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“生产率差距”已被广泛讨论。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，可能加剧大流行前的生产率差距。经合组织的证据还表明，英国的心理健康可能受到疫情的特别严重的影响。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）的焦虑人口比例有所上升，其中英国在2020年研究的所有国家中焦虑水平最高，达到33% （OECD 2021年，图1.20，第179页）。这种模式可能加剧了英国在大流行前因心理健康和福祉不佳而造成的生产力成本，据估计，这一成本为420亿至450亿英镑。尽管不良的员工心理健康和生产力的影响规模，我们知之甚少的结果（因果效应），当雇主实施心理健康和福利实践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影响企业层面的生产力。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的结论是，“关于这些干预措施有效性的证据有限……在确定不同计划和举措的有效性方面存在困难”（生产力委员会，2020年，第342页）。我们在这里的宏伟目标是解决我们在理解上的这一差距，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率和生产率的提高。哪种职业健康实践对员工的心理健康最有益？哪些对员工的福利有最大的好处？这些影响如何影响企业层面的生产率？了解这些联系对于从Covid-19及其随之而来的心理健康影响中恢复，以及在未来几年建立更高和可持续的生产力至关重要。我们的研究采用了跨学科和混合方法的方法，整合了管理研究和经济学的观点，这些观点与采用管理实践的生产力效益有关，与工作和职业心理学的见解有关，这些观点与雇主行为的福利效益有关。我们的方法方法是纵向涉及计量经济，统计和观察研究方法的混合。利用和发展现有的数据来源，我们将在赠款的整个生命周期内跟踪英格兰东部和西部米德兰兹郡约1500家公司，并检查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- -将允许建立因果关系，即第一阶段的活动导致随后阶段的结果。该项目将补充另一个主要项目-心理健康和生产力试点(MHPP) -诺丁汉和华威团队也在贡献（https://mhpp.me/），由米德兰兹引擎资助。研究结果将有助于管理实务、职业健康和企业层面生产力提升的研究。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。成果还将与支持与企业合作发展健康工作场所和提高生产力的组织有关，该项目得到了一系列公共和私营部门组织的大力支持（见支持函）。

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).