HR role in managing employees’ health and well-being at John Lewis & Partners

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Introduction

Health and wellbeing at work are issues that affect people engagement with the organisation
and its operations. Suff (2021) health and well-being enhances the creation of an environment
where employees can thrive, enhances people engagement to organisations, and improves
employee performance. HR professionals promote employee health and well-being and
champion better work for the professionals, and better working lives in an environment where
people can flourish. When organisations fail to embrace health and well-being strategies, they
fail to look to their interests. Employers should therefore prioritise implementing a holistic
approach to managing employee health and wellbeing. During the coronavirus period, health
and well-being should be the top priority because the Covid-19 disease itself is a health issue
that has affected employees globally. The government has introduced health measures and
regulations that people should abide by for safety. Employers have to take responsibility for
managing these issues to create a supportive work environment. Organisations that do not
implement strategies supporting employee health are characterised by people who are sick,
stressed, report high absenteeism in the workplace and are often demotivated to work. These
are negative consequences that, in order to deal with, research on HR role in managing
employee health and well-being is carried out to develop recommendations to improve
employee health and safety. John Lewis & Partners is a company with its headquarters in the
United Kingdom. It is a company that has hired thousands of employees in and out of the UK.
The current Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the company and its employees,
which creates the need to reconsider how to implement strategies effective in managing the
health and well-being of employees working in the company.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders who contribute significantly to managing employee health and well-being
include the line managers, senior managers, people professionals, employees, and
occupational health officers. Their interests and contributions to employee health and well-being
are as shown in the table below:

Stakeholders Interests in managing health and well-being

People The people professionals are responsible for bringing up
professionals agendas to support a culture that supports employee health
and well-being. In addition, they work closely with managers
and employees to evaluate the daily business operations
and their impacts on promoting employee health.
 Line managers Work directly with employees and therefore understand their
concerns and plights on matters concerning health and
safety. They support the implementation of health initiatives
developed by people professionals to make the necessary

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adjustments. They work with employees in
shaping a culture that the employees support employees'
good health and safety.
Senior managers They are responsible for implementing all agendas and
initiatives on employee health and well-being. In addition,
senior leaders bring about interventions to support the
culture that line managers develop concerning promoting
people's health and wellbeing.
Employees Employees look after their health and safety. They are
directly affected by the decisions made by people
professionals and managers. Therefore, they communicate
with other employees and management to access the
proper treatment to foster good employee health and safety.
Occupational Are responsible for implementing the health initiatives and
health officers measures. They are experienced professionals working in
the health industry to protect people and organisations from
health risks.

Literature review

Employee well-being and productivity in the workplace

Haddon (2018), in a strategic viewpoint, sought to create a link between employee well-being
and the nature of people productivity. The author identified the types of well-being in an
organisation, focusing on mental, psychological, and physical wellbeing. These attributes
determine employee welfare and are thus considered effective in determining the people
involvement and engagement to work and work operations. Suff (2021) supports Haddon (2021)
by explaining the need to develop a holistic approach to managing employee well-being. This
contributes significantly to developing an environment where the interests of the employees are
looked into from all different perspectives. The views of these authors relate to the development
of a culture that the management and people professionals should create to creating a good
platform that supports employee health and well-being. Among the various issues that Haddon
(2018) discussed in providing employee health and well-being, the author concluded that
supporting the employees who suffer from mental health challenges should be an aspect that
should engage professionals who provide psychological, mental and physical support in the
best possible ways that they can. Griffiths (2020), in addition, argues that when employees are
engaged in physical activities, the possibilities of them having sicknesses other health
conditions such as heart attacks are reduced. Physical fitness is, therefore, an essential
contribution to supporting employees' health in the organisation. Employees with good physical,
psychological, and mental health status tend to be more productive at work. The reason is that
there are fewer risks that will make them sick or uninvolved in work, and they, therefore,
become good performers.

Haddon (2018) used qualitative study research in carrying out the study and developed
personal views on the issues linking employee health and well-being to employee productivity.
The advantage of using secondary research is that it is quick to obtain secondary information
from books, journals and the internet. The researcher identifies materials that relate to the
discussion issue and analyses the data to conclude the same relating to the research topic. The
disadvantage of secondary research data is that millions of articles have been written on
employee health and well-being. Therefore, choosing the relevant articles that are reliable and
credible for the research may challenge the researcher.

