Validation of the 5-item workplace outcome suite on employee assistance programs for office workers

Abstract

To evaluate the effectiveness of Employee Assistance Program (EAP) interventions, the Workplace Outcome Suite (WOS) was developed. This study aims to determine if the new WOS 5-item version can be used to approximate the WOS 25-item version without excessive loss of reliability, validity, or sensitivity. A quantitative psychometric evaluation study design was employed. Secondary data analysis of the WOS 25-item questionnaire was conducted before and after EAP services were delivered to participants. This analysis used 2046 data responses from 1023 participants. Quantitative data analysis included descriptive statistics, Cohen’s d, paired t-test, the Wilcoxon signed-rank (non-parametric test), and bivariate factor analysis. Findings demonstrate that the WOS 5-item version can successfully detect changes in workplace functioning. Within all five constructs, users’ scores improved after EAP interventions, indicating improvement in mental health. Significant changes were detected for absenteeism, presenteeism, work engagement, and workplace distress. Bivariate correlation results indicate the WOS 5-item is a good representation of the 25-item version. There are strong correlations between each item on the WOS-5 and the corresponding items in each construct on the WOS-25. This evidence suggests the WOS 5-item version can be used to approximate the WOS 25-item version without excessive loss of reliability, validity, or sensitivity.

Keywords:

• Work engagement
• employee engagement
• return to work
• workplace
• behavioral medicine

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Data analysis was performed by Dr. Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia, Sarah Sirek, Grace Granofsky and Mitchel Morrison. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Sarah Sirek and Grace Granofsky and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. 

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the University of Toronto Research Ethics Board on January 24, 2022. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as modified in 2000.   

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Participants were reassured that their decision of whether or not to complete the WOS questionnaires would not affect their EAP intervention care in any way.  

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).