Lay Summary

The effectivness of an organisational-level workplace intervention, on working conditions and employees’ mental health, were evaluated. Overall, only two of 13 evaluated working conditions were improved and no effect on employees’ perceived health or sickness absence were found. This knowledge can be used to improve the design and implementation of future organisational-level workplace interventions to increase their efficiency with regard to improving employees’ mental health.

Background

Sickness absence is a major concern within the public sector, both in Sweden and in other countries. Organisational-level interventions are recommended for decreasing sickness absence, but knowledge of the optimal design and implementation of such interventions is scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an organisational-level workplace intervention by investigating the intervention effects on working conditions, job motivation, health, employee turnover, and sickness absence.

Methods

We collected data on working conditions (job demands and job resources), job motivation, health, employee turnover, and sickness absence among participants in a large-scale organisational-level intervention comprising measures designed and implemented by line managers and their human resources partners (i.e., operational-level management). Information regarding the process, including the implementation of measures, was retrieved from a separate process evaluation, and the intervention effects were investigated using mixed-effects models. Data from reference groups were used to separate the intervention effect from the effects of other concurrent changes at the workplace.

Results

Overall, working conditions and job motivation improved during the study for both the intervention and reference groups, but an intervention effect was only seen for two of 13 evaluated survey items: clearness of objectives (p = 0.02) and job motivation (p = 0.06). No changes were seen in employees’ perceived health, and there were no overall intervention effects on employee turnover or sickness absence.

Conclusion

When using operational-level workplace interventions to improve working conditions and employees’ health, efforts must be made to achieve a high measure-to-challenge correspondence; that is, the implemented measures must be a good match to the problems that they are intended to address.