A flexible workplace initiative improved employees’ health behavior and well-being, including a rise in the amount and quality of sleep and better health management, according to a new study by University of Minnesota sociology professors Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
The key findings show that employees participating in the flexible workplace initiative
- reported getting almost an extra hour (52 minutes) of sleep on nights before work.
- less likely to feel obligated to work when sick and more likely to go to a doctor when necessary, even when busy.
- increased sense of schedule control and reduced their work-family conflict which, in turn, improved their sleep quality, energy levels, self-reported health, and sense of personal mastery while decreasing employees’ emotional exhaustion and psychological distress.
- allow some ‘accommodations’ for family needs
This has important policy implications, suggesting that initiatives creating broad access to time flexibility encourage employees to take better care of themselves.