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The purpose of this paper is to deepen conceptual understanding of how employee wellbeing is identified and categorised in the workplace, and how management information is used to target workplace interventions.

This is a conceptual paper reviewing and discussing contemporary literature and practice, with a focus on themes congruent with employee needs and organisational intervention options in relation to wellbeing. This paper considers wellbeing in the context of police work in the UK, and how a framework can help those charged with leading to understand and act in the interest of both the employee and the organisation.

This paper suggests that the use of an appropriate strategic HR model, such as the General Analysis, Interventions and Needs (GAIN) pyramid (Hesketh and Rhodes, 2015), can assist organisations to develop practical categories and metrics to illustrate employee status in relation to wellbeing.

The arguments posed provide opportunities for practitioners to use workforce-modelling tools that assist in identifying, categorising and targeting wellbeing interventions in the workplace.

This paper highlights that identifying, categorising and prioritising wellbeing interventions in the workplace has hitherto received little academic attention. This paper contributes by providing a greater practical insight into what may work, which is important for leaders in all organisations, particularly those trying to maintain operational performance whilst undergoing programmes of change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that psychological screening and surveillance can take in improving the delivery of psychological support to emergency service responders (ESRs) at a time of increasing demands and complexity.

The study aims to present and discuss the use of psychological screening and surveillance of trauma exposed emergency service workers.

The evidence supports the use of psychological screening and surveillance using appropriate validated questionnaires and surveys.

The findings suggest that emergency services should be using psychological screening and surveillance of ESRs in roles where there is high exposure to traumatic stress.

These findings will help emergency service organisations to recognise how psychological screening and surveillance can be used as part of a wider programme of well-being support. This approach can also help them meet their legal health and safety obligations to protect the psychological health and well-being of their ESRs.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a fatigue-management training and sleep health promotion intervention in a sample of officers from UK Home Office Police Forces.

Using a pre- and post-design we exposed 50 officers from selected UK police forces to a fatigue-management training intervention. Pre- and post-intervention data collection included wrist actigraphy, a physiological and objective measure of sleep quantity and quality, as well as surveys including the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) instrument, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the PTSD Checklist (PCL-5).

We found the training significantly increased sleep quantity by 25 min per 24-h period, from 6.9 h to 7.3 h (f = 9.2; df = 519; p = 0.003), and improved sleep quality scores from 84% before the intervention, to 87% after the training (f = 10.6; df = 519; p = 0.001).

Continued research is necessary to guide nationwide implementation of fatigue-management and sleep health promotion programs.

Our findings show that a fatigue-management training resulted in a significant and meaningful increase in sleep among police officers.

This is the first piece of research to emerge from a full population survey (response rate 16.6%) of the UK police service exploring issues of sleep and fatigue.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and report how the construct of “Well-being” is being recognised within the public services. Using research conducted in a northern provincial police force in the UK the paper explores the issues that may contribute to sickness absence, presenteeism and leaveism; a recently described manifestation of workload overload. As sweeping public sector reform results in reduced workforce and potentially static demand, the question asked here is, “how do organisations adapt to the shifting landscape and retain employee engagement in the workplace?”

The study used A Short Stress Evaluation Tool to assess the risk of stress in the workforce. The questionnaire employed an online self-administered survey and collected data from 155 respondents on stress perceptions, health, attitude towards the organisation, job satisfaction and commitment to the organisation.

Sickness absence figures receive detailed attention when it comes to managing employees, but they may not represent a reliable picture. In this study one-third of respondents indicated that they had taken leave when they had actually been ill or injured; leaveism. The concept of leaveism does not currently appear within sickness absence reporting mechanisms, and the authors would suggest that the omission of this concept leaves a lacuna in current thinking that may have significant impact on both individual and organisational performance.

This research clearly shows that the issue of leaveism is a valid concept and has potentially far-reaching consequences. This study has only touched on the first (of three) of the leaveism behaviours and is conducted solely in a policing environment (although non-warranted employees are included in the research cohort). Further research could include attempts to quantify elements two and three of leaveism, and explore to what extent these may impact on organisations undergoing public sector reform.

Previous studies have highlighted the negative health effects on “stayers” in public sector downsizing exercises. This in turn raises the question of just how these “survivors” cope with the new regime; with potentially more work and less pay. The authors ask what behaviour cuts of this magnitude will eventually drive when the dust settles? As a consequence could the authors see an end to the practice of leaveism? In which case the authors could make the assumption that (in its first form) it may convert to sickness absenteeism? With a third of people surveyed conceding to the practice, this has far-reaching consequences. In comparison to presenteeism, which has no overt costs, this scenario presents an entirely different fiscal proposition.

Leaveism, a recently described and under researched phenomenon, is a hidden source of potential abstractions from the workplace, and could impact enormously on organisational effectiveness. The motivation for the practice is unclear, and could be a manifestation of loyalty, enjoyment or duty. It could also be construed as a reaction to fear of job loss, redundancy or down grade. Whatever the underlying reason this study clearly illustrates the potentially harmful consequences to (public sector) organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to deepen conceptual understanding of the spiritual components of resilience.

A conceptual paper drawing on research the authors have been conducting on resilience within the police community for a combined period of over half-a-century.

A more holistic conceptualisation of resilience and particularly a more detailed and accurate picture of the spiritual aspects to resilience which is applicable to a wide variety of public and private sector leadership situations, not just those within the police.

The paper provides an increased appreciation of resilience which the authors hope will lead to more practical research in this area, with the longer term goal being to impact positively on practical workplace issues of major current concern in a wide variety of workplaces across the world.

The paper's contribution is to promote the importance of resilience, provide a greater theoretical understanding of holistic perspectives of resilience and further develop the spiritual component of resilience. This contribution is important because many leaders currently have a limited appreciation of all the aspects of resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of first-generation college graduates in the USA, as they transitioned from higher education into employment in the private sector. First-generation college graduates are from families in which neither parent had a bachelor’s degree.

This paper used phenomenology to gain an understanding of the transition experiences of first-generation college graduates employed within the corporate sector.

First-generation status influences the experiences of students beyond college and limits their awareness of and access to graduate employment. Lack of college education in the family affects the graduates’ career decision-making, familiarity with corporate culture and expectations, preparedness for the corporate sector and restricted access to people with the ability to ease their entry into the sector. These translate into transition outcomes such as starting at entry-level positions not requiring a college degree, delayed access to graduate-level positions, having to engage intentionally in additional efforts to reach graduate-level positions and potential to be discriminated against during the recruitment process, albeit unintentionally.

Is first-generation status yet another structural contextual factor that influences career decision self-efficacy? Is the influence of FG status common across sectors? Longitudinal studies need to be conducted across sectors, regions and countries.

There is a need to sensitize faculty and career service staff to career-related challenges of first-generation students and for programs and policies that increase awareness of these students regarding professional environments and expectations. There are social justice implications for recruitment strategies and overcoming discrimination.

This paper explored first-generation college graduates’ experiences, an issue hitherto not explored in depth.