the last word
More Choice at Work is
Good for Your Health
THE BENEFITS OF CONTROLLING YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Most of us inherently know that
having “choice” at work is a
good thing and that it helps
us to be more productive,
more creative, more engaged and healthier.
When we don’t have control over aspects
of our work, we become stressed, we may
feel trapped and our performance suffers.
But is there any proof that this is true?
Turns out, there is.
Robert Karasek, an industrial engineer
and sociologist, and Tores Theorell, a specialist
in industrial medicine, have been
studying stress and jobs for a long time.
Their epidemiological studies over decades
have carefully measured the stress
level of hundreds of jobs and the impact
of those jobs on the productivity and
health of workers (particularly in regards
to heart disease). They created a model
that organizes each job they studied
using two factors: i) the levels of “psychological
demands” of the job; and ii) the
“decision latitude” or control of the worker
to manage how he or she could deal with
psychological demands. The results of
their studies show that those workers with
the greatest risk for illness are those with
high psychological demands and low decision
latitude. In other words, if you have a
stressful job that does not provide much
choice in how you are able to manage
stress, you are more likely to suffer mentally
and physically. Workers who have
control over their work and work environment
typically have more positive health
outcomes, even if they have stressful jobs.
Karasek and Theorell describe ideal
jobs as ones that, beyond material rewards,
give workers influence over the selection of
work routines and have routine demands
mixed with new learning challenges. So,
regardless of our profession or position,
some choice as to where, when and how
we work can greatly impact creativity, engagement,
health and the bottom line.
What can HR professionals do to support
more individual choice? Try building
more flexibility into how, when and where
employees work. For example:
■■ Change where work happens.
Many people can work effectively
and efficiently at home, in a satellite
office, a co-working facility, a park or a
coffee shop. Working this way requires
good mobile technology and the right
protocols to pull off (so everyone
knows how to communicate), but it
can be an incredibly empowering and
healthy strategy.
■■ Adopt flexible work schedules.
Flexible work schedules are an
alternative to the traditional 9-to-5, 40-
hour work week. They allow employees
to vary arrival and/or departure times
and include programs like job sharing
or a compressed workweek.
■■ Adjust the work environment.
It may be too difficult for your
organization to allow certain
employees to choose where and
when they work, but helping them
change the way they carry out their
workday might be a strategy to
help them cope with stress and the
daily grind. Even if the company
does not provide adjustable desks,
it may be possible for employees to
change position or location in their
workplace so that they can work while
standing, like working a table in the
break room or attending a “stand up”
or walking meeting. Making small
adjustments, like moving or adding
a monitor, turning on a task light,
orienting furniture or organizing the
work being done can make a major
difference in how employees feel
about the health of their workplace. n
Leigh Stringer is author of The Healthy
Workplace: How to Improve the Well-
Being of Your Employees – and Boost
Your Company’s Bottom Line.
By Leigh Stringer
WORKERS WHO
HAVE CONTROL
OVER THEIR
WORK AND WORK
ENVIRONMENT
TYPICALLY HAVE
MORE POSITIVE
HEALTH OUTCOMES,
EVEN IF THEY HAVE
STRESSFUL JOBS.
phipatbig/Shutterstock.com
56 ❚ OCTOBER 2016 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL
