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An investigation of HRM perspectives on the interventions organisations implement to support the psychological wellbeing of employees

Rowan, Rianne (2021) An investigation of HRM perspectives on the interventions organisations implement to support the psychological wellbeing of employees. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

There is a growing concern from employees about their psychological wellbeing. This phenomenon has implications for employees’ health and HR as poor psychological wellbeing can negatively affect performance thus creating costs from lowered performance and treating the employee. A study by Deloitte shows that the cost of ill psychological wellbeing to employers in the UK is billions and increasing. Therefore, this study aimed to understand what is done in organisations for this growing and costly phenomenon by researching HR in relation to their support of employee psychological wellbeing (EPW) as HR are strongly linked to EPW. Specifically, the role and perspectives of HR, what supports HR implements and what affects this selection, and the challenges to HR in relation to EPW have been studied. The literature review for this study revealed that there are many supports and interventions that HR can implement which can benefit both the employee and the organisation. However, this comes with its own challenges.

The qualitative research method of semi-structured interviews with an inductive and interpretivist research philosophy was utilised to gain further insight into the research questions.

It was found that HR’s role in relation to EPW is to enable employees to access qualified psychological supports as HR have a limited responsibility for EPW. HR perceives EPW as important for the employee’s health and also the organisation’s financial position. Currently, the most common supports by HR are the EAP, counselling and time off work. The supports reported by participants show a lack of primary interventions which would reduce the chances of EPW issues from occurring or escalating. This is possibly due to the main challenge that HR faces which is their lack of education on EPW particularly on understanding what HR can do to reduce EPW issues from occurring alongside identifying and supporting EPW.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA790 Mental Health
Divisions: School of Business > Master of Arts in Human Resource Management
Depositing User: Clara Chan
Date Deposited: 27 Jan 2022 12:30
Last Modified: 27 Jan 2022 12:30
URI: https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/5348

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