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Growing demand for flexible working and an increasing recognition of its broad benefits have pointed to the need for practical, evidence-based guidance to help people professionals and their organisations to implement it.

This CIPD guide, produced in collaboration with Affinity Health, explores the effective...

This report provides an overview of the resources required to support people returning to work following mental health sickness absence Sustainable return to work is a challenge in the UK and beyond, with too many people existing the workplace following an initial return.

We conducted semi-structured...

No systematic review had previously been conducted examining the benefits mindfulness or meditation interventions for leaders and managers. However, the literature suggested that such interventions would have a positive impact on leaders' own well-being, their leadership capability, their 'post-conventional'...

This study provides analysis and insight into the views and experiences of 12 top executives of FTSE 350 companies about appointing women to their boards, against background growth in the number of female non-executive directors but the number of female executive director appointments showing no progress....

Distributed workers those who work autonomously and remotely from their organisation's main locations for at least some of their work-time are an important and growing proportion of the workforce that share common characteristics of temporal and spatial distance. Yet, many leadership styles and management...

Current research on return to work (RTW) for employees with common mental disorders suffers from two limitations. First, research mostly focuses on the influence of resources during the absence period ignoring the resources which may facilitate sustainable RTW, i.e. employees continuing to work and thrive...

When young people need health information they are increasingly likely to use online sources and health apps (applications). Yet, these are not necessarily well-designed, reliable or appropriate, and research has primarily focused on adult use. Our study is the first to use qualitative mixed methods...

The objective of this study was to examine employees' perceived barriers and facilitators of physical activity and healthy dietary choices, and managers' perceptions of how best to facilitate physical activity and healthy dietary choices among their team members.
Participants were employees from a large...

'Developing Positive Leadership for Employee Well‐Being and Engagement' is a chapter in the book 'Leading to Occupational Health and Safety: How Leadership Behaviours Impact Organizational Safety and Well-Being', focusing on how leaders can promote wellbeing in their organisations and the positive...

Sponsored by the CIPD, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the Affinity Health at Work Research Consortium, Affinity Health at Work has conducted research to review all the evidence available about what affects the success of developing managers who support employee engagement, health...

Contributing to the CIPD's thought piece collection 'Moving the health and well-being agenda forward', this chapter promotes Affinity Health at Work's beliefs and values to the importance of employee wellbeing for healthy and effective organisations.

This systematic review presents findings from a conceptual and methodological review of resilience measures using an interactionist theoretical framework. The review is also intended to update findings from previous systematic reviews. Two databases (EBSCOHost and Scopus) were searched to retrieve empirical...

Sponsored by the CIPD, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and the Affinity Health at Work Research Consortium, Affinity Health at Work has conducted research to review all the evidence available about what affects the success of developing managers who support employee engagement, health...

Leadership and change are complex, with many different approaches and theories. Co-edited by Rachel Lewis, Managing Partner at Affinity Health at Work, this book shares key research and practical guidance on the psychology of leadership, change and OD.

Evidence suggests that employee engagement has a positive and significant effect on organisations, and that managers are pivotal to engagement and wellbeing.
Research, funded by the CIPD and led by Affinity Health at Work through a consortium of employers and other stakeholders, has brought together two...

This chapter provides an introduction into the role of line managers in managing risks to employee psychosocial health. It looks at how line managers (or immediate supervisors, used interchangeably) can influence the success of interventions for psychosocial issues through their impact on process and...

Although it is widely accepted by both academics and practitioners that employee engagement has a significant and positive impact on both the organisation and the individual, there is no general consensus on the conceptualisation of employee engagement.

This research aims to define employee engagement...

Our research highlights the pivotal role that line managers play in workplace stress management. For employers to reduce and manage workplace stress effectively they need to ensure that managers demonstrate the skills and behaviours that allow them to manage their staff in ways that minimise work-related...

The overall aim of this report is to assist practitioners in understanding resilience and approaches to building resilience, as well as identifying gaps in these domains. Additional objectives include: to review interventions designed to build resilience offered both by practitioners and by the academic...

Preventing Stress in Organizations: How to Develop Positive Managers was awarded the British Psychological Society Book Award and offers an innovative, evidence-based approach to help managers prevent and reduce workplace stress in their staff. It provides information on the critical skills managers...

Workplace stress is a significant problem in healthcare, especially within nursing. While there is a reasonable consensus regarding the sources of stress and its impact on health and well-being, little is known about the specific line manager behaviours that are associated with the effective and ineffective...

Work-related stress is a major concern for employers, and the UK Health and Safety Executive has introduced Management Standards for employers to support them in managing stress in the workplace. Managers have a key role to play in minimizing stress-related risks for their staff. Management behaviour...

This report presents the findings of the second phase of a research project to identify the specific management behaviours associated with the effective management of stress at work. This phase aimed to: examine the usability of the 'Management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work'...