Introduction

In an era of intensifying global competition, the ever-changing market scenario imposes a significant challenge to organizations, entrepreneurs and policymakers, to be on par with the changes happening in the environment, within and outside the organizations. Such vicissitudes in society and at workplace are all the time more intimidating to employee well-being [29]. Given the rise in mental health issues post COVID-19 [41, 63], prioritizing employees' well-being and forming a workplace that supports their mental health is considered an ultimate challenge in sustaining a long-term competitive advantage for organizations [26]. There is extensive literature on adverse consequences amongst employees caused by a lack of employee well-being, denoted as EWB from here on (e.g. mental health issues like depression, illness, even death in some cases) and their workplace [25, 61]. Human resource (HR) management is considered to play a crucial role for contributing to employee well-being [28]. As a consequence, the last decade observed a strong momentum in EWB-HRM research (Ref. Figure 1), exploring mechanisms to enhance EWB through human resource management (HRM) [56], predominantly since the strike of COVID 2019 pandemic.

Fig. 1
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Employee well-being—HRM research area—Publication trend between 2010 and 2024

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Practitioners and scholars are of the opinion that managers, explicitly HR managers, play a crucial role in supporting well-being of employees [15]. On the other hand, disregarding or discounting employee well-being (EWB) considerations can have an adverse impact on organizational performance and its sustainability [30]. With the literature backing up, the possibility of HRM—EWB trade-offs makes this debate all the more fruitful for further enquiry in the area of research [17].

For the longest time, HRM literature positioned a greater focus on high-performance work system (HPWS), at the same time, EWB has been treated as a surplus aspect in the course of organizational output [36] or intermediary in the relationship between organizational performance and that of performance-oriented HRM systems [29]. Despite the deployment of numerous quantitative and qualitative studies, EWB and HRM body of research remains under-theorized and poorly understood [60]. Considering the current state of employee well-being HRM practices literature, we attempt to answer this gap with a systematic literature review focusing on employee well-being HR practices, EWBHRPs for short; we make our first contribution. A limited number of literature reviews have been steered in the field but with diverse agenda (e.g. [28, 47, 60]). Guest, [28] adopted a narrative review of positive well-being-oriented practices with a focus on EWB and organizational performance based on three factors, namely antecedents of work-related well-being [77], job demand resource model [6] and quality of working life (QWL) [75], while Peccei and Van De Voorde [60] conducted a qualitative review to study the HRM-EWB performance relationship. On the other hand, Loon et al. [47] emphasized on identifying employee positive well-being practices that contradict performance-oriented HR practices. Our interest here is in mounting HRM-EWB research with a core focus on literature dedicated employee well-being HRM bundles rather than focusing on the studies concerned with the impact of or relationship between HR practices on either EWB or organizational/individual performance.

The concept of employee well-being HRM practices is contested in and linked to various constructs and conceptualizations. For example, well-being-oriented HRM practices (WBHRM) [28], well-being-oriented management (WOM) [68] or employees’ psychological well-being practices [47]. To overcome the issue of lack of uniformity, authors have called for further enquiry on a diverse set of HR practices [47]. Hence, our second contribution is to address this gap by illuminating the inconsistent findings of past research concerning lack of conceptualization by thoroughly exploring the field to date and offering a working definition. By consolidating the literature into bundles of EWB practices, the article further contributes to a framework of provisional EWBHRPs. Lastly, we make our third contribution by proposing an exhaustive practical and theoretical implication with future agenda as the blueprint for future studies.

Thus, the main argument of this article is that organizations position EWB as one of their core responsibilities. It is defensible that EWB be positioned as one of the organizational goals since employees are as much an organization’s responsibility as their well-being [10]. Therefore, this article aims to present a systematic literature review on employee well-being HR practices (EWBHRPs) by identifying and reviewing relevant research articles that recognize employee well-being-HRM bundles, both empirical and conceptual. The first section of the paper identifies issues in the field. The second section describes the research methodology adopted to achieve the article’s objectives. The third section extends discussions and EWBHRPs provisional framework. The last section outlines theoretical and practical implications with future research directions.

Issues in EWBHRPs bundles research

The search for effective HR practices has been a topic of discussion for a long time [8]. HRM scholars have called for movement in the field, prioritizing employees [28, 76]. Consequently, organizations have started to realize the importance of the EWB approach, which also accounts for corporate social responsibility (CSR) [70]. Scholars have contributed with various studies on positive outcomes of EWB, such as organizational citizenship performance, organizational commitment, work engagement, lower absence and lower labour turnover [16, 79], however enhancing EWB continues to be a chief challenge in HRM field of research [35, 59]. Responding to the EWB concerns in the field, various studies used existing HRM theories and models to study EWB and HRM relations and impact. [39] examined the HRM, ethical leadership and EWB relationship, where the HRM model was measured using the high-performance work system (HPWS) scale developed by [45]. It is important to note that HPWS focuses on enhancing employees’ abilities, motivations and opportunities, with performance as its core [5] but not to cope or deal with threats to employees’ mental health [27]. Although HPWS may prompt higher levels of better intrinsic rewards from their job roles, employees may simultaneously experience strain from amplified workload, accelerated work intensification and surge in anxiety that may ultimately boil down to barricade for better performance [20, 23]. Van [72] instigating stress and substantial rise in mental health issues at workplace [74]. Various articles in the field studied EWB and AMO model under the same umbrella (e.g. [34, 42, 68, 81]). Yet, the AMO model has attracted major criticism due to a greater focus on organizational goals over employees [13].

Literature suggests that the subset of HRM practices illustrates varied outcomes [52]. Research shows the diverse impacts of HRM practices confirms that EWB and organizational performance are influenced by different sets of HR practices attributable to two distinct objectives [14], combining which may result in conflicting outcomes. Thus, with this systematic literature review, we focus on EWB as an interest independent and distinct of performance-oriented goals.

Research methodology

Research approach

We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify relevant studies owing to the exploratory nature of the study. SLR facilitates transparency, strengthening the quality and intensifying the review process [71]. Furthermore, it offers in-depth and thorough information for exploring standpoints from various authors, conceding scholars in the field of interest to gather or deduce literature to better understand the inconsistencies or research problems [33].

Study search

For a systematic literature search of relevant studies, we used Scopus and Web of (WoS), two of the most widely adopted databases in the management literature [44]. We searched for publications in the management field, precisely, business, management & accounting in the Scopus database. Whereas in Web of Science (WoS) database, we searched in management, industrial relations labour, business subject area. Refer Table 1 for detailed search parameters in the study.

Table 1 Search criteria
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Description of the review process: inclusion criteria

The following four inclusion criteria were considered for this systematic review. First, we searched for relevant articles published between 2010 and 2024, both inclusive. We selected 2010 as the opening year since the last decade has shown drastic growth in the field of EWB-HRM research (Ref. Fig. 1). Second, we limited our studies to journals with 1 + impact factor (IF) as they present well-grounded information and thus presents supremacy [64]. Consequently, we excluded data published in reports, books, unpublished papers and dissertations. Third, articles had to contain search terms/queries in title, abstract or keywords. Search terms were used independently on both databases. HRM practices are interconnected and thus would be fruitful if studied in bundles rather than in separate individual practice [5, 49], bringing us to our fourth inclusion criterion that articles had to contain bundles or HR practices literature that are specifically designed to enhance EWB. Finally, it had to be written in English, owing to comprehensive readership coverage.

Description of the review process: data extraction procedure

We used PRISMA 2020 protocol [57] to systematically review the literature. The literature search resulted in 16 studies to be included in this review. We summarize review of literature in Appendices. In the identification stage, we used the search terms without applying any inclusion criteria and recognized 11,790 articles (Scopus: 9492; and Web of Science: 2298 articles). On applying a few inclusion criteria, the search engine terminated 8436 articles. We screened records for duplication and dismissed 718 duplicate records. In the screening stage, we screened the abstracts of the remaining 2636 against the inclusion criteria of EWBHRPs which further eliminated 2580 articles. 56 articles were thoroughly read, which resulted in the exclusion of more 40 articles. In the last stage, we concluded with 16 articles that met all inclusion criteria. Figure 2 presents a visualization of the study selection process using PRISMA 2020 protocol.

Fig. 2
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Article selection process based on the PRISMA 2020 guidelines

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Description of the sample analysis

After confirming that the literature on Employee Well-Being Human Resource Practices (EWBHRPs) met inclusion criteria in the study, we compared articles focusing on several key components. These included HRM-EWB practices, theoretical frameworks, study objectives, research methodologies employed and critical findings. This thorough examination ensured that the HRM practices discussed were EWBHRPs bundles or literature-oriented.

Findings and discussion

As observed from Appendices, the oldest article is from the year 2012, we observed strong momentum since 2020. EWBHRPs literature is predominantly lead by social exchange theory (SET) [11] based on of its proponents of the so-called mutual gains perspective and the norm of reciprocity, followed by job demand-resources (JD-R) model [24] and roots in positive psychology. Studies used various research methods.

Table 2 shows that the EWBHRPs bundle size varies from a minimum of four to eighteen practice bundles, with an average bundle size of 8.875. Additionally, we included literature review articles [46, 55, 60] and a viewpoint article [82] that focuses on EWBHRPs to widen the scope of literature, despite no framework or EWB-oriented bundles proposed or tested. Practices such as training and development, job autonomy, employment security, employee communication, flexibility and supervisor/ management support are included in multiple sets of well-being intended set of practices (e.g. [1, 19, 28, 37, 68]), while practices such as zero tolerance for bullying and harassment, mental health support and diversity management [1, 28] are less frequently included.

Table 2 EWBHRPs bundles in HRM literature
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Defining, conceptualization of EWBHRPs

EWBHRPs are contested in and linked to various constructs and conceptualizations (Ref. Table 2). The ongoing lack of clearness, precision and the disagreement related to both the conceptualization followed by measures used for HRM practices and systems is posing a future challenge in the way of cracking EWB-HRM arguments’ field of study [12, 60]. Thus, the absence of clarity in terminology has resulted in vagueness and indistinctness regarding how to measure and which measure should encompass EWBHRPs. For example, [21] measured EWB practices using high-performance work systems (HPWS) developed by [80]. Salas-Vallina et al. [67] followed a similar approach. Hauff et al. [31] adapted “EWCS 2015—Questionnaire” to measure EWB practices but made modifications to meet its research objectives, while [68] based WOM studies on the job demand-resources model, scale adapted from the work of [69]. Given the literature review thus far, it is comprehensible that the concept of EWBHRPs needs a working definition that recognizes EWB while also illuminating on broader EWB-HRM lack of conceptualization issues leading to an established scale for measurement. By focusing research on these issues, we propose a working definition of Employee Well-Being HR Practices” (EWBHRPs) as ‘Any voluntary introduction of employee well-being intended HRM policies & practices or HR systems that attempt to address fundamental expectations, encourage existing job role performance, infuse compassion culture and prioritize occupational health and safety and mental health of employee.’

With this definition, we exemplify EWBHRPs as a phenomenon consistent and pertinent, comprehending employee well-being-oriented HRM systems. One key factor of this working definition is that it differentiates EWBHRP s from the wide range of sustainable and strategic HR themes as it aims explicitly to extend care with EWB focus when describing the content of HRM.

Employee well-being human resource practices (EWBHRPs)

On the basis of all the aforementioned views and EWBHRPs bundles presented in Table 2, we propose an integrated model of employee well-being HR practices (EWBHRPs) as shown in Table 3. EWBHRPs echo an organization’s expression of care for its employees by positioning EWB as one of its core values.

Table 3 Provisional Employee Well-being HR Practices (EWBHRPs)
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Unlike traditional HR practices that predominantly revolve around administrative and compliance-oriented practices, EWBHRPs are non-obligatory and may not be legally regulated in most countries [48]. We propose EWBHRPs to address fundamental well-being needs among employees. Through this systematic literature review (SLR), we identified employee well-being-based HRM constructs. We proposed a provisional EWBHRPs framework categorized into four sets of HR practices, as shown in Table 3. The proposed set of practices is: (1) fundamental, (2) encouraging, (3) workgroup interaction practices (4) prioritize health & safety practices, further elaborated as under:

Fundamental practices

We urge fundamental set of practices to be the foundation for EWBHRPs. It includes training and development, fair pay and employment security. Training and development practices typically yield favourable outcomes [65], particularly when they address both the professional and personal growth of employees [43]. These initiatives also play a crucial role in equipping employees with skills to effectively manage stress, for instance, enhancing emotional intelligence [40] enabling individuals to better navigate challenging situations, mitigate the adverse impacts of work intensification [73].

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced fresh challenges in terms of how employees adapt to change and perceive job security, profoundly impacting their well-being and satisfaction levels [50]. Together with fair pay for job role being performed, we propose fundamental practices to be the foundation of employees’ basic expectations from their employer instrumental in maintaining EWB.

Encouraging practices

Encouraging set of practices include person-job fit, bonus/incentives, job flexibility and employee voice intention. By ensuring employees’ skills and expertise align effectively with the assigned tasks, we propose that person-job fit may foster EWB as sense of job satisfaction while performing such tasks.

Employee voice intention, as described by Ouyang et al. [54], underscores the willingness of employees to contribute their opinions or ideas on critical matters. Clarke and Hill [19] argued that fostering employee voice is essential for promoting and sustaining EWB. Additionally, providing bonuses or incentives beyond basic pay as recognition for exceptional performance can cultivate a sense of acknowledgement and reward among employees. Moreover Anne Bardoel [4] suggests that implementing HRM practices offering flexibility in working hours enhances trust in management by facilitating a better work-life balance for employees. Altogether we propose that encouraging set of practices aims to provide comprehensive support, potentially inspiring and motivating employees not only to carry out tasks’ performance but also to foster well-being over the long term.

Workgroup interaction practices

Research shows teamwork contributes positively to the well-being of employees [9]. Volunteering enhances employee well-being by lowering depression risk and boosting engagement, satisfaction and organizational outcomes through fostering strong bonds among co-workers [62]. Positive interpersonal relationships have been identified as crucial for enhancing employees’ psychological health [18]. Therefore, we stress on creating a social atmosphere where employees are provided with voluntary and mandatory interactions concerning task performance and workplace bonding activities as an attempt to infuse EWB through workgroup interaction practices, promote compassion culture in long run.

Prioritize health and safety practices

Workplace health and safety can be viewed as a crucial workplace need. As observed from EWBHRPs constructs literature, mental health support at work place has received very less attention; we stress on the need for mental health support to be added to the bucket. Programmes aimed at promoting EWB, which may include occupational health and safety initiatives like counselling, have been shown to decrease absenteeism, thereby enhancing overall performance and well-being (e.g. [53]). We argue that professional counsellors/therapist availability within work premises or outsourced on call providing mental health support for employees arising from various issues such as workload pressure or volatile work environment will make one of the most vital contributions in EWBHRPs construct.

The proposed EWBHRPs framework in this review presented a provisional set of EWB-oriented HR practices identified and grounded in the literature of HR practices that have been discussed and debated as positively impacting the well-being-oriented workplace (e.g. [1, 21, 28, 37, 47, 68]), as our foundation to justify our conceptualization of WBHRM. Notably, the framework needs to be tested empirically for confirmation and reliability for implementation. We limit the nature of practices in order to make it concise and operational.

Employee well-being HRM practices (WBHRM) theoretical framework

Implementing relevant HR practices is a key approach to supporting and enhancing well-being [19]. On the basis of our comprehensive review of extant research in the area, we attempt to address the tensions in the field by proposing EWBHRPs—Employee well-being (EWB) theoretical framework in Fig. 3

Fig. 3
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Employee well-being HRM practices (WBHRM)—Employee well-being (EWB) theoretical framework

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Figure 3 presents the proposed theoretical framework based that is acknowledged by the literature on the positive influence of HRM systems on EWB. We base the framework on social exchange theory (SET) [11] as the theoretical foundation. Based on SET assumptions, we propose that employees who experience and perceive care from their organization, that is, in the form of well-being supporting HRM systems, may reciprocate with positive attitudes, fostering EWB. Following [28, 68] approach, we aimed for psychological, physical and social dimensions of well-being, through our framework. We channelled a theoretical framework from the work of [1, 19, 28] towards forming EWB dedicated HRM systems. Attuned to the proposed EWBHRPs framework and above-mentioned literature, we propose:

  1. P1

    EWBHRPs positively enhances employee well-being.

Organizations need to be ready to manage paradoxes as they emerge, recognizing that achieving ‘ideal’ conditions where both employee psychological well-being (PWB) and organizational performance (OP) thrive simultaneously prioritized without conflict is challenging [47]. The sceptical viewpoint suggests that employee well-being and OP are distinct objectives influenced by different sets of HR practices [14]. Social exchange theory (SET) as our theoretical foundation we argue EWBHRPs will enhance individual and organizational level outcomes as this well-being intended practices will be perceived as investment in employees creating a trade-off scenario exchanging performance in return to such investment made. Therefore, we propose:

  1. P2

    Employee Well-being Human Resources Practices (EWBHRPs) bundles positively affect individual and organizational outcomes.

Research suggests that employees who perceive HRM practices favourably tend to report higher levels of well-being [2, 55]. Therefore, for evaluating employee-level outcomes, it is advisable to prioritize employees’ perceptions of these systems [3]. When HRM practices are employed consistently as a system, they enable employees to form subjective perceptions about their work environment, typically resulting in attitudinal outcomes (Van [72]). Furthermore, unless HRM practices are integrated cohesively, their relevance and impact on outcomes may not be fully realized [52]. Consequently, we propose:

  1. P3

    Employees’ perception of EWBHRPs positively enhances all three dimensions of well-being: physical, psychological and social.

Implications

The SLR along with the proposed EWBHRPs framework contributes to key theoretical and practical implications as presented in Table 4. Pertaining to each set of EWBHRPs, we propose theoretical implications supported with research agenda for future research scholars. Alongside theoretical implications, we put forward practical implications for management and HR professionals in optimizing and bringing to practice employee well-being fostering strategies.

Table 4 Theoretical and practical implications and future research avenues
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We set down that the EWBHRPs framework is not restricted or subjected to a particular industry or workplace demographic context. Thus, the framework's scope and practicality can potentially become an acceptable standard in various industries. Another vital implication of this research article is that it aligns with “Promoting well-being” objective of the World Health Organization (WHO)  [78]. Moreover, well-being is now recognized as the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) [32]. This literature review article, therefore, has a greater scope for practical implications on the global level in times to come.

Future agenda

We put forward research agenda in addition to future research avenue suggest in Table 4. The management literature supports empirical research that studies the effect of HRM bundles on an employee-centric approach [22]. The model proposed in this article is preliminary; therefore, future studies could investigate the empirical relationships between various EWBHRPs and explore significant or contradictory practices. We call for a burning need to develop and validate EWBHRPs dedicated scale and measures to enable uniformity in measuring variables in the field. We further stress the need for a longitudinal research design that studies progress or enhancement in EWB implying EWBHRPs to practice, providing a better insight with various other environmental factors in play. To overcome the limitation of generalization, we call future scholars to study EWBHRPs in multiple industries and countries context. Additionally, we insist the model be studied for effectiveness subjected to small, medium & large-sized firms. The above-mentioned research agenda has the potential to add to the body of literature and our understanding of EWBHRPs area of research with a vision of its prolific implications for the EWB and sustainable organizational growth.

Conclusion

Our argument's novel nature and agenda aim to extend literature towards extending caring for employees as we insist that EWB be positioned at the centre organization’s objectives and that EWBHRPs would be instrumental in enhancing EWB. The key argument of this article is that organizations should prioritize EWB as one of their missions, and not as a mechanism for meeting organizational performance targets, but as its fundamental responsibility towards employees. With this review, we aim to address the concerns raised by Guest, [28] that, “Despite interest in employee attitudes and behaviour in many of the established HRM models, employee outcomes are viewed as a means to an end rather than an end in themselves.” Finally, our review upholds that EWBHRPs are undeniably progressive and an imperative area of HRM research with expeditious growth and development potential. In conclusion, thus, the extant study contributed to the body of research by pointing considerations towards key theoretical and practical implications, future agenda and enquiry in the field and by extending literature to shape the nature and debate in employee well-being-focused HRM research.