Workplace Safety and Employee Health Management in the U.S.

Employee Health and Safety Management

Most U.S. firms offer disease management and health promotion programs to employees in order to address rising healthcare costs by improving employee lifestyle and overall health. Nevertheless, the U.S. has not been fully efficient in providing employees with integrated, comprehensive health programs. Comprehensive programs for promoting employee health may encompass a range of strategies, including supportive environments, health education, access to support services, employee integration into organizational structures, and frequent health screenings (O'Donnell, 2008).

Most companies operating in the U.S. have implemented health enhancement and employee wellness programs with a primary focus on lifestyle management. Employees are encouraged to enroll in insurance programs that provide regular health risk assessments (HRA) and a certificate of completion. HRAs are regularly used to identify health risks facing employees based on their current lifestyles and health status (Reniers, 2010). Employees are given credit incentives toward their health insurance premiums for the following year if they demonstrate low health risks. This credit is also awarded to employees who show interest in participating in recommended health improvement programs if they demonstrate moderate or high risks. Seventy percent of American employees have complied with HRA programs, with half of that population successfully completing additional HRA programs. This has formed the primary basis for evaluating the impact of these programs across the United States (Perezgonzalez, 2007).

Based on HRA programs, most employees in the U.S. have been enrolled in and identified as eligible for lifestyle and health management programs. These programs address a variety of conditions, including weight, smoking, blood pressure, pre-diabetes, stress, and cholesterol management. Most employees have shown great interest in cholesterol management programs, while fewer have enrolled in pre-diabetes management programs. The lifestyle management programs entail online or in-person coaching by a qualified expert, and consist of several months of training and an individualized action plan focused on health risk reduction (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010).

In addition to regular health management programs, companies in the U.S. have also adopted wellness and preventive physician and employee programs. These incentive programs award quality points to physicians and their employees based on clinical evidence and prevention guidelines. Program savings projects tied to health-related and medical cost-saving productivity have been allocated to physicians and their employees based on quality points earned. These incentive programs based on quality points remain operational across the U.S. (Goldman, Corrada & Goldman, 2011).

Accumulating evidence shows that many companies in the U.S. have implemented advanced health enhancement initiatives by providing employees with opportunities to complete HRA programs. These companies offer financial rewards and incentives to both participants and employees who have graduated from eligible HRA programs (O'Donnell, 2008). Companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of advanced programs because they introduce significant new components to health and lifestyle management, including disease management and demand management. Demand management programs offer a 24-hour helpline for employee health advice and questions. All employees who successfully complete HRA programs are automatically enrolled in demand management programs. These are telephone-based programs available to employees with more costly or complex medical conditions, and they encompass assignment to personal nurses, care management, coaching, care coordination, lifestyle management, and health education in consultation with physicians. Currently, employees are being offered joint health enhancement programs combining lifestyle management, disease management, demand management, and HRAs (Buckner & Koepp, 2009).

Researchers have conducted both external and internal analyses to assess the impacts of lifestyle and health enhancement programs. In the internal analysis, researchers compared outcomes of employees who experienced risk reduction or improvement against those who demonstrated increased or no improvement in health risks. In the external analysis, researchers compared outcomes between a control group and participating employees to describe benchmarking trends in health risks across the United States (Perezgonzalez, 2007).

Safety, health, and environmental (EHS) policy expresses a long-standing commitment to employee safety and environmental management. The policy seeks to ensure that companies in the U.S. conduct their operations in an environmentally responsible manner, creating safe and healthy working environments that enable employees to work free from injury. To accomplish this goal, the policy articulates the following requirements:

Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Systems

To achieve the goals articulated by EHS policy, companies operating in the U.S. implement safety, health, and environmental management systems as a critical part of business operations. These systems are tailored to individual businesses and implemented across the nation. To ensure that policy objectives continue to be met as businesses grow and expand, new companies are required to adopt EHS management systems and integrate them into their business processes (Reniers, 2010). EHS is a structured system that seeks to identify EHS priorities, meet internal and external policy requirements, control risks, and improve performance. Using this approach, companies use online platforms to monitor employee performance, conduct audits and management reviews, and implement preventive and corrective actions (O'Donnell, 2008).

Environmental, health, and safety systems are based on recognized international models, including ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. Companies operating in American markets have taken a leading benchmarking position in obtaining global ISO 14001 certification covering multinational manufacturing operations. Wellness, health, and safety management have been a primary area of focus for the American government (Goldman, Corrada & Goldman, 2011). Legal compliance represents the minimum requirement for EHS, and internal EHS standards reflect this commitment. EHS management systems ensure that the required processes for