Foundational workplace safety and health competencies for the emerging workforce

Abstract

Introduction Young workers (aged 15–24) suffer disproportionately from workplace injuries, with a nonfatal injury rate estimated to be two times higher than among workers age 25 or over. These workers make up approximately 9% of the U.S. workforce and studies have shown that nearly 80% of high school students work at some point during high school. Although young worker injuries are a pressing public health problem, the critical knowledge and skills needed to prepare youth for safe and healthy work are missing from most frameworks used to prepare the emerging U.S. workforce. Methods A framework of foundational workplace safety and health knowledge and skills (the NIOSH 8 Core Competencies)was developed based on the Health Belief Model (HBM). Results The proposed NIOSH Core Competencies utilize the HBM to provide a framework for foundational workplace safety and health knowledge and skills. An examination of how these competencies and the HBM apply to actions that workers take to protect themselves is provided. The social and physical environments that influence these actions are also discussed. Conclusions The NIOSH 8 Core Competencies, grounded in one of the most widely used health behavior theories, fill a critical gap in preparing the emerging U.S. workforce to be cognizant of workplace risks. Practical applications Integration of the NIOSH 8 Core Competencies into school curricula is one way to ensure that every young person has the foundational workplace safety and health knowledge and skills to participate in, and benefit from, safe and healthy work. National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

G3-4 Musculoskeletal Discomforts among Assembly Team Members performing Assembly Welding Task

“…Being competitive includes not only focus on production performance as well as giving attention to the workforce, all the more particularly the employee's health and wellbeing (Okun, Guerin, & Schulte, 2016;Tong, Rasiah, Tong, & Lai, 2015). Musculoskeletal discomforts (MSDs) signify one of the main sources of occupational injury and disability in the automotive industry (Ferguson, Marras, Gary Allread, Knapik, & Splittstoesser, 2012;Zare, Mlinge-Oudenet, Hoglund, Biau, & Roquelaure, 2016).…”

Differences in safety training among smaller and larger construction firms with non-native workers: Evidence of overlapping vulnerabilities

“…In addition, OSH promotion materials and programs are often not designed to meet the needs of high risk groups such as small businesses, non-native workers or temporary workers; making them ineffective or impractical for these groups which further aggravates their elevated risk for injury. While OSH training materials are being tailored for groups such as non-native workers [O’Connor et al, 2014], small businesses [Hung et al, 2011; Cunningham and Sinclair, 2015], and young workers [Okun et al, 2016], few exist that are tailored to the needs of two or more vulnerable groups at the same time. For example, a construction safety program that is tailored for use with Hispanic immigrants is often not designed to address the specific challenges of small construction firms.…”

Transitions: a Theoretical Model for Occupational Health and Wellbeing

“…Typically, these measures boil down to a form of health and performance outcome. The results of these transitions, such as onboarding or restructuring, can impact employee psychological and physical health (e.g., Ashford 1988;Caverley et al 2007;de Jong et al 2016), safety (e.g., Okun et al 2016), performance (e.g., Cable et al 2013), and turnover (e.g., Cable et al 2013). There are also numerous examples of organizational transitions impacting the functioning of an organization.…”

“…The transition also presumably stressed employees at various levelssenior leaders responsible for the poor management of the transition and line employees dealing with irate customers. Given studies documenting the link between work stress and health and performance outcomes (e.g., de Jong et al 2016;Okun et al 2016), employees likely experienced elevated psychological stress and increased risk of injury. Even society was affected in that the fiasco resulted in UK society questioning their ability to successfully manage large-scale projects (Corkindale 2008).…”