The significance of this article to John Lewis management is that there is a need to look into the
employees' psychological, mental, and physical status. Management and HR should work
together to find out how this well-being status is managed in the workplace and make sure that
they look to the interests and concerns of the employees. In addition, businesses should be
keen to look at the possible changes that might affect the employees after the Covid-19
pandemic. The pandemic might have affected some of the employees directly.

How total worker health reduces employee stress and turnover

Syed (2020) identified factors that affect workers' health, focused on the total worker health h
approach necessary to manage pandemics such as the Covid-19 disease and other unexpected
events. Promoting workers’ health is not an issue that should be addressed after an event but
should be a continuous process with improved policies and strategies being implemented. The
author developed the total worker health initiative to recognise the measures and the
appropriate actions that organisations should take to manage employees’ well-being. The
initiative sought to accommodate some of the intangible attributes that contribute to employee
health and wellbeing. Through the initiative, health promotion programs are implemented to
support employees, which, when successful, bring about high employee satisfaction levels. The
programs support business stakeholders in managing health problems such as sicknesses and
other disorders brought about mental and psychological issues faced by the employees. In the
end, the interests of the employees become fully accommodated, an attribute that results in
improved health status among all employees. The author also sought to explain the need to
support employees emotional health to enable them to deal with personal issues when they
arise. Integrating all programs and initiatives supporting employee health and well-being works
best to provide total worker health. While concluding, the author explains that the programs are
necessary and effective in managing employee health and well-being. However, not all people
are willing to participate in the wellness programs that organisations provide to support and
manage health and well-being problems. Employees feel that the initiatives support them and
their health measures, which is an aspect that contributes to reduced stress levels and reduced
turnover.

The author used case study research to observe workers' schedules and behaviours. The
disadvantage of this method is that the researcher can only make assumptions based on what
they can see. The advantages of observation are that it takes less time, the researcher does not
interact directly with respondents, and it very affordable because the researcher needs very few
resources to carry out the study. However, this means that the results can be biased, incredibly
because the researcher makes a personal judgement on what they see.

The source is beneficial to John Lewis as the management would look into why the stress levels
are high and examine the intention of the employees to leave the organisation. This will help
decide which of the initiatives they should implement to keep the employees' health and well-
being an essential attribute contributing to people's positivism.

Impact of HRM on employee well-being

In a study, Heffernan et al. (2021) sought to explain HRM impact on employee well-being by
examining the internal and external influences on different systems of employee well-being.
Different HR systems and processes influence people and organisational performances. These
are aspects determined by the HR actions in involving the employees by giving them a voice
and influencing the workers' perception to accommodate the systems that support their well-
being. Instead of only considering the internal processes, the author explains the need to
consider open systems from the external organisation to examine their impact on the
organisational climate. The author focused on this approach because, in most instances, the
external forces and processes are often ignored. This happens because of the available
alternative cultural contexts in different organisations, which affect the dynamics of the issues in
the organisation. Therefore, the HRM system must be fully engaged in supporting employee
well-being after examining both the internal and external issues affecting the wellness among
the employees and the whole organisation. In support of these views, Ab Wahab and Tatoglu
(2020) argue that HR is responsible for analysing the work environment and making the
necessary changes to impact them and the organisation positively. The authors provide an
example in developing flexible work patterns for the employees, which is influenced by open or
external systems such as the Covid-19 pandemic. These arrangements are meant to create a
work-life balance and allow employees to work in an environment where they feel safe.
Therefore, the decisions made by HR are effective in supporting an environment that is effective
in supporting the employees and their well-being.

The authors used a survey research method and used random stratified sampling to identify
respondents for the research. Advantages of using surveys are that researchers can distribute
questionnaires and easily follow up on responses. In addition, it takes less time, but sometimes
when respondents fail to provide information can take more time than anticipated. The
disadvantages of surveys are that researchers rarely get a chance to interact with respondents,
and respondents may provide answers that are not honest.

The management at John Lewis may use the information generated from this source to identify
the internal and external influences that affect employee wellness. These will help examine
issues within the organisation and those outside the organisation and then work with HR to
develop practices to manage the issue.

Methodology

Carrying out research is a process that required following strategic steps and determining the
methods of carrying out the research.

