Draft:Goldilocks Work

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The Goldilocks Work approach to the design of work uses the Goldilocks Principle analogy arising from the fairytale “Goldilocks and The Three Bears”. The concept of designing the physical and psychosocial elements of work to be ‘just right’ for both workers’ health and the sustainability of the organization was first described in 2018, with further details published in 2019.

History and Development

Goldilocks Work logo

The Goldilocks Work concept was created by Professors Leon Straker, Svend Erik Mathiassen and Andreas Holtermann with the aim of creating work which not only minimised the risk of harming workers, but also actually enhanced their health – whilst maintaining or enhancing productivity.

The Goldilocks Work approach draws on work design principles, including ergonomics, human factors, organisational psychology, work physiology, and occupational health promotion, which, together with the four key Goldilocks Work principles stated below, form the Goldilocks Work approach.

The four key principles of Goldilocks Work state that it:

1. Aims to (re)design jobs to have a ‘just right’ combination of physical and psychosocial work elements, rather than aiming for zero exposures
2. Aims to (re)design productive work to contribute to socially and economically sustainable production, rather than taking time away from production
3. Aims to create work systems that lead workers into ‘just right’ behaviours, rather than relying mainly on individual motivation and resources
4. Aims to have an explicitly positive impact on health, rather than mainly focussing on reducing risk and removing negative impacts

Goldilocks Work aims to design or re-design the physical and psychosocial elements of work to promote worker health, with the vision of contributing to global goals for individual, workplace, and societal sustainability. It shares principles with other approaches to occupational health, including that it:

• Uses a collaborative and participative approach
• Considers the (existing) work situation and constraints
• (Re)designs work by modifying tasks, reorganising task, or introducing new tasks
• Focusses on physical and/or psychosocial elements of work
• Considers individual worker health, including capacity
• Matches work demands with worker capacity
• Integrates into usual organisational work design
• Aims to enhance productivity of organisations by reducing worker ill-health
• Aims for an overall beneficial effect of interventions, while acknowledging that a trade-off between positive and negative effects may occur when simultaneously targeting different aspects of physical or psychosocial health

Adoption and Implementation

Researchers from Denmark, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Scotland have formed a collaboration and have trialled the Goldilocks Work approach in various industries including: childcare, brewing , pharmaceuticals, elder care and rail driving. These early trials have reported that workers, worker representative organisations, supervisors and managers, company representative organisations and government authorities have readily embraced the approach.

Key terms

‘Just right’ combination – combining physical, mental or social elements of work within and across productive tasks in ways that lead to appropriate variation and promote health. For example, providing short periods of high aerobic intensity interspersed with recovery periods close to rest. Similarly providing periods of intense mental concentration interspersed with less mentally demanding periods, or periods with intense social interaction combined with periods being alone.

Physical – relates to the mechanical elements of work (such as strength demands, frequency and energy intensity of actions required) and the neuromuscular and metabolic health of workers (such as motor coordination, range of movement, muscle strength, bone strength, aerobic fitness).

Psychosocial – relates to the mental and social elements of work (such as mental demands, autonomy, and social support) and the cognitive and emotional health of workers (such as short-term memory function, resilience).

Health – a broad term defined by the WHO as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Included in the physical and mental attributes is the notion of capacity; that is, what a person can do. Improving capacity is a way of improving a worker’s resources and chances for a higher quality of life, at work and outside of work.

Capacity – the extent of an individual’s capability to function, including physical and psychosocial abilities, i.e. what a person can do. Changes in capacity can occur relatively quickly. For example, if periods of high-intensity physical work are introduced in an otherwise sedentary job, increased aerobic capacity may be observed within a few weeks. However, effects on capacity may also be evident only over the long term. For example, tasks requiring occasional overhead reaching may not change the measurable range of movement at the shoulder on the short term, but over decades of working life would help ensure the worker retains a large range of motion. Similarly, tasks requiring some simple mental maths or short-term memory may not change measurable cognitive capacity following a few months, but could, over decades of working life, help ensure that the worker builds and maintains mental capacity at and outside work.

Sustainability – is the ability of something or someone to continue activities over a period of time, including social, environmental, and economic aspects (often termed a triple bottom line for ‘people’, ‘planet’, ‘profit’). While much community discussion has been focussed on the ‘planet’ aspect including climate change, Goldilocks Work considers the ‘people’ in an organisation and the organisation’s ‘profit’. Specifically, Goldilocks Work focusses on supporting the worker’s ability to perform the physical and psychosocial elements of productive work, which is an integrate part of worker health. Thus, Goldilocks Work helps the sustainability of the organisation by not taking workers away from productive work in the short term, and by having a positive impact on the capacity of workers to be productive in the long term. Goldilocks Work aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially good health for all (goal #3) and decent work and sustainable economic growth (goal #8).