“ ‘Productive Subjects: Workplace wellness programmes, big data and affective control’ Chris Till Exploring Big Data to Examine Employee Health and Wellbeing ESRC Seminar Series – 21 st June 2016, SUMS c.till@leedsbeckett.ac.uk @chrishtill
Self-tracking and Corporate Wellness
Step Jockey
Corporate wellness – why are employers interested in health? “… a healthy workplace environment can potentially induce many positive changes, such as a healthier workforce, increased job satisfaction and reduced absenteeism, which in turn improve productivity and the quality of working life” (Chu et al, 1997: 378).
Internalizing Controls
Making productive bodies
The New Spirit of Capitalism New corporate ethos emerged 1990s Employees encouraged to seek “ liberation ” through “ projects ” autonomy job security + + self-development status Companies need “self -organized, creative beings ” Control exercised by “transferring constraints from external organizational mechanisms to people’s internal dispositions” (Boltanski and Chiapello).
Controlling liberated workers Control exercised by “transferring constraints from external organizational mechanisms to people’s internal dispositions” (Boltanski and Chiapello). Tests Quantification of Performance
Nudging and gamifying
“Life is conceived as a succession of projects […] Controlling liberated What matters is to develop activity […] never to workers be short of a project […] The prospect of an inevitable, desirable endpoint thus accompanies Projects engagement without affecting enthusiasm. This is Enabling self-development why engagement is conceived as voluntary” (Boltanski and Chiappelo).
Engaging workers
“transactional engagement” – Engaging who? “driven to meet expectations in order to earn a living and progress” “I’d like to think we target events and activities to different [ groups but] the participation from ancillary roles was very poor […] so it would be “emotional engagement” – more your sort of mid to higher grade positions […] “a desire to do more for the [They] probably just want to come into work, do organisation” (CIPD) their job, get paid and go home”. “ [M] aybe from a fitness point of view, they’re less important because they’re less “ [M] aybe from a fitness point of view, they’re less important because they’re less sedentary, so perhaps we don’t need to worry so much that we don’t engage them sedentary, so perhaps we don’t need to worry so much that we don’t engage them […] I’m not sure there’s much of an appetite but I don’t want them to think this […] I’m not sure there’s much of an appetite but I don’t want them to think this doesn’t include them, whether they come or not. [This] isn’t [about] people taking doesn’t include them, whether they come or not. [This] isn’t [about] people taking part in stuff, it’s people knowing that it’s going on and feeling good about an part in stuff, it’s people knowing that it’s going on and feeling good about an employer that does these things” employer that does these things”
Engagement “being positively present during “an employee’s positive the performance of work by emotional attachment to their willingly contributing intellectual job and/or colleagues and/or effort, experiencing positive organization which profoundly emotions and meaningful influences their willingness to connections to others ” (CIPD). learn and perform at work” (Horsman).
Managing affective relationships People are seeking something “there was a huge potential reserve of energy more meaningful and sustainable and commitment in organisations which could “…we call it ‘employer brand’. than engaging with a corporate be released by making ‘meaning for people’ So in terms of return on strategy(Sparrow). and highlighted the fact that people investment, for us, it’s about desperately need meaning in their lives and improving our employer brand will sacrifice a great deal to institutions that so that we attract people who will provide this meaning for them” ( Horsman). “Employees will also need to be persuaded want to work for the [the that engagement has something in it for company]. So there is a hard- nosed element to this, it’s not them – so we need to show more clearly entirely altruistic” that engagement also improves individual health, stress and well-being (Sparrow).
Engaging each other “an employee’s positive “Ideal - typical” figure of new spirit “being positively present during “ connexionist ” (Boltanksi and Chiapello) emotional attachment to their the performance of work by job and/or colleagues and/or willingly contributing intellectual “network extender” […] the nodal point of organization which profoundly effort, experiencing positive various networks” (Du Gay and Morgan). influences their willingness to “It was a healthy workforce but it was engagement, emotions and meaningful learn and perform at work” the whole staff engagement thing as well. The connections to others ” (CIPD). feedback we got from the people who did was, aside (Horsman). “It’s the camaraderie, because from some of the competitiveness, it was more of a actually most of the teams are real team spirit and there was a buzz in the air around in the same departments and departments with people doing things as a team that they see them every day. They you would talk to people a little bit more that maybe start bouncing off each other”. you wouldn’t normally talk to”.
Measuring wellbeing one really good indicator at the moment is, if you look at our staff survey Trying to quantify the benefits of wellness programs is a big results from last year, the question that says “The [organisation] is challenge. […] how you quantify it really is on feedback. There’s interested in my wellbeing”. We are 72% on that. So 72% of our staff say a couple of feedback systems for our own service (occupational that they think we’re interested in their wellbeing. Now the [national health) and one is automated […] and we do another one…But sector] workplace survey that came out a couple of weeks ago asks almost the feedback for that was overwhelmingly positive for the GCC’s word-for-word the same question and across the institutions that replied to program so you know we would be looking to replicate that. that it was 52.6
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