Impact of COVID-19 on Staff Mental Health and Well-Being in SMEs:Strategies and Interventions to Support Workforce and Boost Productivity in the UK
Lead Research Organisation:
Aston University
Department Name: College of Business and Social Sciences
Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has led governments globally to respond with unprecedented lock down and economic measures to combat spread of the disease, and support workers and businesses. The pandemic presents a real threat to small and medium sized enterprises' (SMEs') workforce mental health (MH) and well-being, and employers need to pursue serious plans to support their workforce (16 million people) in the UK. There is limited evidence in this regard and research is needed from a multi-disciplinary perspective on best strategies, interventions and policies informing SMEs (99.9% of UK businesses) regarding how to support the staff and enhance their productivity.
12.8m working days were lost (2018-19, pre-pandemic) in the UK (£30 billion), due to work-related stress, depression and anxiety. It is estimated that 5.6 million workers are at risk of losing their jobs and that the UK economy will shrink by 35% this spring due to pandemic. This economic meltdown is expected to increase SMEs' staff MH problems and significantly impact: staff productivity, such as need to fulfil multiple roles, acquire new skills, work under different environment with limited support, and pressure to avoid bottlenecks; business productivity - expected to meet higher demands and cope with supply uncertainties to make supply chain resilient and boost UK productivity, with the reduced workforce.
The main objectives of this project are to:
(1) Develop a conceptual model that will facilitate analysing the relationship between MH issues faced by SMEs' staff, factors and various job dimensions contributing to these issues, and its impact on both the staff and business productivity during the pandemic, through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs' employees in the UK;
(2) Develop a COVID-19 employee well-being framework comprising of strategies, practices and interventions, considering SMEs' needs and constraints, and conduct a longitudinal study for six months with twenty SMEs to evaluate its effectiveness and impact towards increasing the resilience and productivity of SMEs' workforce in varying work contexts during and after the pandemic;
(3) Develop a COVID-19 MH application to monitor the MH conditions of SMEs' workforce and pilot it with the longitudinal study, to show how the data collected through the app will enable each individual SME to understand its staff needs, introspect their well-being, that will facilitate customizing the framework, i.e. objectively putting in place practices, strategies and interventions to address employee MH, well-being and firm's productivity related issues.
To summarize: Objective 1 outlines the SMEs' and their staff needs, taking into account business and individual constraints in the current pandemic demonstrated using a model validated through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs employees; Objective 2 will develop a evidence-based framework for SMEs based on the first objective, existing literature and guidance, to support their staffs' MH and well-being during and after the pandemic, which will be validated by interdisciplinary experts and qualitative studies with selected SMEs; Objective 3 will implement and pilot a MH app to monitor and visualize MH condition and examine its effectiveness to support the needs of each SME and their staff; and finally a longitudinal study with 15 SMEs in the UK will demonstrate the effectiveness of MH app to help customize the framework considering the dynamic needs of individual SMEs in pandemic, and impact of wellbeing framework and mental health app on SMEs' workforce and business productivity.
12.8m working days were lost (2018-19, pre-pandemic) in the UK (£30 billion), due to work-related stress, depression and anxiety. It is estimated that 5.6 million workers are at risk of losing their jobs and that the UK economy will shrink by 35% this spring due to pandemic. This economic meltdown is expected to increase SMEs' staff MH problems and significantly impact: staff productivity, such as need to fulfil multiple roles, acquire new skills, work under different environment with limited support, and pressure to avoid bottlenecks; business productivity - expected to meet higher demands and cope with supply uncertainties to make supply chain resilient and boost UK productivity, with the reduced workforce.
The main objectives of this project are to:
(1) Develop a conceptual model that will facilitate analysing the relationship between MH issues faced by SMEs' staff, factors and various job dimensions contributing to these issues, and its impact on both the staff and business productivity during the pandemic, through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs' employees in the UK;
(2) Develop a COVID-19 employee well-being framework comprising of strategies, practices and interventions, considering SMEs' needs and constraints, and conduct a longitudinal study for six months with twenty SMEs to evaluate its effectiveness and impact towards increasing the resilience and productivity of SMEs' workforce in varying work contexts during and after the pandemic;
(3) Develop a COVID-19 MH application to monitor the MH conditions of SMEs' workforce and pilot it with the longitudinal study, to show how the data collected through the app will enable each individual SME to understand its staff needs, introspect their well-being, that will facilitate customizing the framework, i.e. objectively putting in place practices, strategies and interventions to address employee MH, well-being and firm's productivity related issues.
