Development of the Health and Work Questionnaire (HWQ): An instrument for assessing workplace productivity in relation to worker health

BACKGROUND: Workplace productivity evaluations often involve subjective assessments. This study was performed to develop and validate a new multidimensional instrument, the Health and Work Questionnaire (HWQ), for measuring workplace productivity and worker heath. METHODS: In a prospective, non-randomized study, objective and subjective workplace productivity (measured with the HWQ) was assessed among 96 current, 94 former, and 104 non-smoking volunteer reservation agents at a US-based international airline. RESULTS: Six HWQ sub-scales were identified from factor analyses: productivity, concentration/focus, supervisor relations, impatience/irritability, work satisfaction, and non-work satisfaction. Non-smokers (individuals who had never smoked) had higher scores on all scales. The HWQ scale scores all correlated significantly with the objective measure "Time Lost"; two of the scales correlated significantly with the summary objective performance measure. Magnitudes of the significant correlations were modest (0.12 to 0.22). CONCLUSIONS: The HWQ may be useful for evaluating the impact of interventions on workplace productivity. Additional validation research on the HWQ is recommended before use as a primary measure in studies of worker productivity.