Center for Work, Health, & Well-being Resources

Developed through a Center for Work, Health, & Well-being collaboration with HealthPartners of Minnesota, the Dimensions of Corporate Integration measurement tool offers a comprehensive approach to assessing, documenting, and discussing worksite health assets. It serves both as a guide and a critical information source, driving efforts to create programs that sustain and improve worker safety and health.

"Implementing an Integrated Approach: Weaving Employee Health, Safety, and Well-Being into the Fabric of Your Organization" is a detailed step-by-step evidence-based approach to implementing an integrated approach to worker safety, health, and well-being at an organization. With real-world examples, it demonstrates how to inspire key worksite stakeholders to support and participate in an integrated approach; identify goals and objectives for an integrated initiative; target working conditions meaningful to workers and employers; implement policies and practices that create and sustain positive working conditions; and evaluate and continually improve efforts to enhance worker safety, health, and well-being. These guidelines are available in English and in Spanish, with a stand-alone Executive Summary available in English.

"Implementing an Integrated Approach: Weaving Employee Health, Safety, and Well-Being into the Fabric of Your Organization" is a detailed step-by-step evidence-based approach to implementing an integrated approach to worker safety, health, and well-being at an organization. With real-world examples, it demonstrates how to inspire key worksite stakeholders to support and participate in an integrated approach; identify goals and objectives for an integrated initiative; target working conditions meaningful to workers and employers; implement policies and practices that create and sustain positive working conditions; and evaluate and continually improve efforts to enhance worker safety, health, and well-being. These guidelines are available in English and in Spanish, with a stand-alone Executive Summary available in English.

"Implementing an Integrated Approach: Weaving Employee Health, Safety, and Well-Being into the Fabric of Your Organization" is a detailed step-by-step evidence-based approach to implementing an integrated approach to worker safety, health, and well-being at an organization. With real-world examples, it demonstrates how to inspire key worksite stakeholders to support and participate in an integrated approach; identify goals and objectives for an integrated initiative; target working conditions meaningful to workers and employers; implement policies and practices that create and sustain positive working conditions; and evaluate and continually improve efforts to enhance worker safety, health, and well-being. These guidelines are available in English and in Spanish, with a stand-alone Executive Summary available in English.

The Workplace Integrated Safety and Health (WISH) Assessment measures workplace policies, programs, and practices that focus on working conditions and organizational facilitators of worker safety, health, and well-being. The tool can be used by employers and researchers to assess the extent of implementation of an integrated approach. This validated tool covers six core constructs central to best practices for protecting and promoting worker safety, health, and well-being: leadership commitment; participation; policies, programs, and practices that foster supportive working conditions; comprehensive and collaborative strategies; adherence to federal and state regulations and ethical norms; and data-driven change. The WISH Assessment is a tool that may inform organizational priority-setting and guide research around causal pathways influencing implementation and outcomes related to a Total Worker Health approach.

The Center for Work, Health, & Well-being developed a series of Toolbox Talks as part of the All the Right Moves (ARM) Program with construction workers. These Toolbox Talks fall into three categories: Respiratory Health, Safety Climate, and Work Life – three areas that the Center's research has shown are of significant importance in the construction industry. The construction industry is a highly dynamic work environment with significant physical hazards. As a result, workers are more prone to injuries, including musculoskeletal disorders, and high-risk health behaviors. Both factors limit their productivity and ability to work. Programs to improve construction worker health, safety, and productivity often incorporate Toolbox Talks on relevant topics. These short facilitated interactive discussions provide opportunities for learning and also for workers to share their experiences and suggestions.

Our workplaces shape our health, whether through the stress of our workloads, pay and benefits we receive, interacting with physical surroundings, or obtaining support from colleagues and supervisors. This is as true for addiction treatment organizations as it is for any other workplace. However, the implications of working conditions in these settings are wider since how these workplaces shape worker health also impacts the health of clients seeking addiction treatment. Creating working conditions that support the health and wellbeing of the addiction treatment workforce is therefore central to providing consistent and effective addiction treatment for clients.

