A three-wave time-lagged study on family-friendly Employment practices and well-being in Hong Kong: the mediating effect of work engagement
研究了香港400名有家庭责任的员工，发现家庭友好型雇佣实践中的工作安排通过提升工作投入，降低了职业倦怠并促进了心理繁荣。
Employees with family responsibilities often face challenges in balancing work and family demands. Family-friendly employment practices (FFEPs) are flexibility policies, arrangements, and services provided by an organization, employer, or supervisor to facilitate employees in fulfilling work and family responsibilities. Research linking FFEPs to employee well-being has yielded mixed results and its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Drawing on the human resource management literature, it was hypothesized that FFEPs availability is associated with reduced levels of burnout and greater levels of flourishing through increased work engagement. A three-wave time-lagged study (baseline, T1; 3 months, T2; 9 months, T3) was conducted with 400 employees with family responsibilities in Hong Kong, China. Various clusters of FFEPs were systematically assessed: work arrangements, leave benefits, compensatory supports, and health/wellness services. Structural equation modeling showed that work engagement at T2 significantly mediated the associations between work arrangements (e.g. compressed work schedule, reduced work hours) at T1 and both burnout and flourishing at T3. Health/wellness services (e.g. critical incident support, employee assistance program) at T1 were positively associated with flourishing at T3. Findings suggest that availability of work arrangements elevates employees’ capabilities for engagement, such that employees would fully dedicate cognitive, affective, and physical resources at work.