After conducting our rounds of exploratory research we set about doing secondary research to better understand burnout from medical and organizational behavioural perspective.
We derived the 20 question mello index on burnout research, specifically the Burnout Assessment Tool and Maslach, AstraZeneca, and Copenhagen indexes. These indexes are the top peer-previewed burnout indices that exist to date.
From there, we adapted the language to a modern knowledge worker. We filtered the indices questions by relevancy, appropriateness for asking weekly, and likelihood of answering to develop the mello index.
The mello index asks 20 questions that centres on six core themes:
- Work Demands: Work demands comprise balancing between workload and your work requirements. People need to be given tasks that maintain their interest and motivation but not exceed their coping strategies. Source 1, 2, 3
- Influence at Work: The ability to have power in the workplace so that your input can directly impact the beliefs, ideas and actions of the people you work with, which in turn allows you to feel respected and acknowledged in your workplace. 1 2
- Motivation: Motivation involves the cognitive, physical and mental forces that activate behavioural change and plays a role in influencing productivity. 1 2
- Mental Health: Mental health is a state of wellbeing. Specifically, it includes one's emotional, psychological and social well being and it affects how people think, feel and act. Mental health can play a role in influencing productivity, motivation and workplace satisfaction. 1 2
- Physical Health: Physical health refers to the physical body's state and how well it operates and can impact one's mental health, job responsibilities and relationships. 1
- Social Connections: Social Connections are the relationships you have with those around you, such as your immediate coworkers and other members of your company and any other individuals who are part of your role. Maintaining good social connections has a direct impact on improved mental health and functioning. 1 2
From there, we developed the algorithms to calculate the specific mello zones. The mello Check-In has an 80-Point score, and there are five mello Zones that relate to the answers you provide in your mello Check-In. The five mello Zones are:
- Not mello Zone: mello Check-In Score: 0-30
- In need of Mello Zone: mello Check-In Score: 31-39
- Almost mello Zone: (mello Check-In Score: 40-55
- In the mello Zone: mello Check-In Score: 56-65
- mello Mastery Zone: mello Check-In Score: 66-80