A pilot study of changes in Total Worker Health® policies and programs and associated changes in safety and health climates in small business

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Shore ◽  
Liliana Tenney ◽  
Natalie V. Schwatka ◽  
Miranda Dally ◽  
Lynn Dexter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Small Business ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Total Worker Health

scholarly journals Total Worker Health Leadership and Business Strategies Are Related to Safety and Health Climates in Small Business

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 2142
Author(s):  
Natalie V. Schwatka ◽  
Miranda Dally ◽  
Liliana Tenney ◽  
Erin Shore ◽  
Carol E. Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Safety Climate ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Total Worker Health

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Total Worker Health® (TWH) business strategies and employee perceptions of leadership commitment and safety and health climates. Using data from 53 small enterprises and 1271 of their workers collected as part of the Small + Safe + Well (SSWell) Study, we confirm the primacy of the relationship between leadership commitment to safety and workplace safety climate. After accounting for leadership commitment to safety, business-reported policies and practices that promote the health, safety, and well-being of workers (i.e., TWH strategies) were no longer related to safety climate. In contrast, the relationship between TWH strategies and health climate were significantly associated with the level of small business leadership commitment to worksite wellness. Relatedly, our results demonstrate that leadership is a common correlate to both safety climate and health climate. Future research should investigate integrated TWH leadership development strategies as a means of simultaneously improving safety and health climates.

scholarly journals Profiles of total worker health® in United States small businesses

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie V. Schwatka ◽  
Miranda Dally ◽  
Erin Shore ◽  
Lynn Dexter ◽  
Liliana Tenney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Behaviors ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Employee Health ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Total Worker Health

Abstract Background The Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach is a best practice method to protect and promote worker safety, health, and well-being. Central to this approach is leadership support and health and safety climates that support day-to-day use of health and safety policies and programs. There is some research that supports these relationships, but there is limited research amongst small businesses. Furthermore, it remains to be shown what role TWH business strategies, as reflected by organizational policies and programs, play in this process. The purpose of this study is to characterize small businesses by their organizations’ TWH approach and assess the relationship of these approaches to employee health and safety behaviors. Methods We utilized cross-sectional data from 97 businesses participating in the Small+Safe+Well study. We collected data using a business assessment tool, Healthy Workplace Assessment™, and an employee assessment tool, Employee Health and Safety Culture Survey. We used latent profile analysis at the business level to identify subgroups of businesses based on a set of characteristics from these assessments. Linear regression analysis at the employee level was used to determine profile association with employee safety and health behaviors. Results There were two profiles characterized by the lowest (33% of all businesses) and highest (9%) levels of the indicators. There were also two profiles with higher scores on two of the different foci on either TWH business strategies (27%) or leadership and climate (31%). Employees working for a business with a profile that focused on leadership and climate, in addition to having a business strategy, reported the best safety and health behaviors. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that employee engagement in TWH will be highest when businesses have a strategy for how they implement a TWH approach and when they demonstrate leadership commitment to these strategies and foster positive safety and health climates. Our results offer suggestions on how to use TWH assessments to develop interventions for small businesses. More research is needed to understand whether small businesses can improve upon their profile overtime, whether these changes depend on contextual factors, and whether TWH interventions can help them improve their profile.

NIOSH total worker health program: Exploring new research horizons for workplace safety and health

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Hudson ◽  
Kellie Pierson ◽  
Chia-Chia Chang ◽  
Steve Sauter ◽  
Jeanie Nigam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Program ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
New Research ◽  
Total Worker Health

scholarly journals Health Links™ Assessment of Total Worker Health® Practices as Indicators of Organizational Behavior in Small Business

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 623-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Tenney ◽  
Wenyi Fan ◽  
Miranda Dally ◽  
Joshua Scott ◽  
Michelle Haan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Total Worker Health

scholarly journals Toward an Expanded Focus for Occupational Safety and Health: A Commentary

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (24) ◽  
pp. 4946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Schulte ◽  
George Delclos ◽  
Sarah A. Felknor ◽  
L. Casey Chosewood
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
New Professionals ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Concept ◽  
Total Worker Health

Powerful and ongoing changes in how people work, the workforce, and the workplace require a more holistic view of each of these. We argue that an expanded focus for occupational safety and health (OSH) is necessary to prepare for and respond rapidly to future changes in the world of work that will certainly challenge traditional OSH systems. The WHO Model for Action, various European efforts at well-being, and the Total Worker Health concept provide a foundation for addressing changes in the world of work. However, a paradigm expansion to include the recognition of worker and workforce well-being as an important outcome of OSH will be needed. It will also be vital to stimulate transdisciplinary efforts and find innovative ways to attract and train students into OSH professions as the paradigm expands. This will require active marketing of the OSH field as vibrant career choice, as a profession filled with meaningful, engaging responsibilities, and as a well-placed investment for industry and society. An expanded paradigm will result in the need for new disciplines and specialties in OSH, which may be useful in new market efforts to attract new professionals. Ultimately, to achieve worker and workforce well-being we must consider how to implement this expanded focus.

scholarly journals Generalizability of Total Worker Health® Online Training for Young Workers

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashamsa Aryal ◽  
Megan Parish ◽  
Diane Rohlman
Keyword(s):  
Work Organization ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Young Workers ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
And Control ◽  
Total Worker Health

