Presentation from Fabrice Murtin (OECD WISE Centre) on Advancing Employee Well-being in Business and Finance during the OECD WISE Centre & Persol Holdings Virtual Workshop

1. ADVANCING EMPLOYEE WELL-
BEING IN BUSINESS AND FINANCE
PERSOL–OECD WORKSHOP
22 NOVEMBER 2023, TOKYO-PARIS
Fabrice Murtin, Head of Research
OECD WISE Centre

2. © OECD | WISE Centre
Poor working conditions and job strain remain common in OECD countries
According to the 2021 European Working Conditions
Survey:
 About one third of workers in the EU, on average,
experiences job strain with more job demands than job
resources (about 31% in Japan as of 2015)
 There is a strong correlation between working
conditions and various health and well-being outcomes
Source: Eurofound (2022), Working conditions in the time of COVID-19: Implications for the future, European
Working Conditions Telephone Survey 2021 series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.

3. © OECD | WISE Centre
Working conditions are significantly correlated with mental health…
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Source: Murtin, F., Arnaud, B., Le Thi, C., and Parent-Thirion, A. (2022), "The relationship between quality of the working environment, workers’ health and wellbeing:
Evidence from 28 OECD countries", OECD Papers on Well-being and Inequalities, https://doi.org/10.1787/51837366-en
Average effects of resources and demands on mental health

4. © OECD | WISE Centre
…physical health
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Source: Murtin, F., Arnaud, B., Le Thi, C., and Parent-Thirion, A. (2022), "The relationship between quality of the working environment, workers’ health and wellbeing:
Evidence from 28 OECD countries", OECD Papers on Well-being and Inequalities, https://doi.org/10.1787/51837366-en
Average effects of resources and demands on physical health

5. © OECD | WISE Centre
…and job satisfaction
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Average effects of resources and demands on job satisfaction

6. © OECD | WISE Centre
Good working conditions and high employee well-being are associated with firm productivity and performance
Positive affect / well-being
Morale, motivation
“Cognitive variation”: improved thinking
Lower turnover, absenteeism
Productivity,
customer loyalty,
profitability
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 Healthy and happy workers are more productive and contribute to overall firm performance, based
on meta-analysis of 339 studies among almost 2 million workers (DeNeve, Krekel and Ward, 2019)
 The “100 Best companies to work for in America” had 2.1% higher stock market returns than industry
average between 1984 and 2009 (Edmans, 2011)
Theoretical channels that link well-being outcomes with business performance:

7. © OECD | WISE Centre
There are gaps in well-being measurement frameworks used by companies
Well-Being Dimension Address the dimension
Quantitative measures of
the dimension
Environment 91% (31) 47% (16)
Governance 91% (31) 38% (13)
Jobs and Earnings 79% (27) 38% (13)
Health 71% (24) 32% (11)
Education and skills 65% (22) 32% (11)
Social connections 53% (18) 21% (7)
Income and wealth 38% (13) 18% (5)
Work and life balance 38% (13) 15% (5)
Personal security 21% (7) 6% (2)
Subjective well-being 21% (7) 0% (0)
Housing 3% (1) 0% (0)
Insufficient
focus on
subjective
aspects of well-
being
Source: Shinwell, M. and E. Shamir (2018), "Measuring the impact of businesses on people’s well-being and sustainability: Taking stock of existing frameworks and
initiatives", OECD Statistics Working Papers, https://doi.org/10.1787/51837366-en

8. © OECD | WISE Centre
OECD Employee Well-being Survey
Includes questions on:
 Working conditions
 Well-being outcomes
 Context
 Demographics
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9. © OECD | WISE Centre
An OECD Employee Well-being Survey: objectives and benefits
For companies:
 Use evidence to identify vulnerabilities, inequalities and risks in working conditions, in order to
inform interventions to improve well-being but also productivity and financial performance
 Compare performance with that of other companies, thanks to a standardised approach
For investors, governments and other actors:
 Demonstrate the potential of employee survey data as a source of useful information on
business social performance, potentially useful for investors and government
 Harmonise measurement methodologies across business and official statistics
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An automated report on company’s employee well-being
Contents:
 Introduction to well-being
 Applications: impact management
 Employee well-being wheel
 Dimension-specific results
Indicator lenses:
 Averages
 Vulnerabilities
 Inequalities
+ Benchmarks with 4-company average
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11. © OECD | WISE Centre
An employee well-being wheel: some observations on working conditions at Persol
Vulnerabilities
Strengths
 Environmental quality, safety
 Work enjoyment (59% enjoy work compared to 52%
in benchmark companies)
 Training (76% receive at least 2 days of training per
year)
 Emotional demands (58% of employees report often
or always feeling emotionally drained by their work)
 Hours worked (68% of employees work more than 40
hours per week)
 Career advancement (only 24% reports feeling they
have opportunities for career advancement)
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Work and job quality
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Social connections
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Health
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Safety
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Subjective well-being
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17. THANK YOU
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
WELLBEING@OECD.ORG

18. © OECD | WISE Centre
Income and wealth
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19. © OECD | WISE Centre
Work and job quality
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Work-life balance
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Health
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Knowledge and skills
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Safety
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Voice
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Subjective well-being
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Persol survey: sampling statistics
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