CPD: Challenges OH and wellbeing professionals face

What challenges do OH and wellbeing professionals face in their roles? And what strengths, behaviours and organisational support are needed for them to succeed? Professor Gail Kinman and Angela Steel make recommendations based on the results of their study.

As workplace wellbeing becomes more of a priority, occupational health practitioners have a central role to play in shaping healthy cultures.

While most research has focused on wellbeing interventions and barriers to change, more understanding of the role OH and wellbeing leads play is needed.

This article outlines the findings from our study, drawing on in-depth interviews with 14 wellbeing leads from across a range of organisation sizes in the public and private sectors.

Occupational health is primarily preventive in ensuring workers’ optimal physical and mental health through safe and healthy work environments (International Labour Organisation, 2016). This requires an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, encompassing the promotion of employee health and the improvement of working environments and culture.

Demands placed on OH services are evolving to include psychosocial and mental health risks, which is challenging as there are significant gaps in legislation and guidance (Jain et al., 2021). While researchers have called for further training for OH and workplace wellbeing teams (Daniels,et al 2021; 2023) to develop skills such as communication, creativity and ability to influence, there are other aspects to the role which require further understanding.

Our study provides insight into four main areas:

• The organisational context and challenges faced
• Prominent characteristics and strengths for the role
• Career development
• Personal wellbeing.

Organisational context and challenges

The study emphasised the importance of workplace culture in determining the success of wellbeing leads. As may be expected, work cultures which already valued wellbeing and constantly strived for alignment with best practice provided an advantage from the outset. The findings uncovered just how varied levels of wellbeing maturity are across organisations, and identified three major barriers facing wellbeing leads, all relating on some level to inertia and resistance to change:

• Widespread ingrained behaviours such as bullying and stigmatisation of stress and mental health issues, particularly from managers
• A lack of awareness and understanding of wellbeing at all levels
• A frequent mismatch between organisations’ stated intentions and their actions. Interviews, however, shed a more nuanced light on the concept of authenticity, highlighting that, although organisational “wellbeing-washing” exists, it was frequently seen as unintentional.

Key learnings:

• A focus on psychosocial risk factors (MacKay et al., 2004) should be strengthened. Preventing or dealing with conflict and poor behaviour at work are paramount and this study provides further evidence to support the HSE’s guidance.
• The importance of wellbeing training for managers is a priority.
• Training and promoting awareness of the importance of psychological safety may help address stigma. First introduced by Edmonson (1999) the term ‘psychological safety’ originally referred to employees’ perception that they can safely learn and interact with colleagues without fear of negative repercussions, and has since been recognised as a useful approach to alleviating the impact of stigma.
• OH and wellbeing leads could provide more balanced insights into wellbeing authenticity (Dobbins & Dundon, 2017). Nobody is better placed to observe the constant tug-of-war between genuine concern for employee welfare and business interests than wellbeing leads. Whilst employees’ perceptions of authenticity (Nayani et al, 2022) are often referred to, their perspective may not always do justice to real pressures organisations may be under, in particular SMEs and not-for-profit organisations. There is a danger that a term such as ‘authenticity’ in some instances may provide a harsh and perhaps unfair lens through which to gauge employers’ actions, where in many cases, failings may be more fairly attributed to the fact that change on a cultural level is complex and takes time (Paulsen & Callan, 2004).
• As pressures on organisations increase, fostering closer links between research and practice may lead to increased understanding, collaboration and the development of evidence-based frameworks to support organisations’ transition towards higher degrees of wellbeing authenticity.

Characteristics and strengths

Given the previous points regarding organisational context and barriers to change, it may not be surprising  that wellbeing leads demonstrate a strong capacity for driving change, drawing on three strengths:

• Confidence, knowledge and experience are prevalent, all core characteristics constituting human agency in social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1977), as is strong personal efficacy belief; in other words, confidence in one’s ability to reach objectives.
• Another common strength identified was the ability to influence others around them to support their aims, described by the concept of proxy agency (Baltes, 1996).
• Although the role of wellbeing lead is frequently isolated within organisations, successful practitioners recognise the benefits of building a strong moral and practical support network.

Key learnings:

• Wellbeing leads should focus on recruiting other stakeholders in the organisation to support change. Wellbeing champions can exercise powerful influence on colleagues, whilst senior leader buy-in signals the commitment required to gain employees’ trust in the wellbeing agenda.
• OH and wellbeing professionals should form strong cross-collaborations with adjacent functions such as HR, which can be helpful for providing the data to justify investment in specific wellbeing interventions, for example.
• Key ‘soft’ skills to cultivate in a wellbeing lead role include assertiveness and influencing ability, in particular practices such as nudging and role modelling (Bandura, 2014). Organisational ‘politics’ exist whether we like it or not, and can be used effectively through in-person communication and networking.
• Build a support network, both within the organisation and beyond.
• Both organisations and wellbeing leads would benefit from clear guidance around successful role attributes. Too often the requirements of wellbeing implementers’ role are misunderstood, with a key focus placed on tactical aspects. An appreciation for the significant challenges of driving organisational change and the particular skills required would benefit both employers and those in the role (Holland, 1996).

