The impact of the structure and culture of the construction industry on employee well-being: Directions for future research

The UK construction industry is currently facing a skills shortage, partly due to recruitment and retention difficulties. Poor employee well-being has been associated with poor performance, low levels of productivity poor physical health and absenteeism. Despite the apparent links between poor well-being and performance, little research has explored the concept of well-being within the UK construction industry. The paper draws on international research exploring perspectives on well-being in construction and other sectors. Findings from the literature are used to develop a framework for investigating the phenomenon of well-being within the UK construction industry. The long working hours culture and fragmentation of the construction sector has been linked to poor employee well-being within the construction industry. Further work is needed to explore the links between the structure and culture of the UK construction industry and employee well-being, and to determine implications for performance. Existing research has failed to explore the impact of working in construction on the well-being of women working in the sector. This paper provides directions for future UK based research which will explore gendered dimensions of well-being.