NIOSH questionnaire aimed at gauging, enhancing worker well-being

Washington — NIOSH has created a questionnaire intended to help employers assess and improve worker well-being by collecting employee observations of various aspects of their physical and mental health on and off the job.

The NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire, or WellBQ, includes 68 questions shaped by the worker well-being framework developed by the agency, in conjunction with the nonprofit research institute RAND Corp. The free, anonymous questionnaire is estimated to take 15 minutes to complete and covers topics such as work evaluation and experience; workplace policies and culture; workplace physical environment and safety climate; health status; and home, community and society.

The questions include:

• Because of a physical, mental or emotional condition, do you have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions?
• Are you limited in the kind or amount of work you can do because of a physical, mental or emotional problem?
• How often do you get the social and emotional support you need from friends, family or others outside of work?

Additionally, multiple exercises call for responses to a series of related statements based on the worker’s level of agreement. The worker then calculates the average to determine their score for each exercise. For example, one section asks respondents to gauge to what extent the statements below are applicable to evaluate the level of work culture support:

• At my organization, I am treated with respect.
• My organization values my contributions.
• My organization cares about my general satisfaction at work.
• My organization is willing to extend resources to help me perform my job to the best of my ability.
• I receive recognition for a job well done.

“Worker well-being is a unifying concept that characterizes quality of life with respect to a person’s working conditions, circumstances outside of work, and physical and mental health status,” NIOSH Director John Howard said in a press release. “NIOSH is excited to offer this new tool that anyone can use to evaluate worker well-being in order to help identify opportunities to advance worker well-being through workplace policies, programs and practices.”