Validation of the 5-item Short Form Version of the Workplace Outcome Suite ©

Abstract

This article reports on the validation of the WOS-5 an abbreviated version of the Workplace Outcome Suite© (WOS). For reasons of efficiency and ease of delivery the field was looking for an abbreviated version of the original WOS tool. In this new abbreviated version four of the 5-items correspond to latent variable measures of presenteeism, work engagement, life-satisfaction and workplace distress. These items were selected based on highest factor loading from the original confirmatory factor analysis in the 25-item WOS development study. The fifth item is the single measure of absenteeism created using a formative measures model to count total hours missed by collapsing the total and partial days absent from work. Correlation evidence indicates the 5-item WOS to be a good measurement representation of the 25-item version. Test of sensitivity for three versions of the WOS (WOS-5, WOS-9, and WOS-25) showed the 5-item version to provide comparable sensitivity to change from various EAP service interventions from our pooled dataset. The newly constructed single absenteeism measure for the 5-item scale was shown to be the most sensitive of the various measures, even outperforming the 25-item version. The advantage, while small, was statistically reliable. Together, these results suggest that the 5-item WOS can be used to approximate the 25-item version without excessive loss of reliability, validity or sensitivity.