Updated “Work Design for Health” Toolkit Launched

An updated and expanded version of the “Work Design for Health” employer toolkit—developed by researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the MIT Sloan School of Management—has been launched. The free online toolkit, originally created in 2021, maps how employers can create work environments that foster worker health and well-being. 

Building on decades of previous “work redesign” research and frameworks, the toolkit identifies three strategies to reshape work conditions that not only improve worker well-being, but may also benefit the organization:

• Increasing workers’ control over their schedules and giving them greater voice over work conditions;
• Moderating job demands; and
• Offering training and employer support aimed at enhancing social relations at work.

In October 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General released a website and framework outlining the five essentials that employers can focus on to help create workplaces that are “engines of well-being” and pointed to the “Work Design for Health” employer toolkit as a helpful resource. 

Now the “Work Design for Health” toolkit, expanded with support from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), features a new implementation guide that offers employers key steps and resources for implementing a Work Design for Health approach. The web-based guide (also available as a print-ready PDF) introduces a step-by-step approach that employers can follow to launch an effective change initiative for improving worker well-being and organizational health.

In addition, the toolkit has been updated to include more information on topics such as hybrid work and supervisor support for employees’ mental health. 

The research team that developed the Work Design for Health employer toolkit and the underlying Work Design for Health framework included Meg Lovejoy, who was serving as the Research Program Director of the Work and Well-being Initiative at the Center for Population and Development Studies at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Erin L. Kelly, the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Work and Organization Studies at MIT Sloan and Co-Director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research;  Laura D. Kubzansky, Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard Chan School; and Lisa F. Berkman, the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and Director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.