Mental health and well-being practices, outcomes and productivity: A causal analysis

英国与其国际竞争对手之间的“生产力差距”一直受到广泛讨论。2019年，英国的生产率是法国和美国的83%，是德国的86%。2020年，英国工业生产率增长率也为负值，可能加剧疫情前的生产率差距。经合组织的证据还表明，英国的心理健康可能受到大流行的特别严重的影响。在2019年至2020年期间，许多国家（比利时、捷克共和国、丹麦、法国和英国）经历焦虑的人比例上升，英国是2020年研究的所有国家中焦虑水平最高的国家--33%（经合组织2021年，图1.20，第179页）。这种模式很可能加剧了大流行前英国精神健康和幸福状况不佳的生产力成本，估计为420亿至450亿英镑。尽管规模差的员工心理健康和生产力的影响，我们知道很少的结果（因果效应），当雇主实施心理健康和福利的做法对员工的心理健康和福祉，甚至更少的因果机制，通过不良的MH&W影响公司层面的生产力。例如，2020年澳大利亚生产力委员会关于心理健康的报告得出结论，“这些干预措施的有效性证据有限......很难确定不同方案和倡议的有效性“（生产力委员会，2020年，第342页）。我们雄心勃勃的目标是解决我们理解中的这一差距，并建立因果机制，通过这种机制，企业采用心理健康和福祉（MH&W）实践可以有利于生产力和生产力的提高。MH&W的哪些做法对员工的心理健康最有益？哪些对员工福利最有好处？这些影响如何影响企业层面的生产率？无论是在从新型冠状病毒及其伴随的心理健康影响中复苏，还是在未来几年建立更高和可持续的生产力，理解这些联系都至关重要。我们的研究采用了跨学科和混合方法的方法，将管理学和经济学的观点与采用管理实践的生产力效益相结合，并将工作和职业心理学的观点与雇主行为的福利效益相结合。我们的方法论是纵向的，涉及计量经济学，统计和观察研究方法的混合。利用和开发现有的数据源，我们将通过赠款的生命周期跟踪英格兰东米德兰兹郡和西米德兰兹郡的约1500家公司，并研究这些公司内工作组和个人的活动和福祉。纵向分析-定性和定量分析-将有助于建立因果关系，即第一阶段的活动导致随后各阶段的结果。这个项目将补充另一个主要项目-心理健康和生产力试点（MHPP）-其中诺丁汉和沃里克团队也作出贡献（https：//mhpp.me/）由米德兰兹引擎资助。研究结果将有助于文献的管理实践，职业健康和企业层面的生产力提高。项目成果将指导雇主支持良好的员工心理健康和福祉，从而有助于提高生产力。成果也将与支持与企业合作的组织有关，以发展健康的工作场所和提高生产力，该项目得到了一系列公共和私营部门组织的大力支持（见支持信）。

The 'productivity gap' between the UK and its international competitors has been widely discussed. In 2019 UK productivity was 83 per cent of that in France and the US and 86 per cent that of Germany. In 2020, UK industry productivity growth rates were also negative, potentially exacerbating the pre-pandemic productivity gap. OECD evidence also suggests that mental health in the UK may have been particularly seriously impacted by the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2020 the proportion of people experiencing anxiety rose in a number of countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France and the UK) with the UK registering the highest level of anxiety of any country studied in 2020 - 33 per cent (OECD 2021, Figure 1.20, p. 179). This pattern is likely to have exacerbates the pre-pandemic, productivity costs of poor mental health and well-being in the UK, which were estimated at £42bn - £45bn. Despite the scale of the impact of poor employee mental health and productivity we know little about the outcomes (causal effects) when employers implement mental health and well-being practices on employees' mental health and well-being and even less about the causal mechanisms through which poor MH&W influences firm-level productivity. The 2020 Australian Productivity Commission report on mental health concluded, for example, that 'there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions ... there has been difficulty in establishing the effectiveness of different programs and initiatives' (Productivity Commission, 2020, p. 342). Our ambitious aim here is to address this gap in our understanding and to establish the causal mechanisms through which firms' adoption of mental health and well-being (MH&W) practices can benefit productivity and productivity improvement. Which MH&W practices have the greatest benefit for employee mental health? Which have the greatest benefit for employee well-being? And, how do these effects impact firm-level productivity? Understanding these linkages is critical both during the recovery from Covid-19 and its attendant mental health impacts and in building higher and sustainable productivity in future years. Our study adopts an inter-disciplinary and mixed-methods approach integrating perspectives from management studies and economics relating to the productivity benefits of the adoption of management practices with insights from work and occupational psychology relating to the well-being benefits of employers' actions. Our methodological approach is longitudinal involving a mix of econometric, statistical and observational research methods. Capitalising on and developing existing data sources we will follow around 1500 firms across the East and West Midlands of England through the lifetime of the grant and examine the activities and well-being of work groups and individuals within these firms. Longitudinal analysis - both qualitative and quantitative - will allow causal relationships to be established, i.e. activities in period 1 leading to outcomes in subsequent periods. This project will compliment another major project - the Mental Health and Productivity Pilot (MHPP) - to which the Nottingham and Warwick teams are also contributing (https://mhpp.me/) funded by the Midlands Engine. Study findings will contribute to the literatures on management practices, occupational health and firm level productivity improvement. Project outcomes will guide employers in supporting good employee mental health and well-being and so contribute to productivity improvement. Outcomes will also be relevant to support organisations working with businesses to develop healthy workplaces and productivity upgrading and the project is strongly supported by a range of public and private sector organisations (see letters of support).