Trends and challenges in contemporary practice

Workplace Health

Current Issues and Trends in Workplace Health and Safety

The health and safety of the workforce is -- or at least should be -- one of the most pressing concerns for all organizations, organizational leaders, and governments. If the human resources of a given organization are not kept safe and healthy, then their productivity will necessarily be reduced and thus so will the profitability of the organization, meaning that even for purely pragmatic reasons these issues should be of importance to organizational leaders. For ethical reasons that are hopefully obvious to most individuals, as well, ensuring that adequate policies and procedures are in place to maintain worker health and safety are highly important, and a part of simple human decency. Several issues have come more to the foreground of occupational health and safety concerns in recent years, and definitely necessitate special and specific consideration.

First and foremost, any effective occupational safety and health promotion/protection program must have a high degree of employee participation in a variety of areas (MDL 2010). The number and complexity of safety policies, government guidelines, and other influential factors can make safety and health programs very difficult to understand or even be aware of in their entirety, and educating employees in regards to these issues is an essential step towards the foundation of effective plans (MDL 2010). The development of specific procedures and steps to increase safety and health should also involve direct employee input as much as possible, as this ensures that plans will both be effective and meaningful to the employees for whom they are intended, and helps ensure that they will be remembered, as well (MDL 2010).

A problem with workplace safety and health that has more recently risen in importance is that of stress and its effects on employee health and performance. The idea that work is not to be supposed to enjoy has unfortunately become engrained in American society and in the cultures of many organizations and this has contributed directly to the rise of stress related illnesses and disorders (Gardiner 2010). Stress has a direct negative impact on health, leading to higher blood pressure, potential heart problems, increased headaches and other minor aches and pains, and a variety of other physical symptoms (Gardiner 2010). In addition, stress reduces the ability to focus, which has a negative impact on productivity and also increases the likelihood of mistakes that can lead to other injuries or safety issues. This new area of workplace health and safety concerns luckily has been studied enough that several direct and indirect methods for reducing workplace stress and its effects have been developed; solutions as simple as increasing laughing and developing an organizational culture of increased jocularity can go a long way towards reducing stress and improved productivity, and can also increase worker satisfaction and contentment, leading to advantages in addition to those in the area of health and safety (Gardiner 2010).