What Workplace stressors does Work PositiveCI measure?

Depending on the version you choose to run, Work PositiveCI measures workplace stressors, employee psychological wellbeing, and critical incident exposure.

Workplace Stressors

As part of the Work PositiveCI initiative, the HSA has adopted and adapted the UK HSE’s Management Standards approach.  The Management Standards approach requires managers, employees and their representatives to work together to improve certain areas of work, described in the Standards, which will have a positive effect on employee wellbeing and performance. These six areas are: 

  • the Demands of people’s jobs, such as workload, working patterns and the work environment
  • the amount of Control individuals have at work, or how much say they have over the way they do their work
  • the Support employees receive from their line manager (Manager Support) and their colleagues (Peer Support)
  • how well Relationships are functioning in the workplace, including prevention of bullying and harassment, managing conflict and ensuring positive relationships
  • how clear people are about their Role within their workplace
  • how well Change is managed and communicated in the workplace.

Psychological wellbeing

The wellbeing index is created through a combination of two validated tools, the PHQ4 and the WHO-5 Well-being Index. These tools are combined to create a ‘traffic light’ summary score to represent ‘positive mental health’ (Green), ‘low distress’ (Amber), and ‘high distress and low quality of life’ (Red).

Exposure to Critical Incidents

While there are many stressors that are common to most workplaces, there are some that are specific to each job type. The Work PositiveCI survey contains CISM sectorial specific audit questions for individual participants to indicate the frequency and scale of experiences of critical incidents encountered within their job and the types of support measures that may be most helpful.