Samenvatting

One of the first questions that a company most of the time puts in before investing in a workplace vitality trajectory is what the return or effect is of a workplace vitality trajectory. They want to know what it really gives the organization in return if they invest in vitality, in order to decide whether it would be an interesting investment or not. An assessment of results is generally the essential concern of the employer sponsors (i.e., key executives) and program implementers. The objective of the results assessment is to measure the degree to which program goals are accomplished inside a given period of time. This features the need to know the results expected by every stakeholder before starting or renewal of a program.

The aim of this research was thus finding out what the effect of a workplace vitality trajectory is in organizations and being able to tell companies what the return is of such a vitality trajectory. The following research question has been drawn up for this: “What are the self-reported effects of workplace vitality trajectories on employee wellbeing?”.
In order to answer the research question, interviews were held with employers and employees from companies where a vitality trajectory runs. The vitality trajectories of the companies had a duration ranging from one year to five years.
The results have shown that workplace vitality trajectories have a very positive effect on employee wellbeing. First of all, it increases employees’ work happiness. Workplace vitality trajectories are very much appreciated by employees. Next to an increase in work happiness, workplace vitality trajectories also have a positive effect on employees’ productivity. Employees report that the workplace vitality trajectory increases their productivity. Productivity is a very important factor in having success as a company. Productive employees use their time wisely, know how to make progress and bring a company results. Another effect of vitality trajectories is an improvement in health outcomes. Employees are more aware of their wellbeing; are eating healthier; have more motivation to move and do really start to move more. Not only do workplace vitality trajectories improve work happiness, productivity and health outcomes, it also has a positive effect on sickness absence rates. As wellbeing improves, employees are less often sick and sickness absence rates decrease.
Based on those results, it is recommended to make organizations aware that workplace vitality trajectories do really give a positive return on investment. It’s important to communicate the evidence of studies into the effects of workplace vitality trajectories. Not only this study, but also other studies show proof of the effects and give an approximate overview of costs of what a company could save on. Making an overview of this evidence can help in motivating and convincing organizations to invest in a workplace vitality trajectory.