The first step to completing a research process is identifying the research topic, which should be
narrow and direct to the point. The researcher seeks to identify a problem and identifies a topic
to address the problem. The second step is identifying the research aim and research
objectives. These guide the researcher on the research issues necessary in developing
solutions to the research problem. The third step is identifying the research methods, which is
one of the most crucial steps to determine how the research process is carried out. There are
both primary and secondary methods of carrying out research. The researcher has to choose
either of the methods. The fourth step follows in developing the research questions. These
guide the researcher to determining the research issues and in developing resolutions for the
study. The sixth step is analysing and presenting data that the researcher finds out from the
study. The final step is making a summary and conclusions from the data collected. The
researcher then develops recommendations to manage the research issue.

Primary and secondary research methods are used in carrying out research. Surveys and
focus-group discussions are two primary research methods that guide researchers in
completing a study. A comparison of these two methods is presented below:

Survey research is a quantitative research study where the researcher identifies respondents
from a population engaged in research. The surveys are conducted online or face-to-face using
a well-formulated questionnaire. Researchers may sometimes post the questionnaires to the
respondents and collect them later after filling them. Focus-group discussions is also a primary
research method where sample respondents are selected from a population. However, the
method is qualitative because the researcher interacts directly with the respondents as they
discuss and share ideas on the topic of study. The differences between these two are also
evident in the method of analysing data collected from the study. In surveys, researchers collect
quantitative data and analyse the data statistically. In focus-group discussions, researchers
collect qualitative data that is analysed using the content analysis data analysis method.

Conclusion

Haddon (2018) concluded that employee health and well-being are highly linked to productivity.
Organisations that invest in employee well-being and seek to provide a holistic approach to
managing employee health benefit from a highly motivated and committed workforce that is
highly productive. Syed (2020) asserts that recognising health approaches in an organisation
should be one of the most appropriate actions that the management should take. This should
focus not only on one initiative or idea but also on different initiatives that support physical,
emotional, psychological, mental, and overall well-being. Organisations that combine all these
approaches benefit from a workforce with reduced stress levels and low turnover. Heffernan et
al. (2020) Concluded that the nature of HR performance in evaluating employee well-being
illuminates the perceptions that the employees have on the same. Information gathered from
within and outside the organisation concerning the same highlights the actions taken to improve
employee wellness.

Recommendations

One of the recommendations that the management and HR at John Lewis should look at is
committing to social and physical activities at work. All staff members should be committed to
the activities so that they can move from the regular workspaces and work lives. In addition, the
activities sharpen the mind, make the employees more active and engaged, and further promote
the employees' productivity in performing their assigned roles and responsibilities.

To ensure that all employees are engaged in programs that support different integrating
initiatives to supporting employee well-being, people professionals may decide to carry out a
survey involving leaders and develop a communication plan. These are actions practical to
engage the employees in the wellness programs without having to force them. In addition, the
plan will create awareness to the employees on the initiatives that the organisation seeks to
accomplish by addressing the health and well-being issues among their employees.

Educating staff and providing employees' personal development opportunities is a

recommendation to HR to ensure that they keep people updated on the practices and systems
that affect different HR functions. These issues will promote employee well-being, especially
when the employees realise their opportunities to achieve their personal goals. This will create
opportunities for employees to take good care of themselves, understand the environment they
work in and prioritise the most important aspects contributing to social growth.
References:

Ab Wahab, M., & Tatoglu, E. (2020). Chasing productivity demands, worker well-being, and firm
performance: The moderating effects of HR support and flexible work
arrangements. Personnel Review.

Griffiths, A. (2020). Employee exercise programmes: organisational and individual perspectives.

In Workplace Health, Employee Fitness and Exercise (pp. 1-27). CRC Press.

Haddon, J. (2018). The impact of employees’ well-being on performance in the

workplace. Strategic HR Review.

Heffernan, M., Cafferkey, K., Harney, B., Townsend, K., & Dundon, T. (2021). HRM system
strength and employee well‐being: the role of internal process and open systems. Asia
Pacific Journal of Human Resources.

Suff, R. (2021) Wellbeing at work, available from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/culture/well-

being/factsheet

Syed, I. U. (2020). Diet, physical activity, and emotional health: What works, what doesn’t, and
why we need integrated solutions for total worker health. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1-9.