Contextual and Institutional Factors as Societal Influences on Employee Wellbeing: Examining Employee Wellbeing Practices in Response to the Pandemic in English Healthcare

TY - JOUR

T1 - Contextual and Institutional Factors as Societal Influences on Employee Wellbeing: Examining Employee Wellbeing Practices in Response to the Pandemic in English Healthcare

AU - Krachler, Nick

AU - Kessler, Ian

AU - Bach, Stephen

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Human Resource Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected employees' physical, psychological, and economic wellbeing, leading to significant workforce challenges, despite practitioners' rapid implementation of several HR practices aimed at enhancing employee wellbeing. Based on surveys and interviews with 65 HR and Nursing Directors and employee representatives, and other qualitative data, this article aims to explain this puzzle by exploring which wellbeing practices were employed during and post the pandemic, and what challenges these responses generated for employees. While much scholarship has focused on organizational determinants of physical and psychological wellbeing, our findings show that the pandemic context and the healthcare sector's institutional characteristics influenced the wellbeing response and generated employee perceptions of staff inequality, and patient safety concerns. Furthermore, the wellbeing response addressed economic wellbeing only to a limited degree. The article contributes to the study of employee wellbeing by highlighting the importance of contextual and institutional factors as societal influences on wellbeing, and by conceptualising economic wellbeing as a significant wellbeing type.

AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected employees' physical, psychological, and economic wellbeing, leading to significant workforce challenges, despite practitioners' rapid implementation of several HR practices aimed at enhancing employee wellbeing. Based on surveys and interviews with 65 HR and Nursing Directors and employee representatives, and other qualitative data, this article aims to explain this puzzle by exploring which wellbeing practices were employed during and post the pandemic, and what challenges these responses generated for employees. While much scholarship has focused on organizational determinants of physical and psychological wellbeing, our findings show that the pandemic context and the healthcare sector's institutional characteristics influenced the wellbeing response and generated employee perceptions of staff inequality, and patient safety concerns. Furthermore, the wellbeing response addressed economic wellbeing only to a limited degree. The article contributes to the study of employee wellbeing by highlighting the importance of contextual and institutional factors as societal influences on wellbeing, and by conceptualising economic wellbeing as a significant wellbeing type.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105002620061&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1748-8583.12603

DO - 10.1111/1748-8583.12603

M3 - Article

SN - 0954-5395

JO - HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL

JF - HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL

ER -