The Future of Healthy Work
Exploring how small organizations can create healthier, more sustainable and neuroinclusive ways of working
Small organizations care deeply about their employees. They want people to feel respected, supported and able to grow. They want to communicate well, respond fairly, build strong teams and create workplaces where people can contribute without continually sacrificing their health or wellbeing.
But knowing that healthy work matters is different from knowing how to build it.
In small organizations, the person responsible for people and culture may also be managing client services, operations, finances, hiring, scheduling and organizational growth. There may be no HR department, learning team or organizational-development specialist.
Important workplace practices are often built along the way, in the small spaces around the organization’s primary work.
That can make it difficult to step back and ask:
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Are roles and expectations clear?
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Do employees have meaningful opportunities to learn and grow?
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Can people ask questions, make mistakes and raise concerns safely?
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Are workplace systems accessible to people who think, communicate and work differently?
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Can employees see a future for themselves when traditional promotions are limited?
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Are leaders being given the support they need to lead well?
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Are the ways of working sustainable for both employees and the organization?
These are the questions at the heart of The Future of Healthy Work.
What Is The Future of Healthy Work?
The Future of Healthy Work is an emerging Acorn Avenue research and implementation program led by Jessica McKenna.
It will explore what helps people build healthy and sustainable careers, and how small organizations can intentionally create the conditions that make this possible.
The program will bring together:
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applied research;
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conversations with employees and leaders;
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practical organizational pilots;
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evaluation;
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and resources that translate evidence into everyday practice.
The goal is not to arrive with a perfect solution or another list of workplace ideals.
It is to listen, learn, test practical approaches and discover what actually works in the realities of small organizations.
The First Proposed Research Project
How can smaller New Brunswick businesses and organizations become more supportive environments for sustainable, psychologically healthy and neuro-inclusive career development when they lack dedicated human-resources or career-development capacity?
Career development does not only happen when someone is choosing an occupation, searching for work or considering a career transition.
It also happens every day inside workplaces.
People develop their careers through:
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the feedback they receive;
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the responsibilities they are trusted to take on;
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the clarity of their roles;
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the opportunities they have to learn;
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the relationships they build;
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their ability to ask questions and seek support;
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the way mistakes and challenges are handled;
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their access to accommodations;
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and whether they can imagine a sustainable future within the organization.
Every workplace has career-development infrastructure, whether it has been intentionally designed or not.
The research would explore:
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which everyday workplace practices help employees learn, contribute and grow;
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which systems or expectations create unnecessary barriers;
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how role clarity, feedback, psychological safety and employee voice affect career development;
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what sustainable career growth looks like in small organizations;
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what prevents small-organization leaders from implementing practices they may already value;
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how neurodivergent employees and others who encounter conventional workplace barriers experience these conditions;
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what role career-development professionals could play in supporting small employers;
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and which changes can realistically be implemented and maintained.
Why Focus on Small Organizations?
A great deal of workplace guidance assumes access to specialized internal support.
But many small businesses, clinics, non-profits, professional practices and community organizations do not have:
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a dedicated HR department;
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an organizational-development team;
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formal career pathways;
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large training budgets;
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or a staff member whose only role is to support workplace culture and employee development.
Small-organization leaders are often wearing several hats. This can create challenges, but it also creates opportunities. Small organizations may be able to build close relationships, respond creatively and make meaningful changes without layers of approval.
The practices designed for them simply need to reflect their realities. The purpose of this work is not to make small organizations operate like large corporations. It is to discover what healthy, career-supportive work can look like in a small organization and how to make it practical.
What Might This Work Produce?
The proposed project would aim to create an evidence-informed and pilot-tested framework for small workplaces.
Potential outputs may include:
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a research report;
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a practical framework for healthy and sustainable career development;
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a reflection tool for small-organization leaders;
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guidance for career-development practitioners working with employers of small businesses;
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examples and learning from participating organizations;
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practical tools for improving role clarity, feedback, employee voice and career conversations within small businesses;
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presentations and learning sessions;
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and recommendations for future research and workplace practice.
The exact resources will be shaped by what is learned through the research and by the needs of the people who will use them.
How Acorn Avenue Approaches the Work
Listen
Learn from the people closest to the work, including employees, leaders, practitioners and community partners.
Co-design
Develop approaches with the people who will use and be affected by them.
Evaluate
Explore what changed, what remained difficult and what could realistically be sustained.
Understand
Examine the systems, expectations and workplace conditions surrounding the individual experiences.
Pilot
Test practical changes within real organizational settings.
Translate
Turn the learning into useful tools, language and guidance that others can put into practice.
In simple terms, let's discover what works, and then help organizations do more of it in the ways that work best for their workplace.
Why Acorn Avenue?
Acorn Avenue is led by Jessica McKenna, whose work has crossed career development, education, workforce development, organizational systems, psychologically safe leadership and neuroinclusive practice.
Earlier in her career, Jessica was part of an action-research team exploring professional learning and practice in early-childhood education. Her published work includes:
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Play in Early Learning Programs: Beliefs, Practices and Professional Development; and
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From Child-Minders to Professionals: Insights From an Action Research Project on Prince Edward Island.
That experience shaped an enduring interest in applied research: learning directly from people, understanding how systems affect practice and translating findings into useful change.
Since then, Jessica has worked with individuals, teams and organizations across career development, employment services, education, workforce development, project implementation, policy development and organizational growth.
The Future of Healthy Work brings these areas together. Acorn Avenue’s focus is the space where people and systems meet:
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how careers develop inside organizations;
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how workplace practices shape participation;
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how leaders turn values into everyday decisions;
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and how small organizations can become healthier without losing sight of the work they are there to accomplish.
How you could participate:
This work will be stronger when it is shaped by folks with different experiences and perspectives.
You may be interested in participating as:
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a small-business or organizational leader;
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an employee in a small workplace;
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a career-development practitioner;
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an HR, organizational-development or workplace-wellbeing professional;
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a disability, accessibility or neurodiversity practitioner;
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a workforce or economic-development organization;
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a research or evaluation collaborator;
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a community partner;
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a potential pilot organization;
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a funder or knowledge-sharing partner;
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or someone with lived experience related to the topic.
Possible forms of participation may include:
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sharing your perspective;
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joining a future interview, survey, focus group or roundtable;
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identifying important questions the research should consider;
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providing a letter of support;
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participating in a pilot;
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joining an advisory group;
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contributing expertise;
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helping share the findings;
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or exploring a future partnership.
Expressing interest does not create a commitment to participate.
Help Shape the Future of Healthy Work
Healthy workplaces are built through everyday decisions about communication, roles, learning, feedback, opportunity, inclusion and leadership. Acorn Avenue is beginning a longer-term effort to understand those decisions and to help small organizations create ways of working in which people, careers and organizational purpose can grow sustainably together.
To discuss the proposed research, participate in an early conversation or explore a potential partnership, contact Jessica using the form below.