Giving voice to employees in low-skilled jobs works: Effect and process evaluation of a participatory sustainable employability intervention.
Emmelie Hazelzet, Hans Bosma, Angelique de Rijk and 1 others
PMID 39670982WHAT IT FOUND
A workplace dialogue programme improved employees' sense of control over their work but did not improve overall sustainable employability.
The effect depended on implementation quality: departments with more visible, supported sessions saw gains, while those with poor communication saw none.
Key findings
01Job control increased significantly in the organisation with better implementation, but no significant change was found for the primary outcome of sustainable employability.
02A higher dose of the intervention received by employees was associated with improved job control in the better-implemented organisation, but not with sustainable employability.
03Implementation quality varied greatly; the organisation with more project group meetings, higher visibility, and a more facilitating culture achieved the positive effect on job control.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Small sample size (N=50 analysed) and low response rate at follow-up (46%). Absence of a control group makes it difficult to attribute changes solely to the intervention. Short follow-up period (12 months) may be insufficient to detect changes in complex outcomes like sustainable employability. Implementation varied significantly between the two organisations, limiting generalisability. Self-reported measures may be subject to response shift, where employees' internal standards change during the study.
Declared interests
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this intervention improves sustainable employability. The primary outcome showed no significant change, and the positive effect on job control was only seen in one organisation with high implementation fidelity. The lack of a control group means we cannot rule out that other factors caused the observed changes.