Empowering creative students to have positive workplace wellbeing

Students appear to be more confident than graduates about workplace rights and discussing wellbeing issues, with graduates less comfortable raising topics such as mental health, disability or additional needs, research shows

This report by Rosie Pollock, career advice and guidance consultant at Leeds Arts University, was funded by the Jisc careers research grant and explores how to empower creative students and graduates when it comes to their workplace wellbeing and knowledge of their workplace rights. It examines their positive and negative experiences as well as the types of support they are looking for.

Key findings

• Most students and graduates felt supported by their employers both in their work and as individuals.
• Graduates reported more negative experiences than positive ones. These negatives included long hours, difficulties navigating the start of a job, poor communication, mismatch of expectations, feeling overworked, workplace stress, feeling disposable on zero-hours contracts, insufficient breaks, and lack of support.
• For students, negatives included lack of concern for safety, lack of follow-up after verbal abuse, changes in contract post-commencement, toxic expectations, and disrespect towards availability.
• Positive experiences for students related to having supportive managers, a positive working environment, flexible hours and understanding of travel issues.
• For graduates, positives were around financial rewards or perks, job autonomy, work-life balance and understanding of mental health and neurodiversity.
• Overall, students appeared to be more prepared for navigating workplace rights and wellbeing than graduates.
• Students felt more confident about their workplace rights than the graduate cohort, and were more comfortable discussing their workplace wellbeing with a manager. However, graduates were slightly more comfortable raising workplace issues than students.
• Graduates were much less comfortable speaking about their mental health, disability or additional need in the workplace than students.

About the report

This project aims to explore experiences and preparedness of students and graduates with regards to their wellbeing and rights in the workplace, and what support they would like with this. It explores specific questions such as:

1. What experiences do creative arts students and graduates at Leeds Arts University have in relation to their workplace wellbeing?
2. To what extent are creative arts students and graduates at Leeds Arts University prepared for navigating their workplace wellbeing and rights?
3. What support would creative arts students and graduates at Leeds Arts University like to see in relation to developing their knowledge of workplace wellbeing and workplace rights?

The findings are followed by a series of recommendations for further research, as well as actions that universities can take to prepare students and graduates for navigating their workplace wellbeing and rights.

We encourage other institutions to utilise and build on our ‘Toolkit of Resources’. By sharing our research and resources with each other, we can build an empowered network of students, graduates and staff.

If you are interested in conducting similar research, see Start of Project Docs and Promotional Material.

This research was funded by the Jisc careers research grant. If you're a careers professional planning to undertake research, you may be eligible for funding of up to £5,000.

Written by

Rosie Pollock

Career advice and guidance consultant

Leeds Arts University