Guided E-learning for Managers

Plain English summary of protocol

Background and study aims
Work is good for health and well-being. An interesting job with good support from managers and colleagues and excellent working conditions is likely to lead to high levels of well-being. In contrast, jobs with high pace, being asked to carry out tasks which conflict with each other, low support and little guidance from managers, little control over the work and how it is carried out, bullying and injustice at work can reduce well-being and increase the risk of taking sickness absence from work. Key to maintaining and improving employee well-being is the knowledge and practice of their managers. There have been very few studies of manager training in relation to employee well-being and sickness absence. However, there have been many studies demonstrating that lack of support from managers is related to poor mental health and increased sickness absence in employees. This research involves a small study of an already developed e-learning programme for managers to be completed on-line by managers in separate modules over 12 weeks. These modules aim to help managers understand and learn how to support and value their employees, increase employees' control over their work where possible, ensure their employees are justly treated and identify and eliminate bullying. In this first study, before the main study begins, we will test whether organisations will accept the intervention (e-learning programme) and whether we can achieve high levels of recruitment to the study. We will also examine in detail the components of the e-learning intervention and whether managers stick to the programme. We will also get an initial idea of how effective the programme is in altering managers' behaviours and improving employees' wellbeing.

Who can participate?
For this study we have recruited the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Trust. The participants to be included in this study are about 40 managers and their employees.

What does the study involve?
Four departments with a total of about 400 employees within this organisation will be randomly allocated to either the managers being provided with the intervention (intervention group) or not (control group). At the beginning of the study, before the intervention, we will measure employee well-being using a questionnaire in both intervention and control groups. We will repeat this well-being measure in employees 4 months after the start of the intervention. We will study the effectiveness of the intervention. We will also check whether we can collect rates of sickness absence in this organisation to test whether the intervention reduces levels of short (less than 7 days) and medium duration (7-21 days) sickness absence. We will also evaluate whether we can collect information from the employer on whether the intervention is cost-effective in terms of reducing sickness absence. As this is a small study we will also carry out qualitative in-depth interviews and focus groups as part of the initial evaluation of the e-learning programme. This will involve focus groups and interviews with the managers after the intervention to assess whether managers found it helpful or not and to find out if there are ways in which it could be improved. We will also include in-depth interviews with senior managers and Human Resources personnel to try to understand their perspective on the intervention. We will also have focus groups and interviews with employees to see if they feel the programme for managers has had any impact on them.

What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
There are few risks associated with this intervention; the developer of the e-learning programme will train facilitators to introduce the managers to the intervention and the facilitators will provide weekly email and telephone support for managers to deal with any issues raised by the intervention. We will maintain strict confidentiality with the employee data and will not report any individual data back to the organisation. We have an expert team to run the study. The benefits of the intervention will be to improve employees' (and indirectly, managers') levels of wellbeing. It is anticipated that managers will be facilitated to be more effective and supportive and that this will have benefits for the employees in terms of subjective wellbeing and reduced sickness absence. A positive effect in decreasing rates of sickness absence will be to increase productivity and sustain employee confidence, and potentially improve the efficiency, and productivity, of the organisations involved.

Where is the study run from?
Queen Mary University of London (UK)

When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
The study started in June 2013 and will run for about 18 months

Who is funding the study?
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (UK)

Who is the main contact?
Prof. Stephen Stansfeld
s.a.stansfeld@qmul.ac.uk

Contact information

Study information

Eligibility

Locations

Countries of recruitment

• United Kingdom
• England

Study participating centre

Results and Publications

Study outputs

Editorial Notes

11/08/2016: Publication reference added.