Additional Resources

Abstract illustration of people connected like petals of a flower in multiple colors

Publications 

 

Fox, K. E., Johnson, S. T., Berkman, L. F., Sianoja, M., Soh, Y., Kubzansky, L. D., & Kelly, E. L. (2021). Organisational- and group-level workplace interventions and their effect on multiple domains of worker well-being: A systematic review. Work & Stress, 0(0), 1–30. doi:10.1080/02678373.2021.1969476 

Lovejoy, M., Kelly, E. L., Kubzansky, L. D., & Berkman, L. F. (2021). Work Redesign for the 21st Century: Promising Strategies for Enhancing Worker Well-Being. American Journal of Public Health, e1–e9. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2021.306283

Kelly, E. L., Berkman, L. F., Kubzansky, L. D., Lovejoy, M. (Oct. 12, 2021). 7 Strategies to Improve Your Employees’ Health and Well-Being. Havard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2021/10/7-strategies-to-improve-your-employees-health-and-well-being?ab=hero-subleft-1

Kelly, E. L., (1/13/2022). Companies need to confront how work conditions affect the well-being of their employees. FastCompany, https://www.fastcompany.com/90712607/companies-need-to-confront-how-work-conditions-affect-the-well-being-of-their-employees

Kelly, E. L., (1/20/2022). Happier, Healthier, Hybrid: MIT Research Finds Hybrid Work Schedules Promote Employee Well-being. Staffing.com, https://www.staffing.com/hybrid-work-schedule-benefits/

 

Assessment Tools 

 

Well-Being Measures at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. These website pages serve as a repository of validated well-being and resilience scales and indices including objective, subjective, and workplace well-being measures.  

What Works Wellbeing Question Bank – A bank of validated questions from What Works Wellbeing that can be used by employers to measure employee well-being; includes advice on choosing questions, adapting the questions or response scales, and understanding survey results. 

Employee Wellbeing Snapshot Survey – A short, 13-question survey from What Works Wellbeing that is intended to capture a snapshot of employee wellbeing at regular intervals. 

Good Jobs Scorecard – A tool from the Good Jobs Institute that assesses your company’s performance by examining the experience of your employees and customers as well as operational metrics. 

Workplace Integrated Safety and Health (WISH) Assessment – An assessment tool from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Center for Work, Health & Well-Being that measures workplace policies and practices that focus on working conditions and worker health. 

NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (NIOSH WellBQ) – A questionnaire from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that covers multiple spheres, including individuals’ quality of working life, circumstances outside of work, and physical and mental health status. Among other applications, the NIOSH WellBQ is intended to help researchers, employers, workers, practitioners, and policymakers target interventions to improve worker well-being.

 

Webinars

Work Redesign for the 21st Century: An Evidence-Based Framework and Toolkit for Improving Worker Well-Being – Meg Lovejoy, Research Program Director for the Work and Well-Being Initiative at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, introduces the "Work Design for Health" framework to the audience of this HERO webinar. HERO is a national non-profit dedicated to identifying and sharing best practices in the field of workplace health and well-being (HWB) to improve the health and well-being of workers, their spouses, dependents and retirees.

How Work Redesign Can Improve Worker Well-Being – In this podcast on Clubhouse, Paul Tarini, Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, hosts Erin Kelly, MIT Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies, in a conversation about how work redesign can improve worker well-being.

Worker Well-Being During COVID: Lessons Learned – The Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness hosted a panel discussion focused on recent learnings about workplace well-being, employee resilience, and the implications for our health outcomes.

Will workers redesign their workplace after COVID-19?  –  A Webinar sponsored by the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) – The October issue of the American Journal of Public Health featured the research study on work redesign strategies designed ro enhance employee well-being and engagement that provided the evidence base for the recently launched Work and Well-Being Initiative's employer toolkit. Harvard Pop Center Director Lisa Berkman, who is a core member of the Initiative, participated in a webinar moderated by editor-in-chief of the Journal, Alfredo Morabia, that explored the topic...Will workers redesign their workplace after COVID-19? Watch the webinar to learn more about this timely topic.

Other Resources 

 

The U.S. Surgeon General has taken a strong step to help support the mental health and well-being of American workers by releasing a comprehensive website that outlines the five essentials that employers can focus on to help create workplaces that are “engines of well-being.” The robust website points to the Work and Well-Being Initiative employer toolkit from their Resources section.

What Works Well-Being: Work –This UK center provides a clearinghouse of well-being evidence designed to improve decision-making by different sectors of society including governments, businesses and civil society. The “Work” portion of the website focuses on work and well-being and provides assessment tools, guidance and briefs summarizing the most rigorous research evidence on this topic.

Work Redesign for Worker Well-Being: Selected findings from Health Care Settings – This slidedeck introduces the Work Design for Health approach and highlights selected research findings on the effects of workplace redesign in health care settings. Findings are drawn from studies included in a systematic review of workplace redesign and worker well-being. The deck includes a bibliography of research articles (ranked by quality of study design) from the systematic review which focus on health care settings.

For additional employer resources, toolkits and implementation guides see our Work Design for Health employer toolkit on this website.