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Strategies for increasing well-being are applied unconsciously, mostly outside of work.
Connecting, being active, and mindfulness are most important for event professionals.
Relationships with colleagues have a significant impact on mental well-being.
Employers must actively promote mental well-being in the workplace.
Summary of the study
The aim of this study is to investigate mental wellbeing in the events industry. It argues that mental wellbeing is often difficult to achieve in the stressful and deadline-driven events industry and that better awareness and understanding of specific interventions are required to enable employees to flourish in the workplace. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with event professionals in the UK to explore their individual coping strategies. The Five Ways to Wellbeing framework was used as an analytical tool for contextualization. The results show that event professionals currently unconsciously take a variety of actions to maintain and improve their mental wellbeing outside of work, but not in the workplace.
Of the 'Five Ways to Wellbeing', specific actions to 'Connect', 'Be Active' and 'Be Mindful' were most important to event professionals. The remaining two pathways, 'Keep learning' and 'Give', were also identified in the data but were less prominent. For practical implications, recommendations are presented for event professionals to become more aware of the 'Five Ways to Wellbeing' and for employers to develop mental wellbeing initiatives that enable their employees to flourish.
The originality/value of the study lies in the fact that event studies have previously only applied the Five Ways to Wellbeing to event participants, volunteers and the local community. This study highlights how event staff can also benefit from applying some of the actions outlined in the framework to improve their mental wellbeing in the workplace.
Key findings of this study
- Event employees unconsciously use different strategies for mental wellbeing outside of work, but not at work.
- The most important of the "Five Pathways to Wellbeing" for event professionals are "Connect", "Be Active" and "Be Mindful".
- The pathways "Continue learning" and "Giving" were also identified, but were less prominent.
- Relationships with colleagues are the most significant factor for the mental wellbeing of employees in the event industry.
- There is a need for employers to develop mental wellbeing initiatives that enable employees to thrive in the workplace.