Work engagement and work ability – how supervisors can support their personnel’s well-being at work

Work engagement means a positive emotional state where an employee finds their work exciting and meaningful. Work engagement has been proven to reduce burnout, absences from work and the risk of resignation as well as to support work performance and commitment.

Five ways to support work engagement

1 Clear expectations

A supervisor can support an employee’s motivation by assigning them a clear role and goals and by ensuring that the expectations match the employee’s resources.

2 Supporting the sense of capability

Tasks that support their sense of capability, opportunities to improve themselves and positive feedback reinforce an employee’s professional confidence and coping at work.

3 Feeling of control

An employee’s ability to manage their workload can be improved by giving them opportunities to influence their work and by supporting their work planning and prioritisation.

4 Support and community

A functional work community, mentoring and a conversational work culture support an employee’s sense of capability and ability to manage difficult situations.

5 Opportunities for recovery

A supervisor can promote an employee’s work-life balance. Successful recovery supports both well-being and work performance.

Well-being is reflected in work performance

A healthy and happy employee is efficient and committed to the employer. Work engagement is linked with better results, lower stress levels and longer career paths.

Essi Vehviläinen, Occupational Psychologist

Occupational health supports the development of management

Pihlajalinna Occupational Health offers its customers practical support for developing management practices that promote employee well-being. Our services include:

• specialist-led lectures and webinars

• workshops and coaching

• conversational support and joint planning meetings.

Please contact your occupational health team for more information.