Alignment of workplace wellbeing initiatives with WHO’s “Guidelines for mental health at work”

Abstract

The workplace offers an ideal setting for promoting health and well-being. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently published guidelines and recommendations for promoting mental health and well-being in the workplace based on the latest empirical evidence. However, little is known regarding its alignment with current practices within organisations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which mental health and well-being initiatives implemented in organisations outside the context of a formal research evaluation align with the WHO Guidelines for Mental Health at Work. Other objectives of the study are to identify trends within current initiatives and to explore whether the number or types of initiatives align with the WHO Guidelines, depending on the size of the organisation. The study used a secondary data analysis approach for a series of case studies collected over a three-year period (2020 to 2022). A total of 333 well-being initiatives from 52 Polish and international organisations were described. The results show a wide variety of initiatives undertaken by organisations, most of which are universal individual intervention types and are implemented by large organisations. A discussion of the strengths, gaps, and opportunities for future implementation and subsequent alignment with the latest evidence-based recommendations is provided.