Are your employees safe and healthy? How much of an impact can you have on your employees’ overall health?
The relationship between occupational safety and health and overall worker health has never been clearer than this year with the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) both in communities and at the workplace. However, worker health has always had direct and indirect impacts on workplace accidents, injuries, workers compensation claims, and healthcare costs. In response, many researchers and professional safety groups have embraced the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) Total Worker Health (TWH) approach.
Health promotion or wellness really isn’t all that different from worker safety and health protection.
To begin with, several workplace conditions that affect worker well-being are within your control. They start with the basic design of positions in the workplace, including job demands and pressures, the frequency of shiftwork, and the length of the workday, and extend to the degree of autonomy and flexibility your employees have and the quality of interactions your employees have with both their coworkers and their supervisors.