The considerable rise in substance use disorders has strained addiction treatment services across the United States, and this strain can be noticeably felt in organizations operating across Massachusetts—a state with one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the country. The addiction treatment workforce has long been characterized by high rates of turnover and attrition, but with the rising rates of addiction, workforce shortages have greater implications for people seeking addiction care. This may be particularly true for residential addiction treatment facilities, which provide 24/7 care for individuals as they move into recovery.

The Substance Use Provider Occupational Wellbeing (SUPOW) Study aimed to understand how working conditions and larger socio-political influences impact the health and wellbeing of Massachusetts residential addiction providers working in state-funded facilities. This study also sought to identify how the health and wellbeing of providers impacted the organizations at which they worked and client care. As part of this community-initiated study, frontline providers, supervisors, and executive leaders participated in interviews and focus groups to share their perspectives and observations working in residential treatment across Massachusetts regions. As such, all analyses presented in this report are from the perspective of providers and leaders with first-hand experience working in residential addiction treatment.

The Thriving from Work User Manual provides a definition for "Thriving from Work" and why it is important to measure, the process used to develop the Thriving from Work conceptual framework and questionnaires, the full English versions of the two questionnaires including the short-form and the long-form, and their practical applications.

The Thriving from Work Questionnaire was developed to measure worker well-being. There is currently a short-form (8 item) and a long-form (30 item) version of the questionnaire. The Thriving from Work Questionnaire has been validated in populations of workers in the U.S. and several other countries. The Thriving from Work Questionnaires provide a measure of work-related well-being that can be used in surveys with workers. Developed using a rigorous systematic study design, the questionnaires have been found to be responsive, reliable, and valid across a broad range of settings and sectors. Further study of the utility and psychometric properties of the questionnaires is ongoing.

The Thriving from Work Questionnaire Scoring Guide accompanies the Thriving from Work Questionnaire User Manual and was developed to assist both researchers and practitioners in scoring the Thriving from Work Questionnaire using some common approaches. There are a variety of scoring options one may use with the Thriving from Work Questionnaire; the pros and cons of different scoring approaches depend on the goals of the use of the instrument and the context in which the data are collected.

The Thriving from Work Questionnaire has been translated from English to Spanish and validated in populations of workers in Peru and Mexico.

The Thriving from Work Questionnaire has been translated from English to German and validated in populations of workers in Germany.

Many professionals who work with people who have trauma histories experience vicarious trauma. Vicarious trauma is “second hand” trauma that is passed on to workers when they interact with individuals who experienced trauma “firsthand” or encounter information about the trauma. A worker may not directly experience the trauma, but because they work with people or communities that have, the worker may experience these traumas indirectly. Vicarious trauma can negatively affect the mental and physical health of professionals through psychological and physiological stress-response pathways. The Vicarious Occupational Trauma Exposure (VOTE) Index is a tool designed to identify parts of a worker’s job that expose them to vicarious trauma, how often they are exposed to vicarious trauma, and how strong the vicarious trauma exposure is. The VOTE Index assesses 16 common occupational sources of vicarious trauma across four domains: 1) clients/patients sharing about trauma; 2) receiving and reviewing evidence of trauma; 3) documenting and reporting trauma; and 4) other staff members sharing about trauma.

The Thriving from Work Questionnaire (TfWQ) was developed by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being to measure the positive contribution work can play on a worker’s overall well-being. It is a 30-item long survey instrument covering six domains and an 8-item short form drawn from those same items.

This guide describes how to produce a translated version that is defensible, publishable, and — critically — comparable to the existing English, Spanish, and German versions. It draws on our experiences of translating and validating two published TfWQ translation/validation studies (Spanish for Peru/Mexico; German), the Questionnaire’s User Manual, and best practice cross-cultural adaptation methodology.

The central principle: translation is the less time-consuming part of the job. The more demanding part is demonstrating that the translated items still measure the same latent construct in your population. A linguistically flawless translation with no content validation may not be a valid instrument.

The Thriving from Work Questionnaire Frequently Asked Questions document describes thriving from work and the Thriving from Work Questionnaires, as well as what these instruments measure and why measuring thriving from work is important.