Body@Work

MEASURING WORK PERFORMANCE IN INDIVIDUAL WORKERS

Optimal work performance is a key issue in businesses and of great importance to the competitive ability of Dutch businesses. Companies are increasingly looking for ways to optimize the work performance of their workers. Numerous interventions appear interesting, but their effectiveness is hard to determine as work performance is a concept that is very difficult to measure. So far, no suitable measurement instrument exists that can measure work performance in a global, mostly healthy, workers population. The goal of the current project is to develop a generic measurement instrument that can assess individual work performance of workers and that can easily be used in various trials and different branches of work.

PERIOD
December 2009 – December 2013

FUNDING
Body@Work, Research Center on Physical Activity, Work and Health, TNO-VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

INVESTIGATORS
Drs. L. Koopmans 1,2,3
Dr. C.M. Bernaards 1,2
Dr. V.H. Hildebrandt 1,2
Prof. dr. H.C.W. de Vet 3
Prof. dr. A. van der Beek 2,3

1 TNO Quality of Life, Department of Physical Activity and Health, Leiden, The Netherlands
2 Body@Work, Research Center on Physical Activity, Work and Health, TNO-VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3 Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, Department of Social Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

BACKGROUND
Optimal work performance is a key issue in businesses and of great importance to the competitive ability of Dutch businesses. Companies are increasingly looking for ways to optimize the work performance of their workers. Numerous interventions appear interesting, but their effectiveness is hard to determine as work performance is a concept that is very difficult to measure. It is difficult to find a good measure for performance of individual workers, because the work tasks of workers and the goals of companies strongly differ. Many trials within Body@Work are done, also in the work setting, in which work performance is a desired outcome measure. When incorporating this outcome measure, a better insight can be gained into the value of interventions for businesses.

So far, no suitable measurement instrument exists that can measure work performance in a global, mostly healthy, workers population. Consequently, the effectiveness of in-company interventions that aim to improve work performance can not be evaluated on their effectiveness. This work performance is of great importance to map the economic effects of these interventions.

Existing questionnaires for work performance are insufficiently suited to measure work performance in individual workers, because they often limit themselves to measuring reduced work performance due to illness (presenteeism). Questionnaires that are suitable for measuring work performance in a global workers population, are insufficiently sensitive to individual changes, contain combined questions and are not easily translated to productivity losses in terms of money.

OBJECTIVES
The goal of the current project is to develop a generic questionnaire that can assess individual work performance. This questionnaire has to be usable in studies of cost-effectiveness in large populations of workers and generate outcomes that are understandable and applicable in businesses.

METHODS
A systematic review will be conducted to give an overview of existing work performance questionnaires. Theoretical background and psycho- and clinimetric properties of these questionnaires will be addressed. With the aid of the systematic review and a Delphi study, a questionnaire with potential items will be developed. This pilot questionnaire will be implemented within existing RCT/cohort studies. Subsequently, concepts in the questionnaire will be determined and items will be selected and grouped. Finally, the reliability, validity and responsiveness of the questionnaire and its ability to determine cost-effectivity will be established.

RESULTS
No results are available yet.

Linda Koopmans
More information:
e-mail: linda.koopmans@tno.nl
tel: +31 88 866 2825