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Integrated recovery during the work day - does it make a difference?

Lina Ejlertsson, a doctoral student in Public Health at Lund University, believes that there is a classic approach to working with and measuring health in workplaces through sick leave rates, productivity and efficiency.
– Most often, rehabilitative measures or preventative work are only undertaken after employees become ill. So what happens if you instead integrate various recovery activities into employees’ daily work?

Adapting health promotion efforts at the workplace increases the self-perceived health of employees, even under stressful working conditions. This has been demonstrated in Lina Ejlertsson’s thesis project, in which she has investigated the work environment in primary care.

Employees from all occupational groups at a health centre were included in Ejlertsson’s studies: nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians, occupational therapists, counsellors, psychologists, physicians and administrative staff. The participants participated in focus group interviews, surveys and targeted interventions.

– Employees at all workplaces who received targeted and individual interventions aimed at facilitating recovery during the work day described increased well-being, regardless of their working conditions or initial attitudes towards the project, says Lina Ejlertsson, who is now presenting her thesis “Recovery at work as a health-promoting process”.

In four sub-studies, Lina Ejlertsson investigated recovery and positive work factors related to health. With job satisfaction and health as a starting point, she wanted to find out what increases well-being and makes people happier in their jobs.

The studies started eight years ago and were carried out prior to the pandemic. A total of 26 health centres in Skåne and 600 employees participated. In the first study, the researchers examined salutogenic work factors, and the primary findings indicated that recovery was by far the most important factor for employees’ self-assessed health. The results led to the next study, in which the researchers mapped the concept of recovery during the work day. The survey indicated that variety, community and manageability are three important beneficial factors.

Workplace culture and leadership

In the latter two studies, the researchers conducted and evaluated targeted efforts focusing on recovery. The legitimacy of taking time to pause in one’s work – breathing and recovering – was a beneficial factor in the success of interventions in the workplace. Lina Ejlertsson believes that reflection is important for experiencing recovery during the work day, and in order to succeed in incorporating recovery into work, it may also be necessary to address the culture in the workplace.

– It is when we are at our most stressed and have the most to do that we need to recover at work. Therefore, the workplace culture and the manager’s leadership are also of great importance for the possibility of recovery and the well-being of a workplace. More organisations need to work actively with health promotion efforts and have an understanding of what will be effective in the long run.

The social kit, interactions involving strong, safe and good relationships at work and the experience of support, also proved to be an important aspect throughout all the studies in the thesis.

Customised interventions for individuals and groups

Over the course of one year, six health centres with 170 employees received targeted health promotion efforts with a focus on recovery. These interventions were tailored to the situations and needs of both the individual and the group as well as the workplace. Each health centre also established an inspiration group consisting of employees from different professions. In dialogue with other employees at the health centre, the group was responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating the activities. Fifteen health centres were used as a control group, where employees answered survey questions without intervention.

After the interventions, the participants described their experiences as positive. Above all, they reported increased recovery, improved well-being and a more open climate with greater cohesion within the group.

– The fact that the interventions were adapted and tailored to the various needs, wishes and situations of individuals as well as workplaces was a success factor. I believe that this increased knowledge of how conscious recovery activities incorporated into the work day can really make a difference will prove very useful in creating health-promoting workplaces within more organisations.