In the second act of his play Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen compares the joy
of work to the joy of life itself. With that in mind it is
thought-provoking to focus on job engagement and commitment to work
while some 25 million people in Europe and nearly one million in the
Nordic countries are unemployed. To them job engagement might seem like
a luxury problem. But cuts can hit those who still work and staff
reductions often lead to tougher work environments. It is important to
make sure job engagement doesn’t disappear out the door together with
those who loose their jobs.
In the report ‘Nordic Growth Sectors –How can working life policies
contribute to improving the framework conditions?’ from the Nordic
Council of Ministers, the work environment is one of five important
dimensions. The authors say Nordic businesses should systematically
measure and publish data on the psychosocial work environment, and that
good examples of businesses that have improved in this area should be
gathered from across the Nordic region. Yet measuring without acting on
the results could make matters worse, warn Danish experts in ‘Action
needed to combat bad psychosocial work environments’.
‘Almost always fun at work’ looks at how Finnish Fondia has managed
to create job engagement and be named best employer of the year by the
European Great Place to Work Institute. Working life researcher Jari
Hakanen says there is an obvious link between job engagement and
increased growth.
Yet working life researcher Benedicte Brøgger is not sure whether
that link is right. In ‘Could increased job engagement improve
productivity?’ she wonders whether the opposite could be true; that
growth industries improve because it is easier for them to find
suitable tasks for employees. Even when job engagement doesn’t mean
more money, it could result in more innovative businesses and better
customer relationships, as employees actually care, says Benedicte
Brøgger.
Asbjørn Grimsmo has performed systematic work environment surveys in
Norwegian media companies for decades. The 2012 Journalist Survey shows
job engagement is challenged when people are expected to be online at
all times. Grimsmo thinks employers must allow participation, ensure
social support and trust within the organisation, learning
opportunities, meaningful work and organisational fairness. Finding the
balance between having enough work environment resources to stay on top
of things while demands rise can secure both job engagement, commitment
and improved health, says Grimsmo. Pure gold?
