WWD1.2
Improved Workplace Quality
What we do
- Employment
Improved Workplace Quality
Job quality refers to the characteristics of work that are commonly associated with fulfilling or desirable work experiences. Given that people spend at least a third of their adult lives at work, organizational psychologists and occupational health researchers have shed more light on how work influences an individual’s well-being, both positively and negatively.
Key Value
A monetised wellbeing value of £4300
This is the monetised value of the average value for one person across all dimensions of quality of a workplace over a year.
Where does this headline value come from?
According to the recent work by Fleche and Ward (2018) the dimensions of the workplace quality that significantly affects the life satisfaction are:
| Dimension | Description |
| Job is secure | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘very true’ |
| Good opportunities for promotion | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘strongly agree’ |
| Job has high autonomy | This estimates the value of 1 person answering 8-10 on a 10 point scale |
| High variety in work | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘very true’ |
| Co-workers are supportive | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘very true’ |
| High time pressure | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘strongly agree’ |
| Reduced family time | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘often/always’ |
| Worry about work when not working | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘often/always’ |
| Job is dangerous | This estimates the value of 1 person answering ‘very true’ |
Their analysis is based on European Social Survey dataset which is a longitudinal data on over one hundred thousand individuals in Britain, the United States, Australia, and Germany. To construct the social value generated by the job quality, we used the coefficients presented in the Online Appendix of Fleche and Ward (2018), Table 4.8 in Annexes. This table includes how life satisfaction (0-10) is affected by various dimensions of workplace quality.
Five of the nine dimensions have a positive impact on life satisfaction whereas four of them have a negative impact on life satisfaction. One point increase in job quality can happen when positive dimensions increase, and negative dimensions decrease. Headline value is the average of the nine dimensions. Average = £3624 rounded to £3600. Thus, the monetised wellbeing value of 1 person improving job quality by 1 point is £3600.
Adjusted value for inflation to 2023 prices is £4,253. Our approach to inflation adjustments is explained on our Methodology page HERE
An overall rounded value of £4,300.
Local Needs Analysis Data Source
Before using this MeasureUp value, we encourage you to assess the local need in relation to the activity or outcome.
Here is the most useful initial data source for assessing local need in relation to this value
For assessing local needs related to the value WWD1.2 ‘Improved workplace quality’, you can look at indicators that reflect fair pay and equity in the workplace. The two most relevant data points are: Proportion of jobs below the Living Wage and Gender Pay Gap.
These indicators are available from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). You can explore data by local authority, unitary authority, work geography, or region, depending on the indicator.
The proportion of jobs below the Living Wage indicates the number and proportion of UK employee jobs with hourly pay below the living wage. The Gender Pay Gap measures annual estimates of paid hours worked and earnings for UK employees by sex. Both indicators are published annually and can support efforts to understand and improve workplace quality at the local level.
If you’re just starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate, but requires the least effort; whereas Silver, Gold and Gold+ give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort to accuracy indicator, choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Multiply the number of your participating people that you expect to gain an improvement in job quality by the single proxy of £4,300.
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Consider realistically what dimensions you will be able to mitigate. Therefore, you can calculate a more accurate value of the improved job quality.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised value: Measure actual amounts of difference that improved job quality makes to people’s lives
Gold+
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.
| Value Type: | Outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value. |
|---|---|---|
| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more |
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 was superseded by PPN 002 Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, published in February 2025 in line with the Royal assent of the Procurement Act 2023. The Model applies to all Central Government procurements commencing on or after 1 October 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. Out of scope procurements can choose to apply the model but are not required to do so. The updated model is structured around 5 government missions and 8 outcomes, with 17 Model Award Criteria, and a mandatory minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score assigned to social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeking consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
