The Tea Lady Is Back

Posted by Ricki Sharpe on June 16, 2007
Filed Under Stress

Twenty years after the demise of the company tea-lady, she’s back, with an expanded role in the form of on-site health food bars, fitness centres, weight control programmes and marriage counselling. Job Stress costs industry nearly $300 billion a year in absenteeism, employee turnover, diminished productivity and medical, legal and insurance fees, according to the American Institute of Stress. Therefore, it’s no wonder many companies provide employees with perks such as telecommuting, flexible work schedules, on-site health and fitness centres, even health insurance for their pets. They can’t afford not to.

In addition, psychologists are helping these organisations figure out how to cost-effectively keep employees healthy and performing at their best, not just by reducing work stress, but by guiding companies to think more holistically about the ways their workplace practices affect physical and mental health.

A recent workplace review Grawich (2006) suggests that the pay-off comes in the form of a healthier and more productive workforce. This paper provides a model for integrating healthy workplace practices, employee health and well-being, and organisational performance. Through a review of research across multiple disciplines, the authors outline the importance of five sets of healthy workplace practices:

Employee involvement: empowering employees by involving them in decision-making and giving them more job autonomy.
Work-life balance: offering employees flexible work scheduling and other benefits that help them manage the demands they face both inside and outside of work.
Employee growth and development: providing opportunities for continuing education, tuition reimbursement and leadership development.
Health and safety: providing benefits that help employees optimise their physical and mental health and develop healthy lifestyles, such as stress-management, weight-loss and smoking-cessation programs.
Employee recognition: rewarding employees both monetarily and non-monetarily through performance-based bonuses and pay increases, profit sharing, employee awards programs and simple but genuine expressions of thanks.

The authors also present evidence across a wide variety of studies linking these practices to both organisational effectiveness outcomes (including turnover, healthcare costs, and productivity) and employee health and well-being outcomes (including stress, motivation, and health).

The authors then discuss the importance of effective communication mechanisms in the workplace for generating programme success. Finally, they discuss the importance of aligning specific practices to the organisation’s context, including its culture, structure and strategy.

Moreover, the American Psychological Association has now established a Psychologically Healthy Workplace web site that facilitates how organisations can promote a healthy workplace. It serves as a one-stop shop for healthy workplace data resources, including a bimonthly electronic newsletter.

The Tea Lady may have aged, but she is as beautiful as ever.

Reference: Grawitch, M. J., Gottschalk, M., & Munz, D. C. (2006). The Path to a Healthy Workplace: A Critical Review Linking Healthy Workplace Practices, Employee Well-Being and Organizational Improvements. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 58, 129-147.

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