• Project number: F 2454
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Completed Project

Description:

Due to the changing nature of work and the opportunities offered by digitalisation, more and more people are taking advantage of flexible working time models and mobile working. This offers advantages for employees, but can also have negative effects on well-being, work-life balance and performance.

The aim of this project was therefore to develop and evaluate various health-promoting interventions for workers and hybrid teams with location- and time-flexible work designs.

Based on current scientific findings, various interventions were developed specifically for employees who work temporarily or permanently independently of fixed work locations and working hours.

In the web-based FlexAbility self-learning training participants learned to consciously draw boundaries between work and private life, to mentally switch off from work, to spend breaks and free time in a relaxing manner and to organise their work day effectively in a healthy way.

Based on this, three three-hour interactive training sessions were carried out in small groups in the FlexAbility blended-training (combination of web and face-to-face elements) in addition to the self-learning training.

The FlexAbility team training consisted of a four-hour workshop and a one-hour booster session that took place two weeks later. The aim was to shape team collaboration in flexible working arrangements with the help of self-regulation strategies at the team level.

Three randomised controlled studies were conducted to evaluate the interventions. These showed that the FlexAbility self-learning training had a beneficial effect on well-being, work-life balance, recovery and work commitment. It was also shown that the FlexAbility blended-training effectively contributes to an improvement in switching off from work, satisfaction with one's own work-life balance and general well-being, and also leads to higher compliance. The FlexAbility team training has been shown to improve team regulation, which is associated with positive effects on psychological safety as well as collaboration and social support.