Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

HR practiceSupplier NewsRecruitment & retentionAbsenceRetention of staff

Is ‘quality of working life’ the secret to attracting and keeping the best employees?

by Personnel Today 18 Feb 2008
by Personnel Today 18 Feb 2008

A new psychometric tool, called Work-Related Quality of Life, has been developed by Psychologists at the University of Portsmouth that enables companies to gain a recruitment and retention ‘edge’ over their rivals.

The Psychologists concerned have now launched a spin out company, QoWL, to make the tool available to employers to help them measure quality of working life in their staff.

QoWL provide a free summary report to companies participating in their benchmarking research.

The tool was developed after years of research with 15,000 public sector employees. It enables a company to build up an accurate and detailed picture of quality of working life across the organisation and the factors that contribute to it.

Employers have found this approach to surveying their workforce much more attractive than the usual opinion or satisfaction surveys because they are able to demonstrate a commitment to quality of working life, which enhances their reputation with both existing and prospective employees.

QoWL’s research findings challenge prevailing views about what really counts with regard to quality of working life. Alan Bradshaw, Director of QoWL Ltd, summarising their research stated:

“Stress may be less important than people think. General well-being, working conditions, management support and relationships appear to be more important factors than stress in determining quality of working life.”

“For office environments, practical issues tend to be particularly important in determining peoples’ quality of working life, both in terms of the physical working environment (e.g. buildings, temperature, comfort, equipment) and ease of getting to and from work (e.g. transport, travelling time, parking).”

“In some cases, it appears that workplaces where employees experience higher workload demands can also be those with a higher quality of working life. Employees in workplaces with higher quality of working life in the research tended to have more autonomy and control, and often chose to work harder.”

“The impact of pay on quality of working life appears to be complex. It ranked 14th out of 20 HR-related outcomes measured by QoWL as a contributor to quality of working life. Further research will be undertaken to explore the impact of pay. It may be the case that pay is less of an issue so long as pay is perceived to be reasonable, whilst dissatisfaction with remuneration may have greater adverse effect on overall quality of working life.”

The Quality of Working Life model fits well with recent UK Government initiatives on workplace well-being and work-life balance.  The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) launched Management Standards in 2004 with a view to reducing stress-related ill-health and absence and improving workplace health and performance.


 

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Hat-trick of law firms contract GlobalExpense
next post
Private sector warned of huge equal pay timebomb

You may also like

Employees resigning in 2022: Survey shows ‘great resignation’...

24 May 2022

NHS should upskill admin staff to reduce waiting...

23 May 2022

City firms pledge to improve social mobility in...

20 May 2022

One in five employers planning ‘no jab no...

19 May 2022

Nurses leaving due to pressure and workplace culture

18 May 2022

Number of working people with disability up 1.3...

17 May 2022

Wages fall 1.2% behind inflation as cost of...

17 May 2022

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022

EasyJet joins battle for cabin crew with £1,000...

16 May 2022

How to build a compelling talent attraction strategy...

12 May 2022
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+