Workplaces have implemented changes since the COVID pandemic began almost four years ago. Some give employees more flexibility in hours and tasks.

A new study that Penn State took part in, finds the risk of heart disease was reduced for some workers who were offered more flexibility.

Orfeu Buxton, Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Director of the Sleep, Health & Society Collaboratory at Penn State is co-author of the report and was on The Spark Wednesday,"Our real world workplace intervention was based upon big piles of work that suggested that more flexible workplaces had employees more likely to stick around, more productive and better health. But to test that, we wanted to do a real world workplace intervention designed to really focus on increasing flexibility over time in a way that's really a culture shift. So changing the culture of work to prioritize accomplishing the work needed rather than just time on task. The when and where of work."

The research was conducted on two groups of workers -- white-collar employees in the IT industry and nursing home workers.

The research found job flexibility reduced the cardiometabiolic risk score (probability of a heart attack or stroke over the next 10 years) in those at higher risk for heart problems and for employees over the age of 45.

Buxton said the intervention on the test employees included manager training and working with employees as well,"The idea was to train managers to be more supportive, to bring them awareness of how if they were allowed more flexibility for their employees, they could be more productive. Maybe stick around longer so they're spending less time training new people, less disgruntlement, all the good things of a positive workplace. They just need to contribute to productivity. Good vibes and sticking around. All of those things are created in this supportive manager. But then to have them implemented, it's actually some skills, interpersonal skills, scheduling skills, logistics, understanding HR policies. There's a lot that goes into actually being able to implement flexibility. So we also train them with behavior tracking, helping them to notice when they were flexible or rigid with their employees, trying to focus on the positive things that they did and bring awareness to that and some tracking to that and see that they improve it and show some understanding of the impact. I mean, when you offer flexibility as a manager, often the employees reporting to that manager are appreciative. There can be then a positive virtual cycle that then creates a more healthy workplace culture. So we did that over a couple of months. We also trained some of the employees to understand what flexibility means and how to implement various ideas, like if the commute is really torturous in a particular city or domain, come in a couple hours later and stay a couple hours longer and skip the hour in the car and make it a half hour commute or something like that. Just very simple practical strategies that the employees could share amongst themselves. At the same time, they're changing the culture."

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