Holistic wellbeing interventions

When planning interventions, adopting a holistic approach is beneficial. This approach should encompass key domains of wellbeing, acknowledging the significance of collective and social wellbeing, personal values and principles, and personal growth. This perspective allows for a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of wellbeing, addressing various dimensions that contribute to a healthy workplace environment.

Examples of possible workplace initiatives for each domain include:

Health

• Physical health: e.g. health promotion, occupational health support, and disability management.

• Physical safety: e.g. safe working practices, equipment, and training.

• Mental health: e.g. stress management, risk assessments, conflict resolution training, and mental health management. 

Work

• Work environment: e.g. cultivating an open and inclusive culture.

• Line management: e.g. training and people management policies.

• Work demands: e.g. job design, role quality and working hours.

• Autonomy: e.g. providing opportunities for control and fostering innovation.

• Change management: e.g. effective communication and involvement in the change process.

• Pay and reward: e.g. ensuring fair and transparent remuneration practices.

Values/Principles

• Leadership: e.g. clear mission and objectives and a robust, evidence-informed health and wellbeing strategy.

• Ethical standards: e.g. promoting dignity and respect at work.

• Diversity: e.g. encouraging inclusion and valuing differences.

Collective/Social

• Employee voice: e.g. communication and involvement strategies. 

• Positive relationships: e.g. management style and effective teamworking.

Personal growth

• Career development: e.g. offering mentoring, coaching and performance management emotional growth: e.g. focusing on positive relationships, supervision and the development of resilience.

• Lifelong learning: e.g. providing access to personal development opportunities and career reviews.

• Creativity: e.g. encouraging an open and collaborative culture and conducting innovation workshops.

A practical tool is available for organisations to assess aspects of workplace health and wellbeing (such as activity, sleep and mental health, as well as the working environment and workplace culture). This can also inform a holistic programme of interventions that will support organisational wellbeing and resilience.

A toolkit is also available to help organisations develop and evaluate health interventions. This framework has four stages:

1. Analyse: e.g. establish internal support; set up a steering group; identify needs at an individual and organisational level; specify goals and outcomes.

2. Plan: e.g. prioritise goals and outcomes; plan an evaluation strategy; identify tasks for the steering group and develop a community strategy.

3. Implement: ensure clear roles, pilot interventions and monitor progress.

4. Evaluate: develop an evaluation design; review and reflect on practice.