The MAastricht Instrument for Sustainable Employability – Italian version: a validation study

Abstract

Abstract Background Health promotion and age management at work are top priorities for governments and employers. To promote sustainable employability (SE) in ageing societies is more necessary than ever. In the Netherlands, an instrument for tapping the employee perspective on SE (MAISE-NL), has recently been developed. This study aims to validate the Italian version of MAISE (MAISE-IT). Methods The MAISE-IT (a translated and adapted version of the MAISE for the Italian population), the Work-Health Balance questionnaire and demographics (age, gender, education, and occupational activity) were answered online by a total of 455 respondents (328 public administration workers and 127 respondents recruited on social networks). Construct and criterion validity were tested by CFA, reliability and correlational analyses and subgroup analyses through ANOVAs. Results The CFA analysis provided evidence of the MAISE-IT to consist of 12 scales divided over five areas: (1) Meaning of SE; (2) Level of SE; (3) Factors affecting SE; (4) Overall responsibility for SE; and (5) Responsibility for factors affecting SE. Construct validity, reliability and criterion validity were good. Italian employees reported a moderately high level of SE. They considered employers as being somewhat more responsible for SE than employees. Conclusions This study showed the validity of the MAISE-IT in the Italian context. The MAISE-IT is valuable to assess employees' needs in order to develop SE interventions that align with the employee perspective. Specific policy regulations and campaigns should be developed to make employees more aware of opportunities to increase their SE. Key messages The MAISE-IT can be used to measure the meaning and level of SE, factors affecting SE and responsibility for SE, in order to develop group level SE interventions. As employees in different contexts might have different ideas on SE, an instrument that measures perspectives on different SE dimensions separately is innovative.