated to understand reactions, characteristics of the companies likely to support the idea, and components of a Health Code of Conduct.

Findings

Nearly all employees offered moderate to high support for Health Codes of Conduct; this included overweight but not obese employees. Additionally, all demographic groups either moderately or strongly supported the policy when they included either monetary incentives (such as prescription discounts) or often overlooked non-monetary incentives (such as employee recognition). Some of the more popular features of Health Codes of Conduct included annual physical exams, exercise routines, and simply being encouraged to stay home when ill.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to propose the concept of Health Codes of Conduct and solicit feedback from employees on this novel idea. Furthermore, the authors identify both the monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives that employees believe would be most compelling.

Details

Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-0734

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2018

Philipp Wolfgang Lichtenthaler and Andrea Fischbach

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the effects of top-down leadership and employees’ bottom-up job crafting behaviors on employee health and performance. The authors…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the effects of top-down leadership and employees’ bottom-up job crafting behaviors on employee health and performance. The authors expected that employees’ promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting act as intervening mechanisms linking top-down employee-oriented leadership with employee health and performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Multi-source data were collected among n=117 independent employee-leader dyads.

Findings

Promotion-focused job crafting was positively and prevention-focused job crafting was negatively related to employeeshealth and performance. Employee-oriented leadership was positively related to promotion-focused job crafting but unrelated to prevention-focused job crafting. Employee-oriented leadership was indirectly related to health and performance through promotion-focused job crafting. Moreover, promotion-focused job crafting had the strongest positive impact on adaptive performance, followed by proactive and then task performance, while prevention-focused job crafting had the strongest negative impact on task performance followed by proactive and then adaptive performance.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the cross-sectional study design, results reveal how employee-oriented leadership is related to employee health and performance through promotion-focused job crafting.

Practical implications

Organizations need employee-oriented leaders, who facilitate promotion-focused job crafting, which helps employees to perform well while staying well.

Originality/value

This study adds to the literatures on job crafting, leadership, and employee health and performance by explicating intervening processes in these relationships. It adds to research on the extended job demands-resources job crafting model by showing, that promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting has different relationships with antecedents (i.e. leadership) and outcomes (i.e. health and performance).

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 39 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 August 2019

Jennifer Hall, Tess Kay, Alison K. McConnell and Louise Mansfield

Prolonged workplace sitting can harm employee health. Sit-stand desks are a potential workplace health initiative that might reduce and break up the time office-based employees

Abstract

Purpose

Prolonged workplace sitting can harm employee health. Sit-stand desks are a potential workplace health initiative that might reduce and break up the time office-based employees spend sitting in the workplace. However, little is known about the feasibility and acceptability of providing sit-stand desks. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study sought stakeholder employee views surrounding sit-stand desk implementation within two UK-based non-profit organisations with open-plan offices. This paper draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 26 stakeholder employees and 65 days of participant observations. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, and organisational cultural theory framed the study.

Findings

Stakeholders employees’ positioning of sit-stand desks as a workplace health initiative reflected their perceptions of the relationship between sit-stand desk provision, employee health and organisational effectiveness. Perceptions were shaped by the nature and context of the organisation and by occupation-specific processes. Relatively fixed (e.g. organisational structure) and modifiable (e.g. selecting products compatible with the environment) factors were found to restrict and facilitate the perceived feasibility of implementing sit-stand desks.

Practical implications

The findings offer several recommendations for workplaces to improve stakeholder employee attitudes towards sit-stand desk provision and to increase the ease and efficiency of implementation.

Originality/value

Whilst extant literature has tended to examine hypothetical views related to sit-stand desk provision, this study consulted relevant stakeholders following, and regarding, the sit-stand desk implementation process.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 12 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2021

Liping Liu, Chunyu Zhang and Chih-Cheng Fang

Employee health is a major challenge for enterprises. Fostering a healthy work environment and promoting employee engagement are key to addressing this challenge. Health-promoting…

1001

Abstract

Purpose

Employee health is a major challenge for enterprises. Fostering a healthy work environment and promoting employee engagement are key to addressing this challenge. Health-promoting leadership and employee health are the driving forces of corporate development; at the same time, employability is the core element of employee relations. Based on self-determination theory, this study aims to explore the effects of health-promoting leadership and employee health on employee engagement in light of employee employability.

Design/methodology/approach

The data of this study encompass 723 valid questionnaires from employees of MSME in China. This study focuses on health-promoting leadership and employee health, engagement relationship and the above relationship moderating by employability.

Findings

Health-promoting leadership plays a key role in the workplace, results show that health-promoting leadership has a positive impact on employee health and employee engagement, while employee health did not have a positive effect on employee engagement. Employability negatively moderated the relationship between employee health and employee engagement.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on cross-sectional survey data collected at the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic rapidly and continuously changed the organizational responses to employee health. Future studies could utilize longitudinal methods or focus on measurement instruments of the culture of health, to create additional insights about health promoting.

Originality/value

This study adds important knowledge regarding health-promoting leadership and employee health in Chinese MSMEs, an area for which limited research exists. The findings provide insights and knowledge about health-promoting leadership how to affect employee health and to improve engagement outcomes. The findings also identify the moderating role of employability.

Details

International Journal of Workplace Health Management, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8351

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 July 2020

Praveen Kumar Sharma and Rajeev Kumra

Workplace spirituality is presently a prominent research topic and is gaining recognition and importance among industry professionals and academicians. Workplace spirituality is…

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Abstract

Purpose

Workplace spirituality is presently a prominent research topic and is gaining recognition and importance among industry professionals and academicians. Workplace spirituality is defined as a sense of community, meaningful work and organizational values. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the relationship between workplace spirituality and mental health, wherein employee engagement is considered as a mediator. Furthermore, this study examines the mediating role of employee engagement in the relationship between organizational justice and mental health.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered from 344 information technology professionals working in India. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the model fit of workplace spirituality and its relationship to employee engagement, organizational justice and mental health.

Findings

The results revealed that workplace spirituality and organizational justice significantly and positively predict employee engagement, which is significantly related to employee mental health. The results also revealed that employee engagement significantly partially mediates the relationship between workplace spirituality and mental health as well as the relationship between organizational justice and mental health.

Research limitations/implications

Results of research guide HR professionals, employee mental health concerns can be addressed by promoting workplace spirituality, improving employee engagement strategies and implementing organizational justice policies that are perceived to be fair. This study makes a significant contribution to the extant literature regarding mental health issues in the IT sector.

Originality/value

Findings of this research contribute to the area of human resource management and employee engagement. The current study fills a gap in the extant literature by investigating employee engagement intervening mechanism between organizational justice, workplace spirituality and mental health.

Details

Journal of Advances in Management Research, vol. 17 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0972-7981

Keywords

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