Employee wellbeing in Australian organisations - a snapshot of current practices

Authors

Grace McCarthy, University of WollongongFollow
Shamika Almeida, University of WollongongFollow
Julia Ahrens, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

34362

Publication Details

McCarthy, G., Almeida, S. & Ahrens, J. (2010). Employee wellbeing in Australian organisations - a snapshot of current practices. 24th Australian New Zealand Academy of Management Annual Conference Southport, QLD, Australia: Anzam.

Link to publisher version (URL)

Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Conference

Abstract

Research has shown that employee wellbeing is associated with a range of positive outcomes such as reduced stress and improved productivity. The aim was to assess the nature and prevalence of wellbeing programs in Australian organisations. An email invitation was sent to 3471 HR professionals in Australia of whom 313 responded to the online survey (9%). Findings indicate that this small subset of Australian HR professionals consider that the benefits of well-being programs outweigh the costs and have a variety of initiatives in place which contribute to employee wellbeing. However, the low response rate may suggest that many organisations do not yet recognise the importance of promoting wellbeing at work.