# COPSOQ, Job-Stress-Analysis and OQM Health Compared

> Three ways to assess psychosocial risks at work, three different focuses: what COPSOQ, the Job-Stress-Analysis and OQM Health measure, what they cost and who OQM Health suits best.

- Publisher: OQM International
- Language: en
- Published: 2026-11-03
- Canonical: https://oqm-international.com/en/journal/copsoq-job-stress-analysis-oqm-health-comparison/
- Image: https://oqm-international.com/journal-images/copsoq-job-stress-analysis-oqm-health-vergleich.jpg

Anyone who sets out to assess psychological strain at work quickly finds several questionnaires to choose from. Three of them come up particularly often for organizations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), the Job-Stress-Analysis (JSA) from Health Promotion Switzerland, and OQM Health. All three are anonymous surveys, and all three aim to make healthier work possible. But they look at different things.

This article shows what the three methods measure, what you end up with, what they cost and who OQM Health suits best. One point up front: with all three, the survey is the first step of a risk assessment. We describe what comes next at the end of the article.

## Demands and strain: the key difference

Occupational science distinguishes two things. **Demands** (in German *Belastung*) are everything at work that acts on a person from outside: the amount of work, interruptions, unclear responsibilities, the way people are led, the climate in the team. **Strain** (*Beanspruchung*) is the effect on the person: exhaustion, irritability, the feeling of never being able to switch off.

COPSOQ and the Job-Stress-Analysis capture both. OQM Health captures working conditions only, in other words the demands. That is a deliberate choice, and it has advantages:

* **You see where action is needed before anyone is exhausted.** Measuring exhaustion means measuring what has already happened. Measuring conditions lets you act earlier.
* **Every result concerns something you can change:** processes, tasks, leadership, collaboration. The discussion is about the work, not about how individual people feel.
* **Nobody has to disclose anything about their own health.** The questions are about the work, not about symptoms.
* **This is exactly what a risk assessment asks for:** it assesses working conditions, not the health of employees.

If you also want to know how much strain your people are already under, COPSOQ and the JSA provide figures for that.

## COPSOQ: the broad inventory

COPSOQ was originally developed in Denmark and has been refined internationally; the current version is COPSOQ III. In Germany it is offered by the Freiburg Research Centre for Occupational Sciences (FFAW).

The German standard version contains 85 questions on 26 scales, covering for example workload, emotional demands, influence at work, leadership, sense of community, physical environment and job insecurity. Added to these are questions on strain such as burnout, general health and presenteeism. Completing it takes about 20 minutes.

The FFAW analyzes the data for groups of five or more people and compares them with a reference database; the report follows within four weeks. The organization decides on measures itself. There is no guide for self-application, and the German statutory accident insurer BGW recommends using COPSOQ together with professional advice.

**Cost:** The price depends on the number of respondents. In Germany the online survey costs €1,200 for up to 50 people, €2,410 for 100 and €3,620 for 200 (net, FFAW price list valid since 11 March 2024).

## Job-Stress-Analysis: balancing stress and resources

The Job-Stress-Analysis is the survey instrument of Health Promotion Switzerland and is closely linked to the "Friendly Work Space" label. It asks about demands, about resources (what relieves people), and about current well-being. This produces the Job-Stress-Index, a single figure for the state of the organization.

The basic survey takes 12 to 18 minutes. Results are shown in a traffic-light system and compared with other organizations in Switzerland, down to team level for groups of ten or more. Modules on burnout, fairness or life-domain balance can be added. Every participant receives a personal health profile with tips immediately afterwards, visible only to them.

**Cost:** A free version is available for organizations with up to 29 employees. From 30 employees, the "professional" version costs CHF 5.80 per invited person, so CHF 290 for 50 people (Health Promotion Switzerland product sheet, April 2025).

## OQM Health: five scores and a clear place to start

OQM Health is simple. Your employees answer the OQM survey anonymously, in 10 to 25 minutes on a phone or computer. The result groups the answers by the areas of a psychosocial risk assessment and shows **five scores**:

* **Colleagues:** Do people in the team support each other?
* **Leadership:** Is there feedback, backing and a say in decisions?
* **Work organization:** Do structures and processes help, or get in the way?
* **Working environment:** Are people treated fairly and with appreciation, and are conflicts resolved?
* **Work tasks:** Do tasks match people's abilities, and are resources and information available?

Each score is shown on a scale from 0 to 100 against a norm that is updated every year; 50 is the average. The lowest score is the **minimum factor**: that is where you start. The highest score shows what you can build on. The ten questions with the lowest and the highest scores show exactly what lies behind them.

### An example from the sample report

In the [OQM Health sample profile](https://oqm-international.com/downloads/muster/en/oqm-health.pdf), the team scores as follows: colleagues 57, leadership 55, work organization 49, working environment 46 and work tasks 45. The team's strength is how colleagues support one another. The minimum factor is work tasks. On the statement "I am given optimal training for my tasks", the team scores 40.

