New Method Assessing Job and Health Resources

Introduction
Many studies have shown that job characteristics do have great impact on employee wellbeing and workability. The Job Strain model posits that a combination of high work demands and low job control at work is a health risk for employees. The effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model emphasizes that job strain is the result of an imbalance between efforts and rewards in work. The Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model posits that job demands are associated with exhaustion, whereas lacking job resources are associated with lowered engagement and motivation. It is essential to develop practical assessment methods for exploring multidimensional well-being factors to empower employee workability and wellbeing. 

Methods
This study concerns the validity assessment of the developed multidimensional questionnaire for assessing the well-being of an employee. The developed questionnaire was tested in 10 Finnish organizations. 986 employees were asked to fill the web-based questionnaire. Response rate was 70%. The internal validity of the questionnaire was tested by using confirmatory factor analysis after which the reliability (internal consistency) of each item was assessed by using Cronbach´s Alfa. 

Results
The results showed that the questionnaire catches competently the multiple and multilevel items of well-being. I.e. the questionnaire produces valid information about the work and organizational psychosocial factors as well as employee health and workability factors. The internal consistency of each item was good (± : 0.8). The questionnaire was easy to use, valid and its items are reliable and internally consistent.

Discussion
Assessment of well-being at work is mainly approached from the perspectives of stress and strain. Demands for better understanding and measuring the factors of positive health as well are increasing. Methods in order to assess the well-being from the multidimensional point of view are rare. More studies with this new method are needed to assess how transitions in personal well-being resources predict changes in employee’s workability.