This review examined studies that used the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) indicator tool - a 35-item questionnaire containing seven subscales. The subscales are demands, control, managers’ support and peer support, relationships, role and change. To find out more the Management Standards please visit https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/. Thirteen papers were included in the review; most of the papers were UK based and the tool had been used across a variety of occupations.

The results suggest that the tool can be used with a variety of employees and that overall it demonstrates good reliability. It is suggested that when using this tool organisations also collect other measures of stress and wellbeing such as data gathered through focus groups or interviews. Further research examining the tool in different contexts e.g. with different cultural groups is required. 

The aim of this paper was to examine the psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire-12. The questionnaire is a self-administered screening measure for the detection of minor psychiatric disorder in community and nonpsychiatric clinical settings. The 12 questionnaire items cover feelings of strain, depression, inability to cope, anxiety-based insomnia and lack of confidence. 

551 NHS staff completed the questionnaire. The results did not show any significant differences between the scores obtained by women and men. Overall the results suggest that the GHQ-12 is a valid and reliable questionnaire for detecting minor psychiatric disorders among healthcare employees in the NHS. However, as this was tested amongst NHS employees this may limit whether the findings can be generalised to other populations. 

7482 employees who were participating in the Maastrict Cohort Study on Fatigue at Work completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). This is a 14 item questionnaire which assesses the presence and severity of anxiety and depression. The results showed that there was higher reported level of anxiety and depression amongst employees not at work or with health problems. 

Regarding the questionnaire the results suggest that the HADS is a valid and reliable scale and can be used to identify depression and anxiety as separate constructs amongst employees. It is thought that this is the first study to examine the psychometric properties of the HADS in a working population.

This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale in an occupational health care population. Participants were employees who were absent from work due to mental health problems and were engaging with occupational physicians. 198 employees were included in the study and 192 were interviewed. The DASS-42 consists of three subscales – depression scale, anxiety scale and stress scale - each of which is comprised of 14 items. 

The results suggest that the DASS is a reliable and valid psychometric tool for use with employees who are off work because of mental health problems and it is proposed that this is a useful tool within occupational health care. Further research needs to be conducted to ensure that the DASS is user friendly amongst other populations. 

This study aimed to validate the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS). 600 general managers and managers from a hotel chain in Norway and Sweden completed the measure. The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being is a seven-item measure based on the 14 item Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being. In this paper the items were translated from English into Norwegian and Swedish. The SWEMWBS mainly measures psychological and eudemonic well-being. 

The results showed that the SWEMWBS is a valid and reliable questionnaire for measuring mental wellbeing and that there were a few country and gender differences. However, it is important to note that the context in which this research was conducted was Scandinavia which is reported to have quite high subjective well-being. 

In this study 23, 361 employees from six countries completed the new international middle version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) III. The questionnaire was updated to reflect workplace trends, theoretical concepts and international experience. This third version of the questionnaire is comprised of 60 items which reflect a variety of domains including demands at work, work organisation and job contents, interpersonal relations and leadership, work-individual interface, social capital, conflicts and offensive behaviours, health and well-being and personality. The COPSOQ is used globally and has been used in more than 400 peer-reviewed articles. 

The results suggest that the tool is reliable although there are a few scales that could be improved. It is recommended that when using this tool objective measures should also be gathered. Further research investigating how this tool is used in practical settings is encouraged. 

This study examined the ASSET Pulse which is a shortened measure of workplace stressors based on the ASSET tool. The ASSET Pulse was tested using data collected from 39342 employees who completed the ASSET tool. The data has been collected over the years and the majority of employees are from the public sector. The ASSET Pulse is comprised of 10 items compared to the 37 in the ASSET and there are seven ASSET Pulse indicators – resources and communication, control, balanced workload, work relationships, job security, aspects of job and pay and benefits.

The results suggest that the ASSET Pulse scale is a reliable and valid measure of workplace stressors. The ASSET Pulse was developed to be used as an indicator tool and further research should be conducted to explore areas of concern highlighted by the tool. 

This paper describes a measure which aimed to assess affective well-being, subjective competence and aspiration. 1686 UK based men and women from a range of jobs and variety of job levels completed the measure. The items in this measure assess both job-related and non-job related mental health. In this measure two axes of affective wellbeing are measured – anxiety-contentment and depression-enthusiastic. The measure assesses these in two contexts - job and life outside the job. Job competence and aspiration are also assessed.

The findings suggest that the questionnaire is acceptable and is easy for employees to complete. Interestingly, the results showed some differences in terms of occupational level and mental health e.g. people in high level jobs reported more job-related enthusiasm but scored lower on anxiety-contentment i.e. they reported more anxiety.