Considerations for career development

The research showed that wellbeing leads are proactive in managing their own career progression, readily undertaking further training and demonstrating initiative, such as participating in the creation of their own role or shaping its direction.

Career outcomes are widely determined by the organisational context. Wellbeing leads in organisations with a high level of workplace wellbeing maturity reported significant success, whereas a more challenging environment often led to career uncertainty and limited prospects for progression.

Many of those who considered themselves successful had previously invested years, sometimes in thankless roles, before the accumulation of skills and experience, combined with the right opportunity, had brought about their current success. In some cases, the attainment of a successful point in their current role was presented not as a happy ending, but a new juncture at which to consider further change due to evolving personal circumstances or priorities.

Key learnings:

• Pursuing a career in workplace wellbeing requires a self-directed approach, where practices such as goal setting are highly beneficial.
• When applying for roles, it is helpful for OH professionals to research the organisation’s approach to wellbeing and be aware of the implications this can have for career development. Key questions to ask include: how supportive of the wellbeing agenda are the senior leaders? How has the organisation demonstrated its commitment to wellbeing previously? What is its reputation within its industry? What resources are available to support the wellbeing remit?
• OH professionals should request a clear job description and expected outcomes, and if your employer is unable to provide these, propose your own. This will help bring clarity for yourself and the organisation, and ultimately lead to better results.
• Wellbeing leads are often required to shape their role, which requires confidence, assertiveness and negotiation. A professional coach may provide valuable support in cultivating these.
• The future of workplace wellbeing is strongly reliant on effective talent development. This means ensuring that future wellbeing professionals have access to adequate training in all aspects of the role, including required soft skills. Given the plethora of qualifications available, the profession may benefit from a common certified route.
• Ensuring the optimal person-job fit for wellbeing roles is essential, which means career advisers would benefit from adequate training to understand the requirements of this profession. Tools such as that of Lent et al. (2016) self-efficacy measure applied to career self-management could provide useful approaches to matching students and those seeking career direction with a career in workplace wellbeing.

Personal wellbeing

The research identified several personal wellbeing challenges, including ill-defined expectations, frequently combined with severe under-resourcing. Participants often reported juggling their wellbeing remit with other responsibilities. Compounding the strain inherent to the role, wellbeing leads tend to be characterised by a strong sense of calling, which has further implications for their own wellbeing. Defined by Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas (2011) as an experience of deep meaning in work, a calling can be deeply rewarding (Park & Peterson, 2009) while also being associated with negative outcomes for financial, psychological and physical wellbeing (Dobrow et al., 2023).

Key learnings:

• Employers have a duty of care to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of employees, and should be aware of the particular psychosocial risk factors (HSE, nd) associated with wellbeing lead roles. It would be advisable to conduct regular risk assessments and ensure that OH and other wellbeing practitioners have access to adequate support.
• Workload needs particular attention given the often ill-defined remit, the limitless nature of the task, and the frequent difficulty reconciling a sense of calling with clear boundaries. Organisations would do well to focus on ensuring that workplace wellbeing roles are appropriately designed and managed to ensure the best outcomes for this function.
• Part of the employer’s duty of care includes cultivating an understanding of the role at a strategic level, in order to provide effective line management that sets realistic expectations for the role and provides support and resources to deliver satisfactory outcomes.
• Employers should help counterbalance the isolation often experienced by wellbeing leads. They should receive regular feedback and benefit from social support from colleagues and external networks, which will not only help satisfy duty of care but also improve work engagement.
• OH and other wellbeing practitioners should be supported to cope with the sometimes harrowing emotional burden of their role, including access to supervision when their work involves aspects of psychological support to colleagues.

OH and wellbeing practitioners face unique challenges in their role with personal implications, both in terms of their career and their own wellbeing. Our research has made some initial inroads into better understanding their experience, which is still largely unappreciated and misunderstood, as well as beginning to outline some recommendations for practitioners, organisations, professional bodies and educational institutions to help improve outcomes from workplace wellbeing in the future.

References 

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Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel, A. (2023). Job Demands–Resources Theory: Ten Years Later (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. 4337245).https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-053933

Baltes, M. M. (1996). The many faces of dependency in old age. Cambridge University Press.

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HSE (undated) Work-related stress and how to manage it: causes of stress at work – HSE.  https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/causes.htm

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