Family Supportive Supervisor Training and Workplace Assessment Tool

Work Life Help, Inc., Williamsburg MI

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Managing the demands of work and personal life is a major stressor affecting employees, yet there are virtually no evidence-based workplace supervisory training interventions to address this critical public health concern. Research has shown work-family conflict can affect employees' health, workplace productivity, family interactions, and safety and wellness on and off the job, in addition to the well-being of employees and their families. This issue is of particular concern to older workers, who comprise more than one-fifth of the U.S. workforce. In this STTR, Work Life Help, a Michigan-based small business, plans to improve and enhance its Family Supportive Supervisor Training (FSST), the only rigorously field-tested training of its kind, to further its mission to help organizations translate evidence-based work-life research into practice, through training, consulting, assessments, and organizational change work. Phase I Aims include the following: (1) Adapt and improve the design and delivery of the online FSST to be SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) compliant, which will make the product more easily disseminated and utilized. (2) Develop an online pre- and post-intervention Workplace Assessment Tool that will provide an evaluation of employee perceptions of the workplace work-life and occupational health context, including the perceived organizational and managerial support for employees' work-life needs. (3) Implement the Workplace Assessment Tool and SCORM-compliant FSST intervention with a cross-section of employees and work environments to assess usability and effectiveness. (4) Collect data from potential adopters (e.g., management and employees) at each of two organizations to establish final proof of concept for the FSST program and Workplace Assessment Tool. The FSST has been implemented in diverse industries and as a part of the Work, Family, & Health Network (WFHN) - a large multi-site, multidisciplinary, collaborative U01 initiative funded by the NICHD, NIA, OBSSR, and NIOSH - to study family supportive supervisor behavior training and work redesign to reduce work-family conflict and improve the health of workers and their families. The FSST is a significant part of the WFHN intervention that has been shown to increase job satisfaction, decrease employee turnover intentions and increase reports of physical health in a randomized control trial workplace study (Hammer et al., 2011), as well as reduce work-family conflict (Kelly et al., 2014). To make FSST available to more workplace settings and to further validate this innovative approach, Work Life Help and its research partner Purdue University will subcontract with an established internet strategy and design firm to adapt and improve the design and delivery of the online training prototype to be SCORM-compliant. At the end of Phase I, Work Life Help will have easily disseminated intervention tools - the SCORM-compliant online training and the Workplace Assessment Tool - to support the health and well-being of employees and improve the work environment.