Young workers (under 25-years-old) are at risk of workplace injuries due to inexperience, high-risk health behaviors, and a lack of knowledge about workplace hazards. Training based on Total Worker Health® (TWH) principles can improve their knowledge of and ability to identify hazards associated with work organization and environment. In this study, we assessed changes to knowledge and behavior following an online safety and health training between two groups by collecting information on the demographic characteristics, knowledge, and self-reported behaviors of workplace health and safety at three different points in time. The participants’ age ranged from 15 to 24 years. Age adjusted results exhibited a significant increase in knowledge immediately after completing the training, although knowledge decreased in both groups in the follow-up. Amazon Marketplace Mechanical Turk (MTurk) participants demonstrated a greater increase in knowledge, with a significantly higher score compared to the baseline, indicating retention of knowledge three months after completing the training. The majority of participants in both groups reported that they liked the Promoting U through Safety and Health (PUSH) training for improving health and safety and that the training should be provided before starting a job. Participants also said that the training was interactive, informative and humorous. The participants reported that the PUSH training prepared them to identify and control hazards in their workplace and to communicate well with the supervisors and coworkers about their rights. Training programs based on TWH improves the safety, health and well-being of young workers.

scholarly journals Advancing Well-Being Through Total Worker Health®

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita L. Schill
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Health Hazards ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Illness Prevention ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Paradigm Shifting ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Total Worker Health

Total Worker Health® (TWH) is a paradigm-shifting approach to safety, health, and well-being in the workplace. It is defined as 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. The most current TWH concepts are presented, including a description of issues relevant to TWH and introduction of a hierarchy of controls applied to TWH. Total Worker Health advocates for a foundation of safety and health through which work can contribute to higher levels of well-being.

scholarly journals Total Worker Health: A Small Business Leader Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 2416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janalee Thompson ◽  
Natalie Schwatka ◽  
Liliana Tenney ◽  
Lee Newman
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Health Safety ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Small Business Leaders ◽  
Leadership Research ◽  
Total Worker Health

Total Worker Health® (TWH) frameworks call for attention to organizational leadership in the implementation and effectiveness of TWH approaches. It is especially important to study this within in the small business environment where employees face significant health, safety, and well-being concerns and employers face barriers to addressing these concerns. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how small business leaders perceive employee health, safety, and well-being in the context of their own actions. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 small business senior leaders and used a qualitative coding approach to analyze the transcripts to determine the frequency with which leaders discussed each code. When we asked leaders about their leadership practices for health, safety, and well-being, leaders reflected upon their business (65%), themselves (28%), and their employees (7%). Leaders rarely discussed the ways in which they integrate health, safety, and well-being. The interviews demonstrate that small business leaders care about the health of their employees, but because of the perceived value to their business, not to employees or themselves. Thus, they may lack the knowledge and skills to be successful TWH leaders. The present study supports a need for continued small business TWH leadership research.

scholarly journals Defining ‘Integration’ for Total Worker Health®: A New Proposal

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Punnett ◽  
Jennifer M Cavallari ◽  
Robert A Henning ◽  
Suzanne Nobrega ◽  
Alicia G Dugan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Building Program ◽  
Total Worker Health

Abstract The effects of work and the conditions of employment on health behaviors and intermediate health conditions have been demonstrated, to the extent that these relationships should be addressed in efforts to prevent chronic disease. However, conventional health promotion practice generally focuses on personal risk factors and individual behavior change. In an effort to find solutions to the myriad of health challenges faced by the American workforce, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) established the Total Worker Health® (TWH) program. Originally organized around the paradigm of integrating traditional occupational safety and health protections with workplace health promotion, TWH has evolved to a broader emphasis on workplace programs for enhancing worker safety, health, and well-being. Among the research programs and approaches developed by investigators at NIOSH Centers of Excellence for TWH and elsewhere, definitions of ‘integration’ in workplace interventions vary widely. There is no consensus about which organizational or individual outcomes are the most salient, how much to emphasize organizational contexts of work, or which program elements are necessary in order to qualify as ‘Total Worker Health’. Agreement about the dimensions of integration would facilitate comparison of programs and interventions which are self-defined as TWH, although diverse in content. The specific criteria needed to define integration should be unique to that concept—i.e. distinct from and additive to conventional criteria for predicting or evaluating the success of a workplace health program. We propose a set of four TWH-specific metrics for integrated interventions that address both program content and process: (i) coordination and interaction of workplace programs across domains; (ii) assessment of both work and non-work exposures; (iii) emphasis on interventions to make the workplace more health-promoting; and (iv) participatory engagement of workers in pivotal ways during intervention prioritization and planning to develop self-efficacy in addressing root causes, skill transfer, building program ownership, empowerment, and continuous improvement. Thus we find that integration requires organizational change, both to engage two managerial functions with different goals, legal responsibilities, and (often) internal incentives & resources, and also to orient the organization toward salutogenesis. Examples from research activity within the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace illustrate how these criteria have been applied in practice.

scholarly journals Small Business Total Worker Health: a Conceptual and Methodological Approach to Facilitating Organizational Change

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie V. Schwatka ◽  
Liliana Tenney ◽  
Miranda J. Dally ◽  
Joshua Scott ◽  
Carol E. Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Small Business ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Total Worker Health
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