HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse, Powered by the NIOSH WellBQ
The NIOSH WellBQ
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is a research agency focused on the study of worker safety and health, and empowering employers and workers to create safe and healthy workplaces. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The NIOSH WellBQ provides an integrated assessment of worker well-being across multiple spheres, including individuals’ quality of working life, circumstances outside of work, and physical and mental health status.1
The questionnaire measures “worker” well-being as a holistic construct rather than simply “workplace” or “work-related” well-being. The NIOSH WellBQ is intended to help researchers, employers, workers, practitioners, and policymakers understand the well-being of workers and target interventions to improve worker well-being, among other applications.1
The NIOSH WellBQ was created by NIOSH and researchers at the RAND Corporation with funding from NIOSH. The design and content of the NIOSH WellBQ were guided by a new conceptual framework that identifies five domains of worker well-being,2 including:
- Work Evaluation and Experience
- Workplace Policies and Culture
- Workplace Physical Environment and Safety Climate
- Health Status
- Home, Community, and Society
The HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse
The Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) has partnered with National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to create the HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse – Powered by the NIOSH WellBQ (HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse), an open-source database that houses de-identified data arising from use of the English and Spanish versions of the NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (NIOSH WellBQ). HERO has made the WellBQ available in an online survey platform to enable organizations to easily administer it to employees. The de-identified data collected from the participating organizations’ unique questionnaire link will be shared with the organization and imported into the HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse for public use by individuals interested in conducting research on worker well-being.
Complete the NIOSH WellBQ
Organizations
Organizations that plan to use the WellBQ with their employees will need to complete the registration form or email WellBQClearinghouse@hero-health.org. A unique organization link will then be generated for the organization that that can be sent out to their employees. After the survey has closed, de-identified data, including scale and index scores, will be shared back to the organization.
Individuals
Individuals can also take the WellBQ to better understand their well-being as related to their work. Individuals will also need to complete the registration form to obtain a unique link to the online WellBQ. The link generated can only be used once.
Access the HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse
De-identified data imported into the HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse can be used by practitioners, researchers, policymakers, etc. to analyze trends in worker well-being and target interventions and develop programs and services to improve worker well-being, identify ways to improve policies affecting well-being, among other applications. To gain access to the HERO Worker Well-Being Clearinghouse, one must complete the registration form.
- NIOSH [2021]. NIOSH worker well-being questionnaire (WellBQ). By Chari R, Chang CC, Sauter SL, Petrun Sayers EL, Huang W, Fisher GG. Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2021-110 (revised 5/2021), https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHPUB2021110revised52021
- Chari, Ramya PhD; Chang, Chia-Chia MPH, MBA; Sauter, Steven L. PhD; Petrun Sayers, Elizabeth L. PhD; Cerully, Jennifer L. PhD; Schulte, Paul PhD; Schill, Anita L. PhD; Uscher-Pines, Lori PhD. Expanding the Paradigm of Occupational Safety and Health: A New Framework for Worker Well-Being. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 60(7):p 589-593, July 2018. | DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001330