When talking about employee engagement in a business context the focus is understandably on the positive benefits it delivers for the business. By chance I caught a radio programme driving back from a breakfast meeting that reminded me that there are also significant benefits to the health of employees working in an engaging environment. I had heard of the research, called the Whitehall Studies, which provided the evidence for this conclusion, but had filed it away at the back of my mind and to all intents and purpose forgotten about it until this programme gave me a nudge.
The programme focussed on the work of Professor Michael Marmott who has followed the health of a group of over 10,000 civil servants aged 35 to 55 (2/3 men and 1/3 women) based in London over many years. The study was initiated after it was found that, against all expectations, the long-term health of senior staff, particularly with respect to heart disease, was far better than that of their subordinates. In fact, rather than being tough at the top, it was far tougher lower down the pecking order. Moreover there was a direct relationship between the position in the hierarchy and the incidence of heart disease, the lower the grade the higher the risk.
This effect of status affecting health outcomes has become known as the Status Syndrome and has been seen to be globally applicable.
In order to establish the cause of this health impact, this group of civil servants have been studied over a number of years, and the results analysed after the other risk factors, including the classic risk factors for heart disease, had been adjusted for. The clear conclusion was that there was a correlation between risk of heart disease and the level of control over the work carried out. Hence the result that highly ranked staff, although in demanding jobs, were at low risk as they had a high level of control over their work, while lower ranked staff were working in a much more controlled environment with much less control, and consequently were at higher risk. Interestingly the effect was as strong for perceived control as for real control, funny thing the human mind!
Among the conclusions drawn from these studies was that policies which gave people a stronger say in decisions about their work produced positive long-term health benefits; and that is exactly what is at the heart (pardon the pun) of programmes which deliver real sustainable employee engagement.
From a business perspective the driver for employee engagement programmes are the effects that they produce right across the business in terms of improved financial results as well as the less direct benefits of reduced labour turnover and absenteeism, reduced accident rates and even improved levels of innovation
So there seems to be no doubt about it, employee engagement is good for your health and your wealth.
Tags: employee engagement, employee health, employee ownership, performance improvement, workforce engagement, workforce ownership
