Flexible work arrangements and employee health: A meta-analytic review

ABSTRACT

Flexibility regarding where and when work is completed is becoming increasingly available to employees, especially following the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent shift in the nature of work. There is a plethora of research linking various flexible work arrangements (FWA) to a variety of positive outcomes across domains including reduced work–family conflict, better psychological health, and increased role satisfaction. While several studies have suggested that FWA are related to positive health, others have found no relationship between flexible work arrangements and health outcomes. To clarify these inconsistent findings, the current meta-analytic review (k = 33, n = 90,602) examines the relationship between flexible work arrangements available to employees and health behaviours and outcomes, specifically physical health, absenteeism, somatic symptoms, and physical activity. Results demonstrate that FWA are associated with better physical health, reduced absenteeism, and fewer somatic symptoms, suggesting that flexible work arrangements can facilitate employees in maintaining their health. There was no association between FWA and physical activity, though these results should be interpreted cautiously given the limited number of primary studies examining this relationship. These findings hold implications for future research and practice, including support for offering individualised flexible work arrangements as means of promoting employee health.

KEYWORDS:

• Exercise
• flexible work arrangements
• health
• meta-analysis
• occupational health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Meta-analytic analyses were also conducted using the second, third, and fourth time points for studies that that had data for more than one time point. The significance (or insignificance) of the results did not change for any of the outcomes of interest.