Europe's workplaces are undergoing major changes driven by the digital and green transitions, creating new challenges for employee wellbeing. These shifts particularly affect workers dealing with end-of-life (EoL) experiences—such as serious illness, caregiving duties, or grief—which are often ignored in workplace policies and culture. Despite affecting millions of employees each year, support for these situations remains limited, leading to mental health issues, reduced wellbeing, and productivity loss.
The EU-CoWork project (2024-2028), funded by the HORIZON-HLTH-2023 programme of the European Commission, seeks to address this gap. It aims to build a comprehensive framework to improve workplace support for employees facing EoL challenges, and for their colleagues, across various sectors and countries. The project unites five academic and three dissemination partners from Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Greece, and the UK, working with 12 workplaces in four European nations.
EU-CoWork includes two interconnected studies: a co-creative, developmental evaluation of tailored Compassionate Workplace Programmes (CWPs), and a mixed-methods impact evaluation using surveys, interviews, fieldwork, and policy analysis. A core element is co-creation—moving away from one-size-fits-all approaches by involving organisations directly in designing their own CWPs. These may include developing policies, adapting workspaces, reshaping wellbeing services, and boosting employee skills.
The project maps both organisational and individual factors and creates tools based on real workplace needs through workshops, communities of practice, and shared resources.
Expected outcomes include evidence-based tools to help organisations design inclusive environments that support employees dealing with EoL situations. By applying participatory and context-sensitive approaches, EU-CoWork aims to foster more compassionate, resilient, and sustainable work environments in line with Europe's changing workplace landscape.