Sheena Johnson

Professor of Work Psychology and Wellbeing

Sheena Johnson's great passion is to translate her research into an applied setting and make a real difference to working lives.

A good example is how her research has improved local and national government understanding of the need for greater workplace protection for ageing workers. This has resulted in new strategies and policies at the Department for Work and Pensions and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Specifically, collaborating with the Health and Safety Executive, Sheena established an industry-wide network for the UK logistics and transport sector and produced best practice guidelines that are used by haulage companies, delivery drivers, unions, and the DVLA to improve the health and wellbeing of an ageing workforce. The guidelines and network have resulted in a significant number of changes to organisational understanding, policies, training and practices.

Older workers

As she explains: "Older workers are often associated with a decline in skills and abilities. However, my research supports an alternative understanding of the relationship between age and work, by demonstrating that older worker competencies can lead both to health benefits and commercial benefits."

This alternative perspective emerged from research conducted as part of a three-year project she led between Alliance Manchester Business School and Frankfurt University. The research team analysed how service sector workers of different ages managed stress, conflict and emotion regulation, as well as the impact these feelings had on participants health, for example work related burnout.

Sheena was then invited to author a Government Foresight Evidence Review commissioned as part of the UK government's Foresight Future of an Ageing Population project. This report drew on and informed her age-related research into older workers' competencies and health and looked at how organisations are reacting (or not) to the changing age-based demographic composition of the workforce.

Transport sector

Sheena's recent research focuses specifically on protecting the health and wellbeing of older professional drivers in the logistics and transport sector. In particular she was Principal Investigator on two collaborative projects exploring the sector challenges and needs of an ageing workforce.

Data was gathered via a series of interviews with HGV and light-goods vehicle drivers. Drawing on this evidence base, she identified a number of industry specific challenges, such as inadequate working conditions and scheduling factors. She also found that these practices negatively impacted on older drivers' work-life balance, caused wear and tear on the body, and led to difficulties in eating healthily and taking exercise breaks whilst on the road. The research culminated in the creation of the ‘Age, Health and Professional Drivers' Network' (AHPD) established and led by Sheena, along with the production of Health and Wellbeing Best Practice Guidelines.

Her research has also benefited employers in the Greater Manchester region by helping them to understand the needs of their ageing workforce. For instance in 2018 and 2019, she provided key evidence concerning the ageing workforce and their health and wellbeing needs to an initiative called the ‘Age Friendly GM Employer Handbook' which is now being promoted to all companies and employers in the Greater Manchester area.

COVID study

When the pandemic struck Sheena knew straight away that she wanted to use her skills to do some research that was COVID-facing. "COVID is a leveller in some ways because we all thought we were vulnerable but what became quickly apparent was that some people were more at risk than others."

Sheena is now a co-lead on the government's Protect Covid-19 National Core Study on the transmission of Covid-19, and is involved in a number of studies in a range of sectors, for example Construction (Keeping the UK Building Safely), Public Transport, Enduring Prevalence and the Greater Manchester Case Study.

As she adds: "At the beginning of the pandemic public transport was identified as potentially high risk for both workers and travellers, but little was known about the risk of transmission and the effectiveness of measures in reducing infection on various types of transport such as face masks, social distancing and enhanced cleaning. These are precisely the areas that this study will investigate further."

She says evidence and knowledge gained during the pandemic should be used to now develop clear and effective strategies to allow for coherent and rapid responses to any future pandemics. "Government and the transport sector will need to work together to build capacity on services safely, and to determine acceptable levels of risk in different or changing circumstances."