Transforming Workplace Culture through Employee-Centric Wellbeing Programs in the Oil and Gas Sector (Published)
The oil and gas sector operates within uniquely demanding environments characterized by high-risk activities, remote operations, extended shift rotations, and diverse workforce configurations that generate substantial occupational stressors extending beyond conventional workplace challenges. Despite significant investments in safety management systems, the industry continues to grapple with persistent mental health challenges, cultural norms that discourage vulnerability, and operational gaps that undermine employee wellbeing and organizational effectiveness. This research examines how strategically designed employee-centric wellbeing programs can serve as catalytic mechanisms for transforming workplace culture within the oil and gas sector, with particular emphasis on initiatives encompassing psychological and social risk management, ergonomic interventions, and comprehensive wellness infrastructure that promote mental health, workplace inclusion, and employee engagement.Employing a convergent parallel mixed-methods research design, this study integrates quantitative survey data from 1,247 employees across four multinational oil and gas organizations with qualitative evidence from 47 semi-structured interviews, seven focus group discussions, and organizational document analysis. The research examines relationships between wellbeing program engagement, psychosocial safety climate, and employee outcomes including psychological wellbeing, work engagement, perceived organizational support, workplace inclusion, and turnover intentions, while exploring implementation dynamics, leadership practices, and contextual factors shaping program effectiveness.Findings demonstrate that comprehensive wellbeing programs generate substantial improvements across multiple organizational levels. Employees with high program utilization exhibited significantly superior psychological wellbeing scores (18.3 points higher on WHO-5 index), enhanced work engagement, strengthened organizational commitment, and reduced turnover intentions compared to low-utilization counterparts. Structural equation modeling confirmed that psychosocial safety climate functions as a critical mediating mechanism, accounting for 42-47% of program effects on employee outcomes. Qualitative analysis revealed that programs catalyze cultural transformation by normalizing mental health discourse, disrupting stigmatizing norms, and signaling authentic organizational care. Particularly significant is the amplifying role of care-centered leadership, wherein leaders who model vulnerability, prioritize employee welfare, and enact small acts of recognition accelerate cultural shifts and enhance program effectiveness exponentially.Organizational performance indicators corroborate employee-level benefits, with participating organizations documenting turnover reductions of 23-31%, safety incident rate decreases of 18-27%, and absenteeism declines averaging 14.7% following program implementation. However, implementation challenges including middle management resistance, access barriers for remote/offshore workers, and systematic exclusion of contractor populations require intentional design solutions. Differential impacts across operational contexts underscore the necessity of context-adapted interventions rather than standardized approaches.These findings carry profound implications for the oil and gas industry and analogous high-risk sectors. Employee-centric wellbeing programs represent strategic organizational investments that enhance not only humanitarian outcomes but operational excellence, safety performance, talent retention, and competitive positioning. The research demonstrates that authentic care for employee wellbeing enhances rather than conflicts with business objectives, challenging false dichotomies between human welfare and organizational performance. For sustainable cultural transformation, organizations must move beyond programmatic offerings to embrace comprehensive approaches encompassing care-centered leadership development, psychosocial risk management, inclusive program design ensuring equitable access across diverse workforce populations, and systematic evaluation frameworks. The study advocates for industry-wide adoption of evidence-informed wellbeing initiatives and identifies critical directions for future research including longitudinal effectiveness studies, technology-enabled intervention evaluation, and cross-sector comparative analyses to advance knowledge translation and accelerate cultural evolution toward human-centered organizational paradigms within high-risk industries.
Keywords: Employee Engagement, Employee wellbeing, Oil and gas industry, care-centered leadership, high-risk industries, organizational transformation, psychosocial safety climate, workplace culture