Screening of mental workload (SPA)

In recent years, work-related mental illness has become one of the most common causes of absenteeism and reduced earning capacity pensions. For the quality-assured, efficient and practicable analysis and assessment of psychological stress factors in work processes, the project leaders of our occupational psychology working group, Prof. Dr. Anna-Marie Metz and Prof. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Rothe, have developed a psychological procedure, namely the “Screening of Psychological Workload (SPA)” procedure.

The results of this procedure can be used to derive indications for condition- and person-related health-promoting measures. The tool has proven its worth in risk assessments in companies of all sizes and in all sectors, enabling weak points in the design of work situations to be identified and complex relationships between work content, working conditions and their consequences to be scientifically clarified.

Would you like to find out more about the “Screening of psychological workload (SPA)” procedure and how it can be used in your specific area of work? The lecturers and authors of the book Screening mental workload. A procedure for risk assessment. Wiesbaden: Springer (2016) Prof. Dr. Anna-Marie Metz and Prof. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Rothe offer a two-day fee-based procedural training course “Screening Psychological Workload (SPA)” via UP Transfer GmbH.

The procedure is characterized by the following points, among others:

• Use in risk assessments for mental stress in accordance with the guidelines of the Joint German Occupational Health and Safety Strategy (GDA) and the required quality criteria according to the international standard (EN ISO DIN 10075-3),
• Consisting of four sub-procedures, SPA-S (S - Situation), SPA-P1, SPA-P2 (P - Person) and SPA-W (W - Effect), with which mental stress, strain and strain effects can be recorded,
• The SPA can also be used by company or inter-company occupational health and safety officers (in particular company doctors, safety specialists) following procedural training,
• Data collection through activity observations and supplementary surveys or interviews with representative employees,
• Assessment of the risk of psychological stress.

The next procedural training will be held again if required, with a minimum of 10 participants. If you are interested in this procedural training, please send an e-mail to franziska.pruin@up-transfer.de. We will inform you as soon as a new date has been set.

For further inquiries regarding the organization of the SPA procedural training, please send an e-mail to Dr. Franziska Pruin at franziska.pruin@up-transfer.de.

For further information, please contact the lecturers Prof. Dr. Anna-Marie Metz (metz@uni-potsdam.de) and Prof. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Rothe (rothe@uni-potsdam.de).

Here you can access the short biographies of Prof. Dr. Anna-Marie Metz and Prof. Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Rothe as well as our flyer.