Tools & Guides

The Center develops tools and guides to help organizations, practitioners, and researchers apply evidence-based approaches to improving worker safety, health, and well-being. These resources are designed to support the implementation of effective workplace programs, policies, and practices.

Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Sustainable Interventions in Organizations: The How-To of Improving Worker Health and Well-being

Karina Nielsen, Glorian Sorensen, Nadia El-Salanti, and Michael Munch-Hansen

Work can benefit workers’ health and well-being by offering a sense of meaning, social connections and a source of income. Yet an increasing number of workers report experiencing stress in their jobs, caused by job insecurity, working long hours, excessive workload, and the like, with significant implications for both mental and physical health.

Designing, Implementing and Evaluating Sustainable Interventions in Organizations offers a systematic approach to fostering worker health and well-being through participatory organizational interventions. These types of interventions address the underlying root causes of workplace stressors and give workers a voice in prioritizing needed changes. Synthesizing evidence of best practices, this book describes the six intervention phases included in the Nielsen Intervention Model: Preparation, Evaluation Planning, Screening, Action Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. Two case studies provide concrete methods and tools and illustrate the ways in which context can require variations in planning, implementation, and evaluation. The book also engages in a broad examination of the implications of social policies and regulatory environments for intervention practices. This evidence-based and step-by-step approach to build healthy organizational work environments is an essential toolkit for improving well-being on the job.

Starting a Workplace Health and Well-Being Committee

Starting a Workplace Health and Well-Being Committee: A Step-By-Step Guide for Managers provides managers and organizations with guidance about implementing an evidence-based participatory workplace program that research has found can significantly lower turnover among frontline workers—and in the process, can save an organization money by reducing recruiting and training costs and may have beneficial effects on workers’ psychological well-being, as well. The Health and Well-being Committee (HaWC) model was developed by researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as part of a collaboration with a national retail organization. The HaWC program was developed in response to employees’ and managers’ concerns and reflected input from interviews with employees and managers at the company, as well as insights from recent research on what makes a successful participatory workplace program. The program was then tested in a rigorous field experiment that took place in the e-commerce division of the retail organization, as part of the Center’s Fulfillment Center Intervention Study. 

Implementing a Work Design for Health Approach

Implementing a Work Design for Health Approach: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Healthier Workplace, developed by our colleagues at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, introduces the features of a Work Design for Health framework and describes promising practices for workplace change that can help employers create an overall culture of health in their organizations. This resource offers an evidence-based five-step participatory approach to improving worker health and well-being, with tips on how to keep the initiative sustainable. The strategies included are derived from a review of practices for the design and implementation of participatory workplace interventions.

Implementing an Integrated Approach: Weaving Employee Health, Safety, and Well-Being into the Fabric of Your Organization

Implementing an Integrated Approach: Weaving Employee Health, Safety, and Well-Being into the Fabric of Your Organization is a detailed step-by-step evidence-based approach to implementing an integrated approach to worker safety, health, and well-being at an organization. With real-world examples, it demonstrates how to inspire key worksite stakeholders to support and participate in an integrated approach; identify goals and objectives for an integrated initiative; target working conditions meaningful to workers and employers; implement policies and practices that create and sustain positive working conditions; and evaluate and continually improve efforts to enhance worker safety, health, and well-being. Find the full set of guidelines to implementing an integrated approach in both English and Spanish, below. 

Employee Input Tip Sheets

Tip sheets are a valued resource used by employers as they evaluate and continually improve efforts to enhance worker health, safety, and well-being. To encourage critical employee participation in a research project with food service workers, the Center developed a tip sheet, Tips to Encourage Employee Input, available in English and in Spanish.