Our research indicates that there are six factors that interact to explain and predict quality of working life.
They are:
- Job and Career Satisfaction (JCS)
- Working Conditions (WCS)
- General Well-Being (GWB)
- Home-Work Interface (HWI)
- Stress at Work (SAW)
- Control at Work (CAW)
Our WRQoL psychometric scale contains, which includes 24 questions, provides the data that enables us to provide you with benchmarked feedback on the six factors.
Job and Career Satisfaction (JCS)
The extent to which you are content with your job and your prospects at work
Job and Career Satisfaction is a very important factor in overall quality of working life. How you score on the Job and Career Satisfaction (JCS) factor relates to whether you feel the workplace provides you with the best things at work - the things that make you feel good, such as: a sense of achievement, high self esteem, fulfilment of potential, etc.
Within the Work-Related Quality of Life (QoWL) measure, JCS is reflected by questions asking how satisfied people feel about their work. The Positive Job Satisfaction factor as measured within the QoWL model is influenced by clarity of goals and role ambiguity, appraisal, recognition and reward, personal development career benefits and enhancement and training needs.
The extent to which you are satisfied with the conditions in which you work
Your score for the WCS factor indicates the extent to which you are satisfied with the fundamental resources, working conditions and security necessary to do your job effectively. This includes aspects of the work environment such as noise and temperature, shift patterns and working hours, pay, tools and equipment, safety and security. Dissatisfaction can have a significantly adverse effect on your overall WRQoL score. The WCS factor is related to JCS, in that JCS reflects the degree to which the workplace provides you with the best things at work, whilst the WCS factor by contrast, reflects the degree to which the workplace meets your basic requirements.
How much you feel psychologically and physically healthy
General Well-Being (GWB) assesses the extent to which you feel good within yourself. As such, that sense of GWB may be more or less independent of your work situation. General well-being both influences, and is influenced by work. GWB reflects psychological well-being and general physical health aspects.
How much you think the organisation understands and tries to help you with pressures outside of work.
Home-work interface is related to work life balance and is about having a measure of control over when, where and how you work. It is achieved when you feel you have a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work, to the mutual benefit of you and your work. A poor work-life balance can have negative effects on your well-being.
The extent to which you see work pressures and demands as acceptable and not excessive or ‘stressful’.
The UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) define stress at: “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them”. Work pressures and demands can be a positive of aspect of our work experience, providing challenge and stimulation, but where we see them as excessive and beyond our ability to cope, we are likely to feel overloaded and stressed.
How far you feel you are involved in decisions that affect you at work.
Control at Work (CAW) reflects the level to which you feel you can exercise what you consider to be an appropriate level of control within your work environment. That perception of control might be linked to various aspects of work, including the opportunity to contribute to the process of decision making that affects you. Leading authors in the field suggest that perception of personal control can strongly affect both an individuals’ experience of stress and their health. Research also suggests that there is a strong link between personal control and job satisfaction.
