Workers with disabilities or health conditions are twice as likely to leave their jobs as non-disabled colleagues, and this project tests whether a low-cost "job crafting" programme can change that. Current workplace support often fails because it is top-down and reactive—offered only after someone is already struggling. Job crafting flips this: it gives workers the tools to proactively reshape their own roles, tasks, and relationships to better fit their needs. The approach has shown promise in other groups but has rarely been tested among disabled workers or those with long-term health conditions. If the trial succeeds, the impact could be practical and widespread. Employers could adopt a cheap, scalable intervention that reduces sickness absence, boosts productivity, and improves retention—without requiring expensive workplace overhauls. For workers, better job satisfaction and engagement could mean fewer health-related exits from the labour market and lower healthcare use. The project also builds a toolkit and knowledge exchange resources so that any organisation, from a small charity to a large public sector employer, can implement the programme without needing expert consultants.
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Research questions How does an evidence-based job crafting intervention impact key workplace behaviours and work and health outcomes for workers with disabilities, health conditions or aligned workplace support needs (e.g. carers)? What are the costs and savings involved? What are the key organisational enablers/barriers, implementation mechanisms and organisational effects? Background Workers with disabilities or health conditions are twice as likely to exit employment than their non-disabled counterparts. However, current workplace interventions struggle to effectively support many disabled workers due in part to their top-down, targeted and reactive approach. Guided by evidence, in this project we trial a job crafting intervention to support workers with disabilities, health conditions or aligned support needs to make positive workplace accommodations that improve their job satisfaction and work engagement as well as their employment outcomes (e.g. reduced sickness absence, increased productivity and retention) and health and wellbeing outcomes (e.g. healthcare utilisation, EQ5D5L, SWEMWBS). Job crafting shows promising evidence amongst other groups of workers (albeit across more limited outcome measures) but has rarely been tested amongst workers with disabilities or health conditions. Aims and Objectives This project has 3 overarching aims and objectives: First, to demonstrate the viability of a low-cost, evidence-based, scalable job crafting intervention for disabled workers in diverse organisations; Second, to deliver a step-change in impact, cost-benefit and implementation evidence on job crafting for individuals with health conditions, disabilities and aligned workplace support needs; Third, to develop and deliver a set of evidence-based knowledge exchange (KE) activities and resources to support and scale low cost job crafting across diverse employer organisations. Methods The proposed project has three work packages (WPs): Intervention WP (WP1): trialling an evidence-based job crafting intervention in diverse employer organisations Evaluation WP (WP2): RCT impact evaluation, health economic cost-benefit analysis, qualitative realist process evaluation Knowledge exchange (WP3): activities and toolkit resources to disseminate project findings and maximise practical impacts beyond the project lifetime. PPIE PPIE is a central thread woven through our project values, activities and people. Our research team contains several disabled people with a range of lived and professional expertise. Our Co-Production Leadership Team and its three sub-groups provide the project governance structure and co-production process. This gives disabled people and disabled people s organisations (DPOs) real power and processes to co-produce all project details in collaboration with our research team. Accessibility is supported by dedicated time, resource and a dedicated PDRA role. Timelines for delivery Project start: Jan 2025 Duration: 36 months Project end: Dec 2027 Anticipated impact and dissemination Our project is oriented around the trialling of an evidence-based, promising low-cost job crafting intervention that has the potential to be scaled at low cost for workers with disabilities or health conditions (and potentially other) workers in diverse employer organisations far beyond this project. Our research team is comprised of high impact academic experts and this project is committed to maximising both scholarly and applied learnings and impacts. WP3 is a dedicated knowledge exchange strand focused on practical knowledge exchange activities and resource development strand.
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