Many organizations would like to promote their employees’ work engagement. Can recovery be an effective action lever?
To answer this question, we interpreted Kühnel and colleagues’ research, published in 2017, which aimed to better understand the connections between two recovery methods (sleep and short work breaks) and employees’ work engagement.
Legend: Recommendation of our expert
Expert advisor:
- France ST-HILAIRE, associate professor, Human Resource Management, Université de Sherbrooke
Authors:
- Stéphanie BÉRUBÉ, research professional, Université de Sherbrooke
Maude VILLENEUVE, research professional, Université de Sherbrooke
Rébecca LEFEBVRE, research professional, Université de Sherbrooke
Marie-Hélène GILBERT, assistant professor, Management, Université Laval
Michel PÉRUSSE, adjunct professor, Université de Sherbrooke
This initiative was made possible through a collaboration with the Université de Sherbrooke.
What do we mean by : Recovery?
Recovery happens when the employee refrains from adopting behaviours that drain their energy resources and self-regulation abilities*. The employee can recover temporarily when they are no longer exposed to sources of stress as part of their work. There will be a return to normal when these resources are restored.
*Definition translated from Beal, D. J., Weiss, H. M., Barros, E., & MacDermid, S. M. (2005). An episodic process model of affective influences on performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1054–1068. doi:10.1037/0021-‐9010.90.6.1054 (p. 1058).
WORK ENGAGEMENT
Work engagement is defined by an employee’s high level of concentration, intense absorption and high energy in relation to their task*.
* Definition adapted from Rothbard, P., & Patil, S. V. (Eds.). (2012). Being there: Work engagement and positive organizational scholarship. New York: Oxford University Press.
DEfinitions
- Energy resources: "the level of energy that the person has at a given moment".
- Self-regulation: "an attempt by the individual to control or modify his natural behaviors or mental states".
Objectives of the study
of Kühnel, Zacher, Bloom and Bedow (2017) :
- better understand the links between employees’ work engagement and two recovery methods:
- sleep: the quality and quantity of sleep (number of hours of sleep), and
- self-initiated short breaks: take spontaneous breaks in the morning or afternoon (go for a walk, have a coffee). It doesn’t involve breaks set by the organization;
- determine whether sleep and self-‐initiated short breaks are separate recovery methods;
- examine whether feeling time pressure and control over one’s work influences the relationship between recovery methods and work engagement.
Psychology students at a German university launched the invitation online among employees in various business sectors.
Because studies must always be interpreted with caution
Although this is a high‐quality study, the recruitment method used is not clearly identified, which leads us to recommend that you interpret the study with caution, as with any study that is limited.
What do the results of the study reveal?
It is better to recover before exhausting your resources.
To strengthen work engagement, it is beneficial to have a quality sleep, self-‐initiate short breaks and recover in various ways. Feeling an appropriate level of pressure and having control over your work will also contribute to work engagement.
1. have a quality sleep
- Employees feel more engaged at work on days when they assess the quality of their sleep positively.
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