Tom Steph­ens

The bulk of my research applies data-driven methods to try to improve the way we capture the complexity of peoples’ working lives, and uses this data to answer important policy-relevant questions about how we can improve workers’ wellbeing – particularly as economies develop and workplaces and institutions have to navigate technological change.

I’m currently working on a Horizon Europe-funded project, ‘Work and Wellbeing in Europe’ (WaWiE), as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. Using household survey data, I’m working to build a comprehensive cross-national dataset of job quality and worker wellbeing. The project seeks to innovate in the way we measure and understand the comprehensive range of ways that work affects peoples’ lives – and particularly unpacking the reasons why job quality affects wellbeing to different degrees, and in different ways, for workers in different circumstances and institutional contexts. As part of this, I’m especially interested in improving our understanding why new technologies impact workers so very differently depending on how they are implemented, and how the household and family interface with peoples’ working lives. 

Outside of this current interest, in previous research projects I’ve published research on trends and inequalities in multidimensional job quality, including methodologies for developing and weighting job quality indices, and the relationship between high-quality work and the subsequent risk of employment exit. I’ve also written conceptual work on the philosophy of worker wellbeing, particularly using the Capability Approach. 

I’m also involved in more policy-focussed research into how employment services and social protection systems can be designed to improve workers’ wellbeing, and I had a career in public policymaking before shifting to academia. I’ve previously used survey data to understand the effect of welfare conditionality on peoples’ job quality, and am especially passionate about devising ways to understand this further using administrative data and other research methods.