Original source
Workplace interventions to improve worker well-being (2025)
J-PAL Policy Insights synthesis · J-PAL
Search for this source ↗Permission for School’s use is unestablished.
Used in these cards
Asymmetric Productivity-Wage Pass-Through and Signaling Bottlenecks
"To explain why line workers missed out on raises while managers received them, researchers noted that lower-level workers likely had a harder time signaling their soft skills to other employers, reducing their likelihood of finding an outside offer."
Deliberate Female Supervisory Promotion
"Another evaluation in Bangladesh found that deliberate promotions of women to supervisory roles challenged discriminatory beliefs, showing no loss in productivity."
Earned Wage Access and Financial Stress Alleviation
"Three randomized evaluations and four quasi-experimental studies showed that low-cost strategies to mitigate physical and mental strains on workers can result in increased productivity. These included... paying wages in advance to alleviate stress associated with financial insecurity."
On-the-Job Soft Skills Training for Line Workers
"Enhanced teamwork and collaboration enabled the trained workers to increase their productivity by an average of 7.4 percentage points, or 13.5 percent, compared to those who did not receive training. Researchers estimated that eight months after the training, these productivity gains resulted in net returns of 256 percent for the firm."
Gender-Targeted Workplace Safety and Harassment Monitoring
"In Bangladesh, safer harassment reporting surveys empowered women to report workplace abuse of physical harassment by 290 percent more and sexual harassment by 271 percent more, from baseline rates of 1.5 and 1.8 percent, respectively."
Managerial Soft Skills Training
"In the other evaluation at the same manufacturer, managers were randomly assigned to receive soft skills training. Six months after the training, productivity gains from the manager training were estimated to be 54 times the cost."
Supply Chain Safety Compliance and OSH Committees
"In one study, multinational apparel firms enforced the creation of safety and health committees among their suppliers in Bangladesh, leading to better safety checklist performance by 0.23 standard deviations."
Upward Feedback and Worker Voice Channels
"Also in China, supervisors invited open discussion from workers, leading to a 10.6 percent productivity boost and 10.3 percent higher retention after twelve weeks, compared to workers who received lectures from their supervisors instead."
Workplace Environmental Hazard and Microclimate Mitigation
"Three randomized evaluations and four quasi-experimental studies showed that low-cost strategies to mitigate physical and mental strains on workers can result in increased productivity. These included using LED lights to reduce workplace temperatures, lowering excessive noise from manufacturing equipment, encouraging short afternoon naps at work... Higher levels of pollution were also found to result in lower productivity..."