The Wiley Guide to Strategies, Ideas, and Applications for Implementing a Total Worker Health Program (eBook)

Linda Tapp (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
713 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-1-394-19055-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Addresses safety and health hazards through a holistic, organization-wide approach to worker wellbeing

The Wiley Guide to Strategies, Ideas, and Applications for Implementing a Total Worker Health^® Program presents specific information and guidance for Total Worker Health (TWH) applications in a variety of industries as well as specific aspects of TWH. This book covers how existing safety and health activities can support and be integrated into TWH programs, exploring specific topics such as how TWH initiatives can benefit the construction industry, ways to borrow from successful safety committee operations, and the use of technology.

The innovative ideas and techniques from diverse fields, and from existing safety and health programs, help readers maximize efforts and increase the chance of long-term success. Case studies are included throughout to elucidate key concepts and aid in reader comprehension.

Written by safety, health, and wellness practitioners with real-world experience, this resource includes:

• Organizational approaches for implementing key prevention programs to solve problems across diverse worker populations
• Guidance for improving the organization and design of work environments, including innovative strategies for promoting worker wellbeing
• Evidence of program effectiveness for addressing work conditions that impact mental health, fatigue and sleep, and work-life conflict
• Perspective of traditional safety and health professionals, emphasizing practical advice for practitioners throughout all chapters and connecting the narrative as a whole

The Wiley Guide is an essential resource for safety, health, and industrial hygiene practitioners in industry, public services, government, insurance, and consulting, as well as others with safety and health responsibilities such as occupational medicine professionals.

Textauszug

1
Total Worker Health®: Introduction and Overview

Deborah R. Roy

SafetySpeaks, Falmouth, Maine, USA

1.1 Introduction and Definitions

Most Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professionals are aware of the need to evolve strategies over time to continue to improve the safety and health of workers in the workplace. Although the traditional United States (US) approach was often compliance-based, and prescriptive, it became clear over time that compliance with regulations would not eliminate all work-related injuries and illnesses, or fatalities. In fact, even with 100% compliance by employers, more than 54% of workplace fatalities in 2022 would still likely have occurred because the exposure is not addressed by the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations. Figure 1.1 shows fatalities by type. The transportation (38%) and violence (16%) occupational exposures are largely not addressed in the standards for all industries, yet those two categories of fatalities have persisted over 50% for multiple years.

More enlightened US employers and OSH professionals started moving away from a focus on compliance in the mid-1980s in this author’s experience. Often the strategy then was to embrace best practices from others in the same industry or other industries with similar hazards. Some focused on early safety and health management systems such as OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program. Over the next 30 years or so, other management systems, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Z-10 OSH Management standard, became popular. Employers who fully implemented management systems approaches saw significant reductions in work-related injury and illness data. But zero worker illnesses and injuries, and even fatalities, remained an elusive goal.

Figure 1.1 Adapted from BLS 2022 fatality data (2023).

Source: Deborah R. Roy.

Clearly, the risk of injury, illness, and fatality still existed in the workplace. Some OSH professionals then began using strategies of risk assessment and later risk management based on the International Standards Organization (ISO) Risk Management family of standards beginning in 2009 and later updated in 2018. In 2020, ASSP also published a technical report – Risk Management – Techniques for Safety Practitioners (ASSP TR-31010-2020). This technical report provides guidance on the selection and application of techniques for assessing and managing risk within the risk management process. Again, considering the risks of the work and the workplace, and appropriately treating that risk, did often reduce injuries and illnesses. But sometimes high severity consequences still resulted from tasks that were low likelihood, and at times, employers did not see the value of spending capital dollars on risks that had not occurred at that company, in that plant, or on that job site. Sometimes it was too expensive to treat a risk after the fact. Preventing risk had long been espoused by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE, now ASSP) and resulted in the standard, ANSI/ASSE Z590.3-2011, Prevention through Design: Guidelines for Addressing Occupational Hazards and Risks in the Design and Redesign Processes. Also, during this time, there became more awareness that the risks of Serious and Fatal Incidents (SIFs) had different causes than the usual high-frequency injuries and illnesses that were recorded by employers on the required OSHA 300 logs. All these approaches (if they were fully implemented) did reduce injuries and illnesses but not completely.

