Hawke Research Institute
The Work–Life Balance, Well-Being and Health project by the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia is an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded study in partnership with SafeWork SA and the WA Department of Health.
This project addresses well-being and work–life issues within the WA health sector and the larger Australian workforce. Its two major components are:
a national work–life survey, the
Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) AWALI is a national survey of work–life outcomes amongst working Australians, repeated annually through this project in March/April from 2007 to 2010. AWALI examines the range of workplace, employment and personal/family factors that impact on the work–life relationship, and outcomes of work–life conflict for health and well-being.
The study of the health workforce, conducted in Western Australia public health units, was a multi-methodology study involving qualitative interviews and focus groups, and quantitative data collection via an organisational survey. The study investigated barriers to a healthy work–life relationship and actions that assist it, to inform theory, practice and policy over the working life and through key work–life transitions.
The health study took a life-cycle approach by investigating three key transitions of working life and their implications for the work–life relationship:
Deep study of work–life issues in the health sector will also inform recruitment, retention and well-being in the health workforce, with flow-on to the health system more broadly.
In Western Australia, 104 health sector workers and managers from
across occupations and city, regional and rural/remote locations
participated in focus groups and individual interviews and/or submitted
written comments. All of these were analysed and an interim report
prepared which set out the
preliminary findings for discussion at the roundtable of key
stakeholders in April 2009.
The qualitative findings were presented to the roundtable with WA Health Executive Directors in Perth in early April 2009 and at a Department of Commerce seminar. Seminar PowerPoint (3.7 MB). The final report is now available:
Jocelyn Auer and Jude Elton, Work, life and health study 2010
Executive summary
(PDF 459 kb)
Full report (PDF 1.24
MB)
The report from the quantitative study in the WA Department of Health has been prepared and is to be forwarded to WA Health for review.
The Work, life and health project is an ARC-funded study in partnership with SafeWork SA and the Western Australian Department of Health.The project manager and quantitative study contact is Dr Natalie Skinner and qualitative study contact Professor Barbara Pocock.
