Indicates work burnout level from work

When it comes to measuring certain psychological traits, such as intelligence, personality, attitudes, as well as assessing the current level of mental well-being, the method of creating questions for measurement often involves multiple questions in sentence form. The more questions there are, the more precise the measurement tends to be. If any question yields an answer that is significantly higher or lower than the truth, there are other questions that can compensate for the missing or excessive part.

Furthermore, researchers often use multiple questions to increase the range of scores, enhancing the measurement's sensitivity. For instance, with three questions, each having a full score of 5, the total score can range from 0 to 15. On the other hand, if there's only one question, the total score can only range from 0 to 5. The former approach provides more detail and consequently leads to greater accuracy.

However, nowadays, it's found that using multiple questions for measurement can consume a considerable amount of the respondent's time. Researchers in the field of mental well-being and assessment, such as Muir and colleagues, published a research paper in 2022 showing that a single-question measurement can still yield good assessment results if it's creatively designed and easy for respondents to comprehend. They proposed a method for measuring the state of burnout using a single-image question, which is as follows:

"Please select a match that represents the level of burnout you currently feel. Choose from the images of match below."

This research has demonstrated that the scores are consistent with the questionnaire measuring burnout using sentences utilized in burnout-related research. Furthermore, scores derived from the image-based response method can predict variables from burnout that align with all the established measurements. These include perceptions of organizational support, job satisfaction, absenteeism, intention to resign, and more.

Moreover, this research provides an overall picture that among the total sample group of 739 respondents, approximately how many people selected each image of the match. The average value was 3.66, with a standard deviation of 1.60. The burnout level scores of the sample group are depicted in the percentage representation detailed below.

These percentage figures can help facilitate comparative experiments to determine what percentage of respondents are experiencing burnout at each level.

This match scale measurement is an easily comprehensible method. Respondents can easily engage with it, while it still possesses sufficient quality for assessing personnel or for future research studies. Additionally, the human resources department can employ such guideline questions for measuring personnel within the organization. Through continuous measurements, an understanding of the current mental well-being of personnel in the organization can be obtained, whether it's improving or deteriorating compared to before. This single-item measurement will reduce the burden on employees within the organization, as there's no need for them to complete extensive surveys.