Maintaining Employee Well-Being During Times of Uncertainty

Abstract

The world is in a fragile state which is characterized by constant change, uncertainty, external crisis, and a deteriorating state of security. This transformed environment has created a number of challenges, one of which is the declining state of employee well-being. The effects of employee well-being on job performance and overall company performance have been researched and the importance is evident, however, not all contextual risk factors for employee well-being are yet understood. It is necessary to research the impact of increased uncertainty on well-being and to identify new well-being challenges that have emerged as a result of present circumstances. The newly ambiguous, complex, and volatile state of the world implicates that uncertainty is unlikely to diminish and that there is a growing demand to examine this topic further in order to maintain employee well-being in the future.

The objective of the research was to identify the challenges affecting employee well-being during times of uncertainty while considering possible solutions to overcome these challenges with the objective to identify tools and support models by which human resource managers could maintain employee well-being. The selected research approach was qualitative as it allowed a broader exploration of the research problem. Primary data for the research was collected by interviewing occupational well-being professionals and human resource managers. A theoretical framework, the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R) was employed and utilized when forming the research questions, in the data analysis process, and interpreting of the research results. The JD-R model by Demerouti et al. (2001) allowed the assessment of the appropriate job resources for the emerged job demands.

From the analysis, it was found that increased uncertainty can initiate and accelerate the emergence of various well-being challenges. According to the empirical study increased uncertainty has highlighted challenges such as increased stress and anxiety, various threats to the psychosocial well-being of employees, the decline in the sense of community, threat to employee work-life balance, and threat to employee ergonomics. The findings reflect the importance of proactive well-being management and the early implementation of support models which cover all aspects of well-being.