The aim of this study was to develop a brief valid measure of PERMA. Seligman proposed that flourishing arises from five wellbeing pillars which are Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment (PERMA). The 23 items measure the five PERMA domains in addition to overall wellbeing, negative emotion, loneliness and physical health. One of the strengths of this PERMA measure is that there are several items per domain rather than just one or two.

The results showed that the PERMA-profiler had acceptable psychometric properties. The authors propose that when feeding back results from the profiler, results should be given for each domain as the measure was created to be multidimensional. 

This study examined the 40 item Job Demands-Resources Scale (JDRS) (Jackson & Rothmann, 2005) amongst 2717 employees from five organisations who worked in a range of occupations in South Africa. The results showed that the scale is comprised of five factors: growth opportunities, organisational support, advancement, overload and job insecurity. The paper defines the five factors as: overload - the amount of work, mental load and emotional load; job insecurity - feeling insecure in the current job and level with regard to the future; growth opportunities - having enough variety, opportunities to learn and independence in your work; advancement – moving forward within your work and includes remuneration, training and career opportunities; organisational support – relationships with your supervisor, manager, the availability of information, communication in the organisation, participation, social support by colleagues and contact opportunities within the organisation. A second analysis showed two main factors – job demands (overload) and job resources (growth opportunities, organisational support, advancement and job insecurity).

The results suggest that the scale is valid, reliable and appropriate for use in a range of organisations; findings showed that demands and resources vary by organisation.

Flourishing at work can be defined as a sense that life is going well and an individual is functioning well (Rautenbach, 2015) whereas languishing is the opposite to flourishing. The Flourishing-at-Work Scale Short Form (FWS-SF) measures workplace emotional, psychological and social wellbeing over the past month. Emotional wellbeing measures job satisfaction and positive affect, psychological wellbeing measures autonomy, competence, relatedness, meaning, purpose, cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, physical engagement and learning and social wellbeing measures social contribution, social acceptance, social growth, social integration and social comprehension. 

The results showed that in this organisation 8% of the participants were languishing, 56% were moderately healthy and 36% were flourishing. Individuals who were flourishing tended to be in managerial and executive jobs whereas non-flourishing individuals tended to be in skilled and semi-skilled and non-managerial roles. The elements of flourishing that were less experienced were social growth, social coherence and job satisfaction.

The results suggest that the scale is valid and reliable although further research is needed in a range of industries.  

In this multi-wave study, the eudaimonic workplace well-being scale (EWWS) was developed and validated. 1346 participants completed this 8 item measure. This paper defines eudaimonic workplace well-being as an employee’s subjective evaluation of his or her ability to develop and optimally function within the workplace. Four items in the scale measure intrapersonal elements and four measure interpersonal elements. Intrapersonal elements of work include internal or personal elements whereas interpersonal elements are the external or social elements that enable an individual to fulfil their potential and intrinsic goals.  

The scale predicted creativity and turnover intentions and the results suggest that the scale is a valid measure and can be used either as a single measure or be used in addition to a job satisfaction measure to create a three factor measure of wellbeing. Further research is required to identify if virtual work can fulfil the interpersonal elements adequately. 

1218 insurance company employees from four countries completed a new 10-item stress index, the Work Well index (WWi) which assesses psychosocial work-related stress. The tool measures five dimensions of psychosocial work characteristics and each dimension reflects two elements: demand/effort (work pace and workload), control (skill discretion and decision authority), support (co-worker support and supervisor support), reward (material reward and non-material reward) and social capital (trust and justice). 

The results suggest that the scale demonstrates good reliability and validity. The authors propose that this measure can be used as part of an employee survey. One of the strengths of this paper is that the sample was cross-cultural which suggests that the results can be generalised to other populations. 

The aim of the original Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery scale (OFER) was to differentiate between acute fatigue states and chronic fatigue states and measure recovery from work-related fatigue between shifts. The scale consists of 15 items and three subscales which are chronic fatigue, acute fatigue and intershift recovery. 

In this study 510 South Australian nurses completed the measure and the results suggest that the OFER scale is reliable and valid. Although previous studies have suggested that the scale is free from gender bias much of the testing and validation of the scale has been conducted amongst nurses where the majority of participants are women therefore further research is required with this modified scale amongst employees from a variety of industries. 

This systematic review of 213 studies examined the use of the 5 item World Health Organization Well-being Index (WHO-5) in a range of contexts; including but not limited to the fields of endocrinology, psychology, suicidology, neurology, psychiatry and cardiology. The WHO-5 has also been used in stress research in an occupational context to assess the relationship between stress and well-being, well-being in occupational health and psychosocial conditions and well-being. In addition, it has been successfully used globally which may partly be due to the simple language used in the five items.

The findings suggest that the short questionnaire effectively taps into subjective well-being and is a valid measure. The results show that the WHO-5 can be used both as a clinical tool i.e. to screen for depression and more broadly in studies to assess subjective well-being.