Work and wellbeing: maximising the wellbeing of tomorrow’s workforce

Understanding wellbeing at work is key to implementing policies that optimise outcomes for employees and employers. People spend roughly a third of their waking hours at work, making it one of the most important domains of life to consider when seeking to improve wellbeing. Employee wellbeing has also been shown to shape organisational goals, including performance and retention. In this chapter, we focus on wellbeing from a subjective perspective - how employees evaluate their work and how they feel while doing it - and discuss its key drivers and consequences. We also summarise existing interventions aimed at improving wellbeing at work, noting that most take place at the organisational rather than the public policy level. We conclude by identifying areas for further research on measuring and improving wellbeing at work, as well as the key areas of focus for policymakers and organisational leaders who care about promoting employee wellbeing.