Mental stress and resources in the sectors of IT services and social services – The potential of company occupational safety and health policy for developing health-promoting organisations

Abstract

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic greatly increased the demands on employees and companies for handling mental stress and resources. A mixed-methods design was used to examine contrasting occupational groups, i. e. IT service workers (IT), and care workers and home helps providing social care (SC) in clients’ homes. First, this paper analyses how the mental health of both occupational groups was affected by the pandemic. Second, the potential of risk assessments for mental health (RA-M) for developing health-promoting organisations is investigated. While the first question is analysed with quantitative company surveys before and during the pandemic, the second question draws on qualitative company case studies. The quantitative survey shows few differences in health outcomes for the occupational groups during the observation period. In contrast to social care employees, IT employees were able to work at home. The social care employees show a greater fear of infection and report little influence over their work. In IT, the lack of direct contact with colleagues was perceived as stressful, while improvements in work autonomy were reported. The case study findings show that implementing RA-M contributed to reducing work-related stress and to fostering health-related resources. RA-M-based workplace interventions proved to be overarching social innovations that extended beyond OSH by improving work structures and enabling health-sensitive organisational development.