Association of Workplace Culture of Health and Employee Emotional Wellbeing

Abstract

The study aimed to examine associations between workplace culture of health and employee work engagement, stress, and depression. Employees (n = 6235) across 16 companies voluntarily completed the Workplace Culture of Health (COH) Scale and provided data including stress, depression, and biometrics through health risk assessments and screening. We used linear regression analysis with COH scores as the independent variable to predict work engagement, stress, and depression. We included age, gender, job class, organization, and biometrics as covariates in the models. The models showed that total COH scores were a significant predictor of employee work engagement (b = 0.75, p < 0.001), stress (b = −0.08, p < 0.001), and depression (b = 0.08, p < 0.001). Job class was also a significant predictor of work engagement (b = 2.18, p < 0.001), stress (b = 0.95, p < 0.001), and depression (b = 1.03, p = 0.02). Gender was a predictor of stress (b = −0.32, p < 0.001). Overall, findings indicate a strong workplace culture of health is associated with higher work engagement and lower employee stress and depression independent of individual health status. Measuring cultural wellbeing supportiveness can help inform implementation plans for companies to improve the emotional wellbeing of their employees.

The Validity and Reliability of the Workplace Culture of Health Scale–Short Form

“…The Workplace COH Scale is a valid and reliable measure developed in 2015 that has been used in the industry and research. 12,13,16,24 The Workplace COH Scale assesses workplace COH through the following five domains: senior leadership and policies, programs and rewards, quality assurance, supervisor support, and coworker support. Research has shown that senior leadership plays a key role in sustaining an environment that supports health.…”

“…Workplace culture of health (COH) can be defined as the combined influence of the physical and social environment on behaviors and attitudes related to health and well-being in the workplace 12,13 . Theories such as the social-ecological model support influencing culture as an effective way to target population health.…”

“…There are various measures of workplace COH from the employee level. A scoping review revealed that many current studies on workplace COH measure health culture from the employee perspective 21 . However, many of these studies did not use valid and reliable measures.…”

“…Finally, support from coworkers is related to positive employee outcomes, such as increased healthy eating and physical activity 32 . Prior studies using the Workplace COH Scale have found that workplace COH is a significant predictor of employee work engagement, job satisfaction, emotional well-being, and positive self-rated health 13,24,33,34 . It is also a predictor of employee wellness program participation 35 …”

“…[9][10][11] Workplace culture of health (COH) can be defined as the combined influence of the physical and social environment on behaviors and attitudes related to health and well-being in the workplace. 12, 13 Theories such as the social-ecological model support influencing culture as an effective way to target population health. The social-ecological model suggests that there are multiple levels of influence on individual health outcomes, including individual, interpersonal, community, institutional, and policy.…”