Workplace wellbeing intervention to support productivity in small manufacturing businesses, investigating the feasibility of 1-hour and 30-minute lifestyle behaviour change interventions designed to improve employee health and productivity

The challenge

UK SMEs make up 99% of private companies and are significantly affected by issues such as absence and presenteeism. Employees in good health are up to three times more productive than those in poor health. The evidence demonstrates that health and wellbeing programmes impact positively on workplace productivity. However, what is not clear, especially for SMEs, is which health and wellbeing programmes should be implemented to provide the best returns.

The method

We propose to use a three arm randomised control feasibility study (control and treatment arms), using a mixed methods approach to compare two intervention durations (1-hour and 30-minute) and an information only control. Participants in the control group will be signposted to wellbeing information online (British Heart Foundation), enabling all participants to receive a benefit.

The impact

The project is designed to provide robust evidence for SMEs on costs and benefits of offering wellbeing interventions for their employees. Evidence will be provided as an output evaluation report to enable the implementation of a randomised control trial, to support future workplace guidelines on appropriate wellbeing approaches for improving productivity.

See the Innovate UK funding competitions winners 2019.