A Test of the Job Demands-Resources Model Among Human Service Workers

Purpose: The Job Demands-Resources model (Demerouti, et al, 2001) has been applied to diverse jobs and work settings to understand how employment conditions may shape employment outcomes. JD-R proposes that when job demands (stressors or other challenges) are considerable and met with inadequate resources (work-based or personal), workers may experience burnout, disengagement, decreased job satisfaction, or intent to leave. The JD-R lens is less frequently used, however – and investigations of structural aspects of work are generally rarer – within human service organizations, where job stress and burnout are viewed as nearly inherent and organizational resources typically constrained. This study targets that gap, using JD-R to examine the nature of job and organizational demands and resources facing employees in human services positions, and the relationships of those, as well as personal demands and resources, to job satisfaction and turnover intent.

Methods: A survey of human services employment conditions was completed by 1,112 workers in Spring 2022. Organizational and job demands included an organization’s budget being cut and adding or changing a service; and worker’s facing new job responsibilities, being furloughed/having hours reduced, and regularly working more hours than preferred. Resources included organizational size (50+ staff) and respondents’ use of fringe benefits (a 7-item additive scale) and professional development (2-item scale), scheduling input and flexibility (2-item scale), receipt of COVID-related supports (4-item additive scale), and respondents’ satisfaction with job resources (4-point Likert scale). Respondents’ personal resources included having a long-term partner, and personal demands were experiencing since COVID a household financial loss, closure of dependent care/schooling, and having contracted COVID and had family or a close friend also become sick. Controls included gender, race/ethnicity, and career stage. After examining data distribution and correlations, we used OLS regression in Stata 18 to model the relationships between demands and resources and the dependent variables.

Results: For job satisfaction, we found that working more hours than desired (β: -.34, p<.05) and budget cuts (β: -.24, p<.05) were negatively associated with overall satisfaction, and that the negative impact of experiencing a budget cut was slightly attenuated as resources were added to the model. We also found that all resources (fringe benefits, PD support, scheduling flexibility and input, COVID-19 supports, and having a long-term partner) were significantly and positively associated with job satisfaction. Likewise, working more hours than desired (β: .39, p<.05) and budget cuts (β: .21, p<.05) were positively associated with turnover intent but attenuated as resources were added. Additionally, we found that resource satisfaction, scheduling flexibility and input, and support for COVID-19 were negatively associated with turnover intent.

Conclusion & Implications: Our findings highlight the importance of researchers’ attention to organizational and job level factors, demands and resources both, in understanding human service employment outcomes. They also indicate the value of HSO manager practices to limit some demands, like too many work hours; and the potential protective effects of fringe benefits, professional development supports, supportive scheduling, and as-needed supports when crises arise (as in COVID) in offsetting some negative work aspects.