Background: Despite growing interest in sustainable employability (SE), studies on the effectiveness of interventions aimed at employees’ SE are scarce. In this review, SE is defined by four core components: health, productivity, valuable work, and long-term perspective. The aim of this review is to summarize the effectiveness of employer-initiated SE interventions and to analyze whether their content and outcome measures addressed these SE components. Methods: A systematic search was performed in six databases for the period January 1997 to June 2018. The methodological quality of each included study was assessed. A customized form was used to extract data and categorize interventions according to SE components. Results: The initial search identified 596 articles and 7 studies were included. Methodological quality ranged from moderate to weak. All interventions addressed the components ‘health’ and ‘valuable work’. Positive effects were found for ‘valuable work’ outcomes. Conclusions: The quality of evidence was moderate to weak. The ‘valuable work’ component appeared essential for the effectiveness of SE interventions. Higher-quality evaluation studies are needed, as are interventions that effectively integrate all SE core components in their content.

Background The perspectives of low-educated employees are often neglected when designing sustainable employability (SE) interventions. As a result, the interventions offered by the employer do often not align with the needs of low-educated employees. This particular group should therefore be actively involved in the process of developing and implementing SE interventions in their work organizations. The current paper describes the development process of a web-based intervention for HR managers and direct supervisors aimed at improving the SE of low-educated employees. This intervention is specifically designed to involve low-educated employees. Methods The first four steps of the Intervention Mapping (IM) approach were used to systematically develop the intervention with the active involvement of stakeholders. Step 1 comprised a needs assessment including a literature review, empirical evidence, scoping search and several focus group interviews with employees and with representatives of employers. Step 2 formulated the intervention objective. During step 3, suitable theoretical methods were selected and translated to practical applications. Step 4 involved the development of a web-based intervention by integrating all information from the preceding steps. Results The needs assessment indicated that the employees’ active involvement and employees-employer genuine dialogue should be essential characteristics of an SE intervention for low-educated employees. The online toolkit ‘Healthy HR’ (HHR) was developed, which contains eight steps. Each step consists of one or more tasks helping the employer and employees with developing and implementing SE interventions themselves. One or more dialogue-based tools support each task. The leading principle providing structure within HHR was Adapted Intervention Mapping. Conclusion Principles of IM appeared to be useful to develop the intervention HHR systematically. This development process resulted in a practical online toolkit that supports employers in the development and implementation of local SE interventions tailored to the needs of low-educated employees. These employees should be actively involved in the process through a dialogue-based approach. By using IM principles, HHR is expected to increase the effectiveness in bettering the health and well-being of low-educated employees.

Background: There is a need to develop sustainable employability (SE) interventions that are better aligned to the needs of low-educated employees. This group needs to get a voice in intervention development and implementation. In this study, a dialogue-based approach is proposed consisting of an online step-by-step support toolkit for employers, "Healthy Human Resources" (HHR). When intervening, this toolkit enables and stimulates employers to have a continuous dialogue with their low-educated employees. By improving the employees' job control, HHR is aimed at cost-beneficially improving SE. This paper describes the protocol of the evaluation study to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation process of HHR on the SE of low-educated employees. Methods: The protocol of the evaluation study consists of: (1) an effect evaluation with a pretest-posttest design with a 1-year follow-up in five work organizations in the Netherlands deploying low-educated employees and with SE as the primary outcome and job control as the secondary outcome. The effect evaluation is expanded with a budget impact analysis; (2) a mixed-method process evaluation at 6 and 12 months after the start of HHR to evaluate the whole implementation process of HHR. This includes the experiences with HHR of various stakeholders, such as employees, human resource managers, and line managers. Discussion: The effect evaluation will give insight into the effects of HHR on the SE of low-educated employees. The process evaluation will provide insight into the underlying mechanisms of the (in) effectiveness of HHR. By improving dialogue, we hypothesize that HHR, through enhancing job control, will strengthen the SE of low-educated employees. Also for helping with tackling the socioeconomic health gap, if proven effective, the implementation of HHR on a wider scale can be recommended.

Background Although low-educated employees are more at risk of poor health, they participate less often in workplace interventions, and when they do participate, they tend to profit to a lesser extent than high-educated employees. When developing sustainable employability (SE) interventions, the perspectives of the low-educated employees are often lacking, leading to a mismatch between the intervention and the needs. This group should be included when developing SE interventions in work organizations. The paper describes the development of a web-based intervention for employers to improve the SE of their low-educated employees using the Intervention Mapping (IM) approach. Methods The development builds on the first four steps of IM. A needs assessment (step 1), based on empirical evidence from previous literature and focus groups with employees (N = 11) and with representatives of employers (N = 5), was used to formulate the intervention objective (step 2), followed by selecting relevant theoretical methods and translation to practical applications (step 3). Subsequently, a web-based intervention was developed (step 4). Results The needs assessment identified the importance of the active involvement of employees and of a true dialogue between employee and employer. An online toolkit, called 'Healthy HR' (HHR) was developed, with eight steps, each consisting of several tasks, for developing and implementing local SE interventions that are tailored to the organization by the employer and employees themselves. Every task comprises one or more supportive dialogue-based tools. Adapted Intervention Mapping was used as the guiding principle to structure the eight steps. Conclusions The systematic development resulted in an easy-to-use online toolkit for employers that supports developing SE interventions tailored to the needs of the low-educated employees and organization. Using IM principles is expected by both the researchers and the employers to improve the effectiveness of HHR. Key messages ‘Healthy Human Resources’ (HHR), is an online dialogue-based toolkit that facilitates employers to develop tailored SE interventions by involving their low-educated employees via dialogue. The principles of intervention mapping (IM) are used at two levels: to develop HHR, and as the leading principle within HHR.

Background Sustainable employability (SE) is top priority. However, employers find it difficult to develop SE interventions. Measures based on the employee perspective of SE that would give direction to interventions, currently fall short, particularly for the understudied group of employees with lower levels of education (1/3 of the Dutch labor population). Earlier, the Maastricht Instrument for SE (MAISE-NL) was developed and validated in a sample of high-educated employees. This study aims to adjust and validate MAISE-NL for use among Lower Educated employees (MAISE-LE). Methods By means of focus groups consisting of employees with lower levels of education, items and response categories of MAISE have been aligned with the perceptions of these employees. Other items from subscales such as job control, self-efficacy and lifestyle were added. Language was checked for clarity and ambiguity. A questionnaire containing these items, as well as proxy variables (health and vitality) and demographics, was answered online by 944 lower educated employees from five organizations (response rates 44-64%). Construct validity, reliability and criterion validity were tested through PCA, CFA, Cronbach's alpha and correlations. Results MAISE-LE comprises 10 scales divided over four areas: (1) Level of SE; (2) Factors affecting my SE; (3) Overall responsibility for SE; and (4) Responsibility for factors affecting my SE. Preliminary results indicate that reliability, construct and criterion validity were adequate to good. Employees' SE was moderate to high, and was generally considered a shared responsibility of employee and employer. The latter varies per factor though. Employees wish to participate more in decisions regarding their work. Conclusions The MAISE-LE appeared to be reliable and valid. We recommend that employers use the MAISE-LE as a needs assessment in order to develop SE interventions that will be readily accepted and effective for employees with lower levels of education. Key messages MAISE-LE (Maastricht Instrument for Sustainable Employability) is a new instrument for measuring SE and the responsibility for SE from the perspective of employees with lower levels of education. The MAISE-LE will facilitate employers in the development of effective SE interventions, which align with the needs of this vulnerable group of employees.