Abstract:

In technological transformations Industry 5.0 should bring us towards a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry. Critical assets have dematerialized, and the most valuable asset is knowledge (Marchegiani, 2021). Hence, employees and their well-being are more critical than ever. A good working environment must pay attention to and meet employee´s psychological needs.

Three areas of psychological needs are described by Deci and Ryan (2011) in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT):
1) autonomy, responsibility and ownership of their own process and vision.
2) competence and development possibilities, to build capability at different levels.
3) relatedness, to be in a context and the possibility and authority to jointly influence and develop.

This paper aims to share experiences on how the use of these needs have increased our knowledge concerning employee´s psychological needs in a Swedish industrial company, in the view of a health-promoting working life. Interviews have been conducted with 32 respondents and deductively analyzed by using the needs in SDT as an analytical tool. The analysis reveals a number of needs, and hence opportunities, mainly in Competence and Relatedness:
Competence perceived to work well in general, but there was an indication that it may have become a little worse the last time. Furthermore, the analysis reveals a need for strategic competence development when new things were decided to be included in the company. As put in the interviews: "We take things to heart and say we're going to have it, but it's not implemented. You do not get the possibility to learn it. It's expected that you just have to work and understand.”:
Relatedness

The analysis shows that the company´s main needs and hence the main opportunities were in “Relatedness”, Here three subareas were identified:
- Context, “spirit”: The employees thrive with each other, but there was also a feeling that people are not as engaged anymore. E.g. “I have made this wall and is proud of it, now you don't care in the same way”. Furthermore, there seems to be different pictures between management and the other employees. “I want it to be good and do well, but I perceived as negative when I say something, even though it's about caring for the company”.
- Development work and changes: People feel unable to influence. "The management says that they are listening and taking to heart, but nothing is happening." The employees want to be more involved and have more information. There is a great need to understand why things are going to change and getting feedback how it proceeds.
- Internal communication: There is a need for more visibility of the management in production. The company has developed their digital communication, but there still is a need of analog communication in some situations.

Using the three areas of psychological needs in SDT as an analytical tool increases our understanding of which company-specific areas that are important to focus on for a health-promoting working life. Furthermore, it gave us knowledge and understanding concerning suitable activities for meeting the needs. For example: develop a clear structure and rules for how to perform the development work. Explaining why and giving continuous and structured feedback are important aspects. Another important aspect is that decisions concerning work changes must include decisions concerning the need for training.

Keywords:

Working environment, psychological needs, Self-Determination Theory (SDT).