To summarize: Objective 1 outlines the SMEs' and their staff needs, taking into account business and individual constraints in the current pandemic demonstrated using a model validated through a multi-stage survey with 1200 SMEs employees; Objective 2 will develop a evidence-based framework for SMEs based on the first objective, existing literature and guidance, to support their staffs' MH and well-being during and after the pandemic, which will be validated by interdisciplinary experts and qualitative studies with selected SMEs; Objective 3 will implement and pilot a MH app to monitor and visualize MH condition and examine its effectiveness to support the needs of each SME and their staff; and finally a longitudinal study with 15 SMEs in the UK will demonstrate the effectiveness of MH app to help customize the framework considering the dynamic needs of individual SMEs in pandemic, and impact of wellbeing framework and mental health app on SMEs' workforce and business productivity.
Publications
Cheffi W
(2021)
Corporate social responsibility antecedents and practices as a path to enhance organizational performance: The case of small and medium sized enterprises in an emerging economy country
in Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
Chowdhury S
(2023)
Unlocking the value of artificial intelligence in human resource management through AI capability framework
in Human Resource Management Review
Kharlamov A
(2020)
Wellbeing and Productivity in the Business Enterprise Sector: The Curse of SMEs
in Academy of Management Proceedings
| Description | We have developed a model to examine the factors impacting mental health (MH) and well-being (WB) of SMEs' employees during the pandemic in the UK and for understanding the relationship between employee MH and WB and SMEs' business productivity considering a wide range of factors such as wellbeing (e.g. individual employee and financial), job characteristics (e.g. workload, managerial position), firm characteristics (e.g. innovation; flexibility), individual characteristics of employees (e.g. personality; education), mental health issues (common mental disorders such as anxiety and depression), government strategies and policies, organisational strategies, work mode and use of technology. The model is validated through a survey with 1200 SMEs' employees and 300 business managers in the UK followed by focus group interviews. Key Initial Results The analysis suggests that organisational flexibility will negatively affect MH and WB of employees due to non-systematic and repeated changes within job roles and additional responsibilities can precipitate stress. Our pilot reveals that wellbeing measures are being practiced in SMEs businesses, but MH issues are handled in ad hoc basis Creating a supportive environment and psychologically healthy workplaces (even virtual) will require positive and strategic leadership through positive communications, interaction, decreasing unnecessary job demands, and increasing resource support, which will help to increase productivity in organisations. However, needs of leaders, skills development to support their teams, factors affecting their own wellbeing and psychological immunity, and how managers can be supported is warrants separate investigation and attention. The workplace interventions will need to consider job demands and autonomy. Increasing the demands and decreasing autonomy (giving less flexibility) will be detrimental to staff productivity and will have an adverse impact of the psychological health of the employees. Therefore, strategies should lead to job enrichment and enlargement, enhancing job control by providing autonomy to the employees, and engaging workforce to develop these strategies. Strategies, can be derived by integrating demand-control model, i.e. combining high demands with high job autonomy and control, and effective relationship, cooperation, collaboration and partnership between members in the team (workforce), and effort-reward imbalance model, i.e. rewarding the employees to match their efforts, where rewards may include financial incentives, recognition and appreciation from manager and team, esteem, job security, flexible working hours, prospects of promotion, and training opportunities to excel in their individual careers. Consolidating the demand-control and effort-reward models will help to: increase employees' trust on senior management, organisational changes and strategies; motivation at work, finding meaningfulness in the job and sense of purpose, which will enhance employee satisfaction; better manage their own mental health and provide support to others (as a result of high morale). These will directly and positively impact organisational and government outcomes during the pandemic. There is overuse of technology during the pandemic (especially for employees working from home), which is making it difficult to switch off from work and find a suitable work-life balance. The notion of flexible working needs to be strategized, especially policies surrounding the use of technology and requires development of a new communication protocol within SMEs' organisations. We addressed the short-term goals of the project (1) Understand workplace factors contributing to MH, WB and presenteeism issues among UK SMEs' workforce; (2) Development of a digital tool and framework (solutions aligned to the problems, i.e. strategic interventions both at the individual and organisational levels to bring about sustainable changes and initiate good practices) based on findings of 1; (3) Demonstrate the effectiveness of the project key deliverables (framework and digital tool) to alleviate these issues and objectively demonstrate the impact of business productivity and psychological immunity of employees. Building on the findings, we are currently examining the longer term implications of the project. We found that the long terms goals are directly related to mutually supportive Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good health & Wellbeing) and 5 (Gender Equity) which can be addressed through the project deliverables (evidence-based framework and digital tool). Thus, the project work will lead to responsible and inclusive business practices directly contributing to SDGs (8-Decent work & Economic growth; 10-Reduced Inequalities; 16-Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions). The strong transnational multidisciplinary research team (as we have evoleved over the past 18 months) will foster SDG 17 by initiating a 'partnership for the goals'. Trying to recover from this economic shock, companies hadstarted reopening, in the middle of this ongoing pandemic, under extraordinary rules and a new functioning (e.g., physical distancing in the workplace) that no