COPSOQ: the in-depth survey on psychosocial strain

When the psychosocial risk assessment has to hold up — in front of the works council, the labour inspectorate or your own management — the COPSOQ is the more thorough instrument: 59 questions, scientifically developed, evaluated in scales.

What sets the COPSOQ apart from a survey of your own The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire is an established instrument for measuring psychosocial factors at work. Its questions are not freely worded but bundled into scales — demands, influence and development opportunities, social relationships and leadership, strain outcomes. A questionnaire you assemble yourself delivers opinions; a validated instrument delivers values you can classify and compare over time.

When the COPSOQ is the right choice It is worth it when you are setting the assessment up thoroughly for the first time, when a concrete conflict or a conspicuous area lies behind it, or when the results are meant to carry an investment decision. For a quick start or an annual repetition, the shorter standard survey is often the more realistic choice — participation is simply higher at 24 questions.

Anonymity and evaluation The COPSOQ is permanently anonymous too: individual answers cannot be attributed, and the evaluation appears as a group picture across the scales. Conspicuous scales are the starting point for measures — and the reason the survey is repeated after they have been implemented: only the second round shows whether anything has moved.

How you actually start Create the survey, adjust the questions for this run if needed, invite anonymously, read the results as a scale profile, derive measures and document them. The AI interview mode is deliberately blocked for psychosocial assessment questionnaires — an assessment under § 5 ArbSchG is collected in a form, not in a chat.