A study by researchers at the University of
Minnesota has found a strong link between new
working practices and improved health. The study,
reported in the Journal of Health & Social
Behavior, studies the health impacts of the
introduction of a Results Only Work Environment at
Best Buy in Minnesota. A Results Only Working
Environment (ROWE) is a radical form of the smart
working principle of managing by results, not
presence. Its about building a culture of
trust and empowerment to enable employees to deliver
the results. It's a way of escaping from the
'time cages' that we find ourselves in, that is 'the
taken-for-granted, invisible scaffoldings confining
the human experience on and off the job', in the
words of the study's authors. The study was
conducted in two waves before and after joining the
ROWE programme, with data collected from 659
employees. Around half were on the ROWE programme,
and half are comparator group.
Employees were assessed on several scales used
for analysing health and wellbeing, measuring
work-family conflict, amount and quality of sleep,
personal healthcare management, personal mastery,
emotional exhaustion/burnout, psychological
distress, self-reported health and energy levels.
Positive health impacts
The study found some positive direct impacts on
health:
'Participating in the ROWE initiative
directly increases employees’ health-related
behaviours of sleep and exercise, as well as the
likelihood that employees will not go to the
workplace when sick and will see a doctor when
sick'.
For all four health behaviours, the authors found
that there was a connection with ROWE in that it
increases schedule control and reduces negative
'work-home spillover'. The results showed that
the people enrolled in the ROWE programme had almost
an extra hour’s sleep on work nights, did more
exercise and were less likely to go to work when
ill, compared to those who continued their working
lives as usual.
By restructuring working times and becoming more
flexible, people on the ROWE programme felt they had
more control over their schedule. This has been
found to be an important factor in
other studies looking at a wide range of flexible
working options. Further work by the study
team has been looking at whether ROWE has an impact
on staff turnover, and whether it can reduce
work-family conflicts.
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