The development of the holistic Mental Health at Work scale

In the Western world, mental illness is a growing issue, with the office workplace playing a crucial role. Regular mental health monitoring is essential for both the employer and the employee, as the workforce can be more effectively supported and costs can be reduced. However, until today, a tool to efficiently measure mental health at work seems to be absent. In this study, the Mental Health at Work (MHW) scale is developed, a holistic tool designed to assess both positive and negative mental health indicators across the health-disease continuum amongst office workers. The 18-item scale evaluates ten key indicators-stress, depressive symptoms, burnout, fatigue, well-being, engagement, concentration, mood, sleep quality, and productivity-capturing both short-term and chronic consequences. Factor analysis resulted in six core dimensions: stressful mood, concentration, sleep quality, fatigue, disengagement, and exhaustion, aligning with established health theories, such as the Salutogenic model and the Dual-continuum model of mental health. The MHW scale offers a psychometrically robust scale, suitable for practitioners and researchers to measure/study employee mental health at work.