During our recent webinar exploring the findings of independent research conducted by Tufts University academics, we asked attendees whether they had seen workplace reforms lead to unintended consequences. Just one respondent said “no”.
This highlights a fundamental challenge. The very programmes that we hope will improve worker wellbeing and mitigate risk may be behaviourally ineffective, ultimately worsening conditions and creating new risks.
In this blog, Raquel Fisch, Principal Consultant at Impactt and RESTART facilitator and Farhana Ellen, a Senior Consultant and RESTART practitioner, discuss the research findings and reflect on how RESTART manages to close the gap between policies and practices, shifting behaviours and creating the conditions for safe and respectful workplaces.
What are the negative consequences that workplace reforms can create, and why do these arise, even when reforms are grounded in the best intentions?
There are two main unintended consequences to highlight, which are very common in practice. That is, (1) sending mixed messages to suppliers, and (2) what is known as economic “rents”.
- Mixed messages to suppliers: Interventions justified by a business case can lead to the expectation of larger productivity increases. This often results in increased production targets before any positive effects are realised, causing workers to work harder and managers to become disappointed when expected gains do not materialise.
- Vulnerability to economic “rents”: When interventions target a subgroup within a workplace, those jobs become more desirable. Supervisors may exploit this by demanding workers share their benefits, not necessarily financially but sometimes through intimate contact, making workers vulnerable.
In summary, workplace reforms can shift expectations, increase pressure, and even create opportunities for supervisors to extract “rent” in ways that leave workers more exposed.
It seems that human dynamics, such as empowerment, belonging and everyday interactions, play a critical role in the success of interventions. Why are these human dynamics so important?
Policies can set expectations, but it’s daily behaviour that determines reality.
When supervisors are under pressure, they can start to see workers as units of production rather than individuals, and workers often feel disempowered or afraid to speak up. This combination creates silence, miscommunication, and vulnerability. But when people feel a sense of belonging and empowerment, everything shifts: psychological safety rises, trust grows, and problems get solved earlier.
These human dynamics are what sit beneath harassment, discrimination, and conflict or, on the other hand, respect, communication, and safety. Culture is the operating system that makes or breaks any workplace reform.
Can you explain exactly what RESTART is, and how it addresses these complex dynamics?
RESTART is a behaviour-change intervention based on social psychology. It is a session designed to address underlying attitudes, relationships, and power dynamics, and tackle issues such as harassment, discrimination and communication breakdowns.
It helps organisations close the gap between policies and practices, ultimately creating the conditions for safe and respectful workplaces.
What did the Tufts research find, when studying RESTART across workplaces?
The main research questions focused on the impact of RESTART on workplace wellbeing and the attributes that predispose workplaces to sexual harassment.
The study looked at RESTART as a pre-treatment and found strong improvements in these attributes.
Significant improvements were observed in factors related to workplace vulnerability, such as power difference and dehumanisation.
In our RESTART whitepaper, we used the analogy of a ladder to explain the results.
Supervisors are higher on the ladder than workers, but the critical factor in determining workplace culture is the distance between them. The larger the gap, the greater risk of abusive practices, whereas reforms that narrow this gap improve culture.
In the independent test carried out by Tufts, supervisors saw themselves as rising 0.5 rungs higher on the ladder. However, they saw their workers as rising double this amount, with the effect deepening further in the months beyond.
In the inoculation test: there was no effect on supervisor perceptions of themselves, but they perceived workers as moving up by one rung on the power ladder.
Workplace improvements from the worker surveys were realised across the board, in both tests, measured on a 5 pt Likert scale. Most notably:
This clearly has the potential to be transformative. How can businesses carrying out RESTART ensure the changes are sustainable?
The changes are sustainable if there is a change in tone at the top. To ensure genuine long-term change, top management buy-in to whatever commitments come out of the RESTART sessions as part of the ‘code of conduct’ is needed.
Management should take things seriously, embed elements of the expectations to managers/supervisors, lead by example, make room (and maybe budget) for things that foster a strong culture: get-togethers, trainings, rewards, etc.
When there is this strategic shift, then change is lasting, and the business can experience improved business performance.
Did the research uncover what roles unions play? Does RESTART strengthen or undermine them?
The interaction between unions and RESTART is actually pretty important.
One of the questions in Tufts’ research explored whether RESTART made workers more comfortable seeking help or raising concerns. Turning to the union was one of the options workers could choose. Interestingly, the data did not show a treatment effect on seeking help from the union. What we did see was a clear treatment effect on seeking help from the HR manager.
This suggests that RESTART strengthens trust and approachability within the workplace itself, making HR a more credible and accessible channel for workers. It does not displace or diminish the role of unions, but rather improves the internal relationships that matter for day-to-day wellbeing, problem solving and early resolution.
What about if a workplace is already rolling out supervisor training or productivity reforms, can RESTART still be introduced — and if so, what’s the best sequencing?
When reforms are already underway, RESTART simply becomes a reset moment, arecalibration. We pause, check in with people, listen to what’s really happening on the ground, and rebuild the trust and psychological safety that help the reforms land well.
Then we pick the technical work back up — but with stronger relationships, clearer voice, and a much better chance of real, lasting change.
So yes: RESTART fits easily, and it makes everything that follows more grounded and more effective.
This is all fascinating, but what about the business case?
Any reform can backfire when the culture isn’t ready. Tufts found increased pressure, silence, and vulnerability when respect and trust weren’t in place.
RESTART builds the foundations first: trust, clarity, voice, empathy, and accountability.
When people feel safe and respected, absenteeism drops, communication improves, and teams become more stable.
Stable teams lead to more predictable performance and therefore sustainable productivity gains.
And this matters to brands because without cultural readiness, the investment they make in capacity-building and productivity reforms can be wasted. Instead of reducing HRDD risk, it can actually increase it. RESTART helps ensure those investments deliver performance and genuine risk mitigation.
Simply put, wellbeing reduces risk and makes productivity reforms work.
For example, Tufts found that following RESTART, the factory experienced:
- 52% increase in productivity in the months following
- Increased output efficiency by 28%
- Absenteeism fell by 0.6 days per worker per month
Culture is clearly decisive. Not soft, but structural. It shapes risk, stability, and performance in ways that policies alone can’t reach.
The Tufts research makes the business case crystal clear: when trust, respect, and accountability improve, workplaces become safer, teams become more stable, and performance becomes more predictable. Every other investment, training, productivity tools, HRDD reforms, work better when culture comes first.
RESTART demonstrates that treating people with dignity isn’t just ethical, it is operationally transformative.
