O-275 Association Between Status of Work Arrangements With Work Engagement: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study

Introduction Flexible work arrangements are becoming more popular since the Covid-19 pandemic. It allows employees not to physically interact with colleagues during working process. This phenomenon leads to several consequences both positive and negative. Our study aims to identify the status of flexible work arrangements compared to fixed work arrangements associated with work engagement. Methods This study is part of W2S-Ohpm study, a nationwide, online survey, prospective cohort study among workers in Japan. Work engagement was examined using Japanese version of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Status of work arrangement was defined using a single question, categorized into fixed work arrangement (regular and shift working time system) and flexible work arrangement (flextime, variable working hours system and discretion labor). Participants were observed from year 2022 – 2023. Linear regression was used for statistical analysis. The study was approved by UOEH, Japan ethics committee and followed CHERRIES guidelines. Results There were 16,629 participants following one-year observation. We found that flexible working arrangement employees were likely to have better work engagement compared to fixed work arrangement employees (Coefficient 2.401, p<0.001). The association was kept significant after being adjusted with sex, age, education, income, type of industry, job position and work from home status (Coefficient 1.070, p<0.001). Discussion Application of flexible work engagement was likely led to positive outcome of work engagement. It may be implemented at any kind of workplace, job position and possibly combined with work from home status. Conclusions Flexible work arrangements can be implemented not only for decreasing work demands but also increasing work engagement.