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The math behind it all

Howdy Score

The Howdy Score is a measure of your groups wellbeing

It is based on answers to individual wellbeing surveys, given by users. The answers are added together, averaged and then given a score.

Assessing the individual

When users fill out their wellbeing questionnaire, they provide an answer to five questions each with six possible answers. Each question represents a value between 0 and 5, the better the wellbeing, the higher the value. Adding the five questions together gives us a value between 0 and 25, we then multiply this number by four – this gives us the individual wellbeing index on a scale from 0 – 100, based on the WHO-5 model. If multiple answers are given by the same user in the same month we use an average.

This measurement is then divided into colored segments to illustrate the wellbeing of the individual, based on the research and theory behind the WHO-5 model. If multiple answers are given by the same user, we use the lowest index value to segment the answer.

In Howdy, we use five different colours to illustrate the wellbeing of a group or individual. Three shades of green, one yellow and one red.

Action Needed
Room for Improvement
Okay
Good
Excellent

From individual to group

To get a score for a group instead of an individual, we accumulate the answers and calculate the average. We do that by adding the individual scores together, and dividing by the amount of answers. This gives us an average wellbeing for a group.

Howdy score

Based on what we know about wellbeing from both our own analysis as well as that of our partners in the scientific community, we have come up with a classification of good and bad wellbeing. We call this the Howdy Score. The only two inputs for calculating a Howdy Score is the average wellbeing and the country. The way the questions are perceived across cultural and language differences necessitates adapting slightly it for each country.

Using this segmentation, we can now assign a Howdy score to each company or department on a scale from 0 to 5. In the box below, you can see a detailed list of the entire segmentation and the corresponding Howdy Score.

Example: If the average value of an English company is 67,4 – then the Howdy Score for that company would be 3,5.

When conveying the Howdy Score, it will be accompanied by a range of coloured Howdy stars – based on your groups wellbeing. In the box below, you can see how many stars will be awarded to your group, based on the Howdy Score.

Example: If the Howdy score of a company is 3,2 – then that company would be awarded 3,5 stars.

More information about how we calculate the Howdy Score in different countries can be found here: Mean WHO-5 scores in the countries included in the European Quality of Life Survey 2012.