one can predict when it will end. Organizations have also begun implementing alternative strategies that include working from home/remotely (which ought to depend on job type and design), based on government regulations to minimize the spread of the virus and protecting employees. In the context of the pandemic, changes at work and in working conditions will be generating harmful consequences for employees, negatively impacting on organizations' business productivity and competitiveness, and ability to implement green/sustainable practices (in line with the government regulations and recommendations). These changes justify a shift in the focus of human resource management (HRM) and organisation behaviour research towards employee well-being. This pandemic has led to the emergence of a complex and challenging environment for managers and HRM practitioners who must find ingenious solutions to sustain their company's business, competitiveness and help their employees to cope with the challenges of this unprecedented situation. This is the gap which our project has addressed |
| Exploitation Route | The findings are informing the development of a proactive employee well-being strategic framework for SMEs, moving away from prescriptive ones (which are not necessarily based on the current evidence). The framework will be validated with selected SMEs employees and managers in the UK using a Delphi-focus group study to ensure that the strategies are pragmatic and can be implemented in the SMEs work environment, as the lock down restrictions in the UK will be lifted. The framework was piloted in selected UK SMEs organisations with a MH-WB application, to assess the effectiveness of the strategies and practices. The results demonstrated the benefits of the framework and provide the opportunity to evolve it (after receiving feedback from the organisations). These participating SMEs will formally disseminate the project, their experience and the outcomes through their web-based platform across their supply chains, consortiums, partners and competitors, which is in progress. Finally, we are currently engaging with 150 SMEs directly and indirectly in the West Midlands region covering Greater Birmingham and Solihull local area partnerships (LEPs) to disseminate our findings and increase visibility of framework and the application through webinars and workshops. Building on the project findings we have applied for a UN grant exanmining Workplace Mental Health, Wellbeing and Presenteeism of Women Employees: Transnational Perspectives and Strategic Interventions, forming a consortium with India, Bangladesh and France. the aim of this research project is to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs, employing almost 90% of the world population and 99% of female population globally) in India, Bangladesh, France and the UK, by equipping them with knowledge, evidence-based frameworks, recommendations, and digital tools to alleviate MH, WB and presenteeism issues faced by Women, which will catalyze women-centric socio-economic business transformation in both emerging and developed economies. The research questions corresponding to the core objective are: • (RQ1) Which factors will significantly impact workplace MH, WB and presenteeism of women? How and why these factors differ across various geographical regions? • (RQ2) How MH, WB and presenteeism issues among women in SMEs will impact individual and business productivity, and organizational resilience? • (RQ3) How can SMEs develop and implement women-centric inclusive practices, strategies, and interventions to promote good MH and WB in the workplace? Currently, we have passed stage 1, and waiting for the results of stage 2. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Other |
| Description | Our findings are facilitating the development of a proactive SMEs' employee well-being strategic framework comprising of organisational strategies, employee management practices, communication protocols, job role clarity and expectations, and technology interventions, based on evidence collected from UK SMEs employees and managers and taking into account priorities at both employee and organisational levels to achieve sustainable business performance, in the dynamic pandemic environment. We anticipate the framework will enhance SMEs' staff productivity, reduce presenteeism, increase both psychological immunity and well-being of employees and managers, which will help to enhance and optimise business processes and economic performance. Therefore, the framework will aim to enhance organisational, employee and economic resilience, including transition from remote working back to the office, which will be a critical challenge. The findings have been implemented in SMEs through pilot studies conducted over four months, which demonstrate its effectiveness and thus we are developing business case to incorporate it in the existing business model and SMEs' strategic framework. Usage SMEs - enhance business productivity and socially responsible practices Employees - enhance mental health and workplace well-being UK economy - reduce cost of workforce MH and WB problems (account for 12.1% of total GDP and 12.8 million working days) |
| Sector | Construction,Energy,Environment,Other |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Circular economy (CE) in SMEs to combat climate change issues - capabilities in emerging economy - India address net zero goals, and simultaneously enhance employee wellbeing practices in SMEs through Industry-Academia partnerships |
| Amount | £40,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Jadavpur University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | India |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 01/2024 |
| Description | Enhancing Mental Health and Wellbeing of Employees and Managers in European SMEs. Driving Resilience, Inclusive and Sustainable Transformation in Post Pandemic World |
| Amount | € 32,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | French National Research Agency |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | France |
| Start | 12/2021 |
| End | 12/2023 |
| Description | Pilot for MSc in Circular Economy with focus on including employee wellbeing and enhancing mental practices |
| Amount | £89,905 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 877775303 |
| Organisation | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | India |
| Start | 12/2021 |
| End | 12/2022 |
| Description | Research Collaboration |
