Profiles of burnout and work engagement in a public service organization: Nature, drivers, and outcomes.

Abstract

Background: The Canadian Federal Public Service Workplace Mental Health Strategy (the Strategy) seeks to measure, report, and improve employee psychological health, recognizing the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace (the Standard) as a starting point. The present research introduced a new survey battery for the assessment of employee psychological health as profiles of burnout and work engagement. It also considered a wide range of predictors aligned with the Standard and several outcomes in accordance with the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model to support the Strategy.

Data and methods: A total of 4,781 Statistics Canada employees completed an Employee Wellness Survey in late 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, for a response rate of 58%. Additional sociodemographic variables were linked from human resource databases. Survey weights were applied to adjust for non-response.

Results: Latent profile analysis uncovered four employee psychological health profiles, ranging from employees who were thriving (15%) to those who were doing well (34%), moving along (38%), or struggling (13%). Job autonomy, role clarity, person-job fit, work-life interference, and workplace incivility -- all workplace psychosocial factors aligned with the Standard -- were consistently associated with profile membership, as expected, and outcome levels were systematically less favourable from the thriving profile to the struggling profile.

Interpretation: The results support the validity of the employee psychological health profiles and predictors of profile membership, meeting expectations based on the JD-R literature. Key predictors can serve as metrics to monitor and as targets for workplace interventions designed to improve employee psychological health in support of the Strategy.