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

Natalie V Schwatka,Miranda Dally,Liliana Tenney,Erin Shore,Lee S Newman,Carol E Brown

doi:10.3390/ijerph17062142

Abstract

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.

Highlights

The United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines TotalWorker Health® (TWH) as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with the promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being [1]
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between Total Worker Health® (TWH) business strategies and safety and health climates and whether this relationship is moderated by leadership commitment and to do so in an understudied population: small businesses
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether leadership commitment to safety and worksite wellness moderated the relationship between TWH strategies and safety and health climates in small businesses

Summary

Introduction

Worker Health® (TWH) as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with the promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being [1]. This framework prioritizes changes to the work environment such that workers are able to be physically and psychosocially healthy. We investigate safety and health climates, which are defined generally as employee perceptions that their organization cares about their safety and their health and well-being, respectively These climates represent the gut check between what business TWH strategies are in place and how supported they are

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Conclusion