| Organisation | Toulouse Business School |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A research collaboration was formed with TBS Education (France), Research Center of Excellance Sustainable Development and CSR. As a result of this collaboration, we became co-investigators for a French National Research agency grant for the project Improving the mental health and well-being of employees and managers in European SMEs: Fostering resilience, inclusive and sustainable transformation in a post-pandemic world. The outcome of the grant will be developing a European Horizon proposal on this topic. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners are leading the grant call and conducting the project in France. |
| Impact | It is a multidisciplinary collaboration between Operations Management Human Resource Management Behavioural psychology Information Management Data Analytics |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Research Collaboration |
| Organisation | Vienna University of Economics and Business |
| Country | Austria |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The aim of the research collaboration is to further extend our research model and framework for supporting mental health and wellbeing of SMEs in Vienna |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners had organised workshop and invited us to disseminate our results. We are co-authoring research manuscripts with collaborators and also developing research proposals to further extend the work on SMEs' mental health and wellbeing |
| Impact | Under progress |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Title | Mental Health and Wellbeing App |
| Description | Aim: Develop a digital decision support diagnostic web-based application (DDSD) for SMEs' staff and business managers to record their responses anonymously and remotely in a gamified survey, which will automatically monitor and systematically assess employee MH, wellbeing, and their needs, effectiveness of organisational strategies, and their impact on business sustainability and organisational resilience. Approach: Soft systems methodology was used to develop the app and recommendations in the user experience literature will be used to design the visual interfaces. The app comprised of: (1) a demo version for employees and employers which will show how the input provided by the users will be used to visualise productivity, impact of business strategies and green practices and how the responses can be interpreted by the users; (2) employee version, which will help employees to monitor their own wellbeing and MH; (3) employer version, showing how the existing strategies and practices are affecting both employees' and business productivity, so that they can devise new plans. The survey questions for the app will be drawn from the literature. Achievement badges and progress bars facilitates effective management of individual MH and WB and thus reducing app usage attrition (employee version) and provide an inclusive and implicit way to enhance employee voice. The first version of the app questionnaire, interface design and dashboard visualisations were validated within the selected members of the project team. The second version was validated by conducting focus groups (10SMEs employees and 10 SMEs managers) ants), demonstrating the various features of the app and giving focus group participants the opportunity to use the app in a controlled environment. The final version of the app will was piloted with selected SMEs employees and respective managers following the principles of user acceptance testing (beta testing with target users). |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Deliverables and Impact: The existing MH apps (such as THINK, CALM, WELLSPACE, HAPPIFY) do not monitor workplace well-being issues, rather they are intended to manage MH and facilitate mindfulness, meditation, and instant message conversations with automated chatbots. The attrition rates of such apps or any other monitoring app is around 60% by second week of use, due to limited interactivity, several usability and user-experience issues leading to disengagement. DDSD app is the first app of its kind which will be developed specifically for SMEs' employees and managers (to make data-centric decisions). The app will transform the way SMEs' managers make decisions, implement strategies to create mentally healthy workplace, and at the same time provide an avenue for SMEs' employees to manage their own wellbeing. The app will anonymously monitor the staff MH and WB, organisational strategies, and productivity, supplemented with interactive reports visualised in a dashboard will aid individual SMEs (with information) to customize the strategies in the proposed framework, i.e., automatically evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives implemented to suit the dynamic staff needs in their organisation during and post COVID-19. This will help to enhance the quality of work life for SMEs' staff, which will increase their efficiency and productivity. Therefore, the framework and app is delivered as a package to the SMEs, thus equipping each SME with necessary tools to become agile during this uncertain and difficult economic period (post pandemic) by introducing practices and strategies that will adequately support and train staff, and advise when referral to external support or third sector services are required. Impact beyond the project: The app provides a diagnostic tool (at no cost) for the SMEs to identify critical success factors that will enhance the quality of work life for their staff and increase productivity at all fronts (during and post pandemic, and even without pandemic). The tool will not only help SMEs to understand the effectiveness of existing strategies and policies (which is important to enhance productivity), but the consolidated dashboard reports (compiled over time) will help the organisations dynamically evolve these practices, strategies, and policies conducive to the need of their staff, and demonstrate care towards staff welfare and wellbeing. From the perspective of policy makers, the data collected will help them to understand the region-specific SMEs' needs which will lead to better policies and actions based on evidence. We are enhancing teh deliverable based on teh feedback recieved from SMEs, and will continue to work on this beyond the project |
| Description | Engagement and Dissemination Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | There were three workshops conducted in 2022 Each workshop was attended by 20-30 participants (50% academics and 50% SMEs in West Midlands) The key conclusions were 1. SMEs need more financial help and training to address mental health and wellbeing issues at workplace 2. While technology and digital decision support systems can help, how can employees and managers trust these systems? Workshop Dates 11 May 2021 11 November 2021 08 March 2022 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |