A Qualitative Study on Workplace Mental Wellbeing in the Singapore Context

Workplace wellbeing is essential for the employee as well as the organisation, but it may not adequately capture the way wellbeing is experienced in Singapore due to its diverse multi-ethnic society imbued with Eastern and Western values. The present study explores Singaporean employees’ understanding and perspectives in relation to how they experience wellbeing at the Singapore workplace. With a total of 31 participants consisting of full-time Singaporean employees from 17 industries, we used reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2013) to interpret the data and develop the themes. These 13 themes are: accomplishment, autonomy, co-worker relationship, employee recognition, fairness, learning and professional development, meaningful work, organisational support, person-organisational fit, role clarity, support from boss, transparency, and work-life balance. This study has elucidated our understanding of workplace wellbeing in the Singapore context and set the direction for further research including the development of a new Singapore Workplace Wellbeing Questionnaire. This will in turn assist in future development of workplace interventions aimed at improving employee outcomes, leading to improved health outcomes in the Singapore population and sustained economic growth and success.