About the Thrive Series
The Thrive Series is a four-part series investigating the Thrive construct in the workplace. The series is written by Aaron Quinn, Ph.D., who is the CEO of AlbumHealth. The series answers four basic questions: What does Thrive mean? How can you measure Thrive? What outcomes does Thrive impact? How can you (and I) develop and maintain Thrive in the workplace?
This four-part series will answer these questions based on existing literature and conclude with evidence-based recommendations to Drive Thrive in your workplace.
How Do You Measure Thrive?
In Part 1, Thrive in the workplace was defined by this author as “A positive state influenced by the workplace that drives feeling good about your abilities, your life, and your development. Thrive leads to mastery and a sense reaching your full potential at work and in your personal life.”
To measure Thrive, or any construct, there needs to be clarity on the definition. The review of the literature in Part 1 demonstrated that Thrive has various components/dimensions including context, temporal variation, domain, well-being, integration, and basic needs. Thrive is also influenced by factors including attitudes, cognitions and behaviors (Brown et. al., 2017; Peters et., al., 2021).
Because Thrive is a complex construct (and relatively new), there are very few validated measures of Thrive in the workplace. There are, though, numerous measures of related constructs (e.g., well-being, culture, engagement, and mental health status). Based on the state of Thrive measurement, this author generated a list of validated measures of related constructs, in addition to Thrive, to provide measurement options to workplace personnel.
Thrive (and related constructs) Measures
- Thriving from Work Questionnaire: Developed by Harvard University and available in regular and short form version. This is my personal favorite and the only validated tool directly measuring Thrive.
- NIOSH Well-Being Questionnaire (NIOSH WellBQ): Comprehensive measurement of the five domains of worker well-being. Useful for organizations in holistically addressing policy and interventions.
- Workplace Culture of Health Scale: Measures employees’ perceptions of their employer’s support of their health and development. Culture of Health is positively correlated with health, well-being and productivity based on multiple studies.
Look for Part 3: The Thrive Impact next Tuesday (the week of April 28)