The WELLS course is a new type of research-based well-being and working skills solution. The course integrates a core competency of modern working and psychological flexibility with essential working skills. The solution...
Psychological flexibility skills are the core competencies of modern working life.
Essential working skills that are applicable to most fields facilitate in building functioning and efficient work communities.
Psychological flexibility and its application to essential working skills are at the core of the WELLS intervention.
Psychological flexibility refers to the ability to focus on the current situation, and opportunities, take action towards achieving goals and values even in the presence of difficulties. Psychologically flexible individuals will base their behavior on their goals and values instead of solely relying on situational factors or their fluctuating internal states. The underlying idea is that people are more psychologically healthy and perform more effectively when actions are driven by personal values and goals.
In working life, psychologically flexible individuals are suggested to be better at navigating and responding to performance-related contingencies that exist in work-related contexts. This is substantiated by evidence associating an increase in psychological flexibility with an increase in general well-being, workability, innovation and better utilisation of organisational resources (Bond & Bunce, 2000; Wersebe et al., 2018; Varra et al., 2008; Puolakanaho et al., 2020).
The WELLS intervention course has previously been studied widely in university contexts. The results established that the course positively impacted university students’ well-being, learning experiences, motivation, efficiency and meaningfulness of learning (Katajavuori et al., 2021). The course has also been associated with positive changes in students’ organized study skills, psychological flexibility and procrastination. Students have additionally described the effectiveness of the course in learning stress management, which was found to have a positive impact on their studies (Asikainen et al., 2019). Preliminary results of students’ descriptions of behavior change during the course indicate that students experienced especially prominent changes in their committed action and the ability to recognise what they needed to change (Räihä et al., 2023).
The course has been piloted in working context during spring 2023 within University of Helsinki staff. The initial results indicate similar positive effects also in work context as in previous studies. Results of the research will be published during fall 2023.
After participating in the WELLS intervention, people are more psychologically healthy and are able to perform more effectively.
The core company benefits from offering the WELLS course to their personnel:
The long-term goal is to decrease the negative effects arising from mental health issues to the business, thus enabling more sustainable company growth.
The WELLS Finland venture team is currently researching the applicability and impact of WELLS wellbeing and working skills course in company contexts.
The first pilots in companies were conducted during fall 2023, second phase took place in January March and phase 3 during March-June 2024. Pilot 4 first batch starts in September 2024.
Now we are looking for more pilot organizations who have an interest in enhancing their employee well.being with a researched-based digital solution for pilot phase 4 for the fall-winter season. Piloting is free of charge.
Join us - together we can find even more effective ways to promote work well-being and working skills!