What follows is not a stress management seminar but a concrete question for managers and the team: does everyone get the training they need for what they are asked to do? Possible measures include a structured onboarding plan, targeted training or learning from experienced colleagues. Because colleagues support each other well (57), that last option is a natural place to begin. After about a year, a second survey shows in the comparison profile whether the score has moved.

If you want to look deeper, the same answers can produce the OQM 80 profile. It shows eight factors such as leadership, structures, vision and trust, and so the cause behind a source of strain, without surveying the team a second time.

### What OQM Health does not cover

OQM Health does not measure strain. Workload and time pressure appear indirectly through work organization and tasks, not as a scale of their own. You add working hours, work equipment and the physical environment such as noise, lighting or temperature with your health and safety specialist. The survey is available in German and English.

**Cost:** OQM Health costs $490 (€490 in the euro area) per profile, no matter how many people the profile covers. A profile can show a team, a department or the whole organization; it needs at least five people. Fifty people as one overall profile therefore cost $490. If you want to see four teams separately plus the overall profile, you pay for five profiles: $2,450. A comparison profile costs $290 (net, without an annual package, as of November 2026).

## The three methods at a glance

| | COPSOQ | Job-Stress-Analysis | OQM Health |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provider | FFAW Freiburg | Health Promotion Switzerland | OQM International |
| Focus | Broad inventory of demands and strain | Balance of stress and resources | Working conditions with one clear priority |
| Measures strain (e.g. burnout) | yes | yes | no, working conditions only |
| What you end up with | Report with scores on 26 scales compared with reference values | Traffic light, Job-Stress-Index, personal profiles | Five scores, one minimum factor, the ten lowest and highest questions |
| Duration | about 20 minutes | 12 to 18 minutes | 10 to 25 minutes |
| Smallest group | 5 people | 10 people | 5 people |
| Pricing model | by number of respondents | per invited person | per profile, regardless of the number of respondents |
| Price for 50 people (net) | €1,200 (Germany) | CHF 290 | $490 as one profile, $2,450 for four teams plus overall profile |
| Distinctive feature | many languages, add-on modules | free up to 29 employees, "Friendly Work Space" label | causes via the OQM 80 profile from the same answers |

**OQM Health is ideal** if you

* run a small or medium-sized business, a social care organization or a public body and have no occupational psychologist of your own,
* are setting up a psychosocial risk assessment for the first time, or starting afresh, and want results that managers understand without specialist knowledge,
* want to start with one priority rather than a long list,
* want to see small teams of five or more separately without the price rising with the number of respondents,
* and do not want to look at health separately from leadership, structures and collaboration.

## After the survey: what happens next

A survey on its own is not yet a risk assessment. With OQM Health, the way forward looks like this:

1. **Discuss the results.** Managers and the team look at the minimum factor and the ten lowest questions, ideally in a workshop with your OQM consultant. In the example above: does everyone get the training they need?
2. **Agree on two or three measures,** each with a responsible person and a date. A few measures at the bottleneck work better than many everywhere.
3. **Keep a record.** Write down the results, measures and dates. Add working hours, work equipment and the physical environment with your health and safety specialist. Involve employee representatives from the start; in Germany, for example, the works council has a say in the risk assessment.
4. **Check the effect.** After about a year, survey again. The comparison profile shows whether the scores have moved, and you begin the next round with the new minimum factor.

## See a result

To see what a result looks like, take a look at the [sample profile](https://oqm-international.com/downloads/muster/en/oqm-health.pdf) and the [OQM Health](https://oqm-international.com/en/oqm-health/) page with more on assessing work-related stress.

**Sources:** Freiburg Research Centre for Occupational Sciences, [COPSOQ survey process](https://www.copsoq.de/wie-laeuft-die-befragung-ab/), [questionnaire](https://www.copsoq.de/copsoq-fragebogen/) and [prices](https://www.copsoq.de/preise/) (in German, accessed 3 November 2026); BGW, [description of COPSOQ version 3](https://www.bgw-online.de/resource/blob/22090/a0c849cf747b9863ad5f96a90e6db7ed/20230916-COPSOQ_3.pdf) (in German, 09/2023); Health Promotion Switzerland, [Job-Stress-Analysis product sheet](https://friendlyworkspace.ch/system/files/documents/2025-05/A4_Produkteblatt_JSA_Fokus_psyGe_2025_de_web.pdf) (in German, April 2025); Burr H. et al., The Third Version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, Safety and Health at Work 10 (2019), 482–503. Information on OQM Health: OQM International, sample reports and price list.

## Related articles

- [Employee Surveys: Why Participation and Feedback Belong Together](https://oqm-international.com/en/journal/employee-survey-participation-feedback/)
- [The OQM Improvement Cycle: Six Steps from Survey to Change](https://oqm-international.com/en/journal/oqm-improvement-cycle-six-steps/)
- [The Minimum Factor: Where Organizational Improvement Should Begin](https://oqm-international.com/en/journal/oqm-minimum-factor/)

## Languages

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