Association of Workplace Culture of Health and Employee Emotional Wellbeing

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 28;19(19):12318. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912318.

Abstract

The study aimed to examine associations between workplace culture of health and employee work engagement, stress, and depression. Employees (n = 6235) across 16 companies voluntarily completed the Workplace Culture of Health (COH) Scale and provided data including stress, depression, and biometrics through health risk assessments and screening. We used linear regression analysis with COH scores as the independent variable to predict work engagement, stress, and depression. We included age, gender, job class, organization, and biometrics as covariates in the models. The models showed that total COH scores were a significant predictor of employee work engagement (b = 0.75, p < 0.001), stress (b = -0.08, p < 0.001), and depression (b = 0.08, p < 0.001). Job class was also a significant predictor of work engagement (b = 2.18, p < 0.001), stress (b = 0.95, p < 0.001), and depression (b = 1.03, p = 0.02). Gender was a predictor of stress (b = -0.32, p < 0.001). Overall, findings indicate a strong workplace culture of health is associated with higher work engagement and lower employee stress and depression independent of individual health status. Measuring cultural wellbeing supportiveness can help inform implementation plans for companies to improve the emotional wellbeing of their employees.

Keywords: culture of health; employee wellbeing; gender; job class; mental health; stress; work engagement; workplace.

MeSH terms

  • Emotions
  • Health Status
  • Humans
  • Job Satisfaction
  • Organizational Culture
  • Work Engagement*
  • Workplace* / psychology

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.