An Ultra-Short Measure for Work Engagement

TLDR

The study introduces a concise 3‑item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES‑3) to measure work engagement. The authors validated the UWES‑3 across five national samples (Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium/Flanders, Spain) by assessing internal consistency and factorial validity against established burnout, workaholism, and job boredom measures. The UWES‑3 demonstrated strong internal consistency, factorial validity, and 86–92% variance overlap with the nine‑item version, with correlation patterns to well‑being, job demands, resources, and outcomes differing by only .02 on average, confirming its reliability and validity. Abstract.

Abstract

Abstract. The current study introduces an ultra-short, 3-item version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Using five national samples from Finland ( N = 22,117), Japan ( N = 1,968), the Netherlands ( N = 38,278), Belgium/Flanders ( N = 5,062), and Spain ( N = 10,040) its internal consistency and factorial validity vis-à-vis validated measures of burnout, workaholism, and job boredom are demonstrated. Moreover, the UWES-3 shares 86–92% of its variance with the longer nine-item version and the pattern of correlations of both versions with 9 indicators of well-being, 8 job demands, 10 job resources, and 6 outcomes is highly similar with an average, absolute difference between correlations of only .02. Hence, it is concluded that the UWES-3 is a reliable and valid indicator of work engagement that can be used as an alternative to the longer version, for instance in national and international epidemiological surveys on employee’s working conditions.