During the last 10-plus years, OSH professionals and some enlightened employers have realized the missing part of the equation. The goal has been to reduce the number of injuries, illnesses, and fatalities that already happened in the workplace. The focus has been on the data after the injury or illness has occurred. Beyond training workers, or providing standard operating procedures, most strategies did not consider the comprehensive view of the worker. Leaders and OSH professionals likely considered the traditional physical health of workers, specifically around ergonomics. Medium and larger employers may have had Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) available to workers to address stress and mental health as well. But how workers perform work is also impacted by work organization, how safe the worker feels in the workplace, and whether they can be themselves and be authentic at work. Worker productivity is impacted by what happens outside the workplace as well, such as family dynamics or challenges, financial stress, substance abuse, and chronic health problems.

Emerging strategies now include Human and Organizational Performance. That is the understanding that humans may naturally make mistakes due to the systems around them and the fact that those systems are not error-tolerant. It is time to recognize that blaming the worker is not only ineffective, but that work designed with an understanding of the human condition can reduce or eliminate risks and, therefore, injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in those same workers. Leaders and OSH professionals have also begun to realize the toll of stress on workers. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought psychological health and well-being to the forefront of leaders’ attention in a way that has simply not happened before. To address these worker risks, the consensus standard ANSI/ASSP/ISO 45003-2021 Occupational Health and Safety Management – Psychological Health and Safety at Work – Guidelines for Managing Psychosocial Risks was published in 2021. It outlines examples of psychosocial hazards arising from work organization, social factors and work environment, equipment and hazardous tasks, and a range of control measures that can be used to eliminate hazards or minimize associated risks. But even with more enlightened workplaces, there remained opportunities to improve the overall well-being of workers.

“The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 established the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a research agency focused on the study of worker safety and health, and empowering employers and workers to create safe and healthy workplaces” (NIOSH 2019, p. 1). During 2003, NIOSH began the NIOSH Steps to a Healthier US Workforce Initiative. (NIOSH 2022a). This initiative evolved over time to the Worklife Initiativein 2005, “which sought to improve overall worker health through better work-based programs, policies, practices, and benefits” and by 2011 it was renamed the Total Worker Health® Program, with a commitment “to developing knowledge focused on integration of occupational safety and health protection and health promotion” (NIOSH 2022a).

Total Worker Health® (TWH) as defined by NIOSH is “policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness-prevention efforts to advance worker well-being” (NIOSH 2021b, p. 1). In practical terms, this approach prioritizes workplaces that are free of risks to workers and integrates all the resources and solutions, to not only keep workers safe but to improve their well-being over time because of their work. It means that employers can use a more comprehensive approach to addressing impacts on workers, as opposed to the typical siloed approach to safety vs. health vs. wellness that is common in traditional workplace settings. To illustrate the breadth of items that can be included in a TWH approach, NIOSH provides examples in Figure 1.2. These include emerging issues that may occur due to innovation or different forms of employment, and health situations that may not arise from work but may be impacted by work. OSH professionals should not be overwhelmed by this extensive list but use it to consider potential program gaps and future opportunities as their TWH strategy evolves over time.

To further focus efforts and resources, NIOSH has identified six priority areas that will advance worker well-being with the TWH approach, and they provide additional guidance for these. They are:

Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders in the Workplace

TWH Outreach, Education, and Training

Measuring Worker Well-Being

Future of Work

Healthy Work Design and Well-Being

Mental Health in the Workplace

(NIOSH, 2023b, p. 1)

One of the terms that is used in the definition of TWH is worker well-being. In the article by Chari et al. (2018, p. 3), the authors describe worker well-being as:

“an integrative concept that characterizes quality of life with respect to an individual’s health and work-related environmental, organizational, and psychosocial factors. Well-being is the experience of positive perceptions and the presence of constructive conditions at work and beyond that enables workers to thrive and achieve their full potential.”

The idea is that worker well-being can’t just be evaluated by what occurs in the workplace. It must include the community setting and both worker perceptions and objective environmental conditions. This concept has sometimes been misconstrued by employers and...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.11.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Chemie
• Schlagworte: diverse worker populations • safety committee operations • total worker health • TWh • work conditions • work environments • worker well-being • work fatigue • Work-Life Conflict • work mental health • workplace initiatives
• ISBN-10: 1-394-19055-7 / 1394190557
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-19055-3 / 9781394190553