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Do wellness benefits really improve employee health?
In addition to traditional benefits like medical insurance and 401(k) plans, employers around the world are offering products aimed at boosting the mental health of their employees, such as free massages, mindfulness classes, and online wellness apps. programs are increasingly being offered.
A new large-scale study conducted by British researchers at the University of Oxford has revealed that Labor Relations Journal This month, we evaluated the results of 90 different employee health interventions to see if they were working. Overall, I found that not to be the case.
The study used data from the UK’s Healthiest Workplaces survey, which surveyed workers in 233 organizations in 2017 and 2018. The study did not track well-being before and after the health intervention, but instead reported measures of well-being among employees who participated in the health program. and colleagues within the same organization who did not.
Employees who choose to participate in the program may not have been in very good health to begin with. To illustrate this, researchers separately analyzed the responses of employees who reported high stress levels and compared the results between employees who participated in a wellness program and those who did not. . In this analysis, he also found no benefit to the intervention.
As an interesting side note, this study revealed one program that significantly increases happiness: volunteering. Data shows that employees who are given opportunities to volunteer through the workplace report an increased sense of purpose, fulfillment, social resources, and resilience.
Overall, the results of this study contradict previous research demonstrating that workplace wellness programs are effective, including various systematic reviews such as this study and the present one. For example, his 2022 study published in the journal Network Open Journal found that a workplace mental health program reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety in nearly 70% of participants. The study followed more than 1,100 employees at 66 U.S. workplaces across the country for six months. People who took advantage of the program reported taking fewer days off from work and being more productive.
what’s happening?
The answer is probably in the details. A new study from the University of Oxford evaluated a variety of wellness programs and grouped them together into broad groups, many of which required less overall employee involvement. (Mindfulness apps, for example, require less interaction than in-person therapy.) They also couldn’t track employee health over time to look for interpersonal improvements.
Conversely, a 2022 study evaluated programs that connect employees with therapy and medication management. This program may be more effective than services such as massages or online apps. Participants were then followed up for six months before and after treatment.
Take-home message: There is conflicting evidence about the effectiveness of workplace wellness programs. The real answer may lie in the types of wellness programs offered.
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