Employee health and performance promotion through the off‐job crafting intervention: A randomized crossover trial

Abstract

In an increasingly boundaryless work‐life, effective interventions are needed to ensure recovery and diminish work stress. A randomized controlled trial with a crossover design was conducted to test the effectiveness of an off‐job crafting intervention on recovery experiences and employee health and performance. Knowledge workers ( n  = 136) from three organizations took part in workshops on avoidance‐ and approach‐focused crafting, and crafted their off‐job recovery time during a 2‐week training period after each workshop. The intervention increased all off‐job crafting strategies and recovery experiences (except mastery experiences) and reduced work stress with a medium effect size. Performance was not significantly impacted by the intervention. Intervention component effects revealed that it was the approach (rather than avoidance) component which produced the positive effects of the intervention for recovery experiences and employee health, particularly through crafting for autonomy. Moreover, the approach component resulted in increases in both approach‐ and avoidance‐focused crafting. The results underscore that off‐job crafting provides a useful conceptual mechanism for depicting behavioural change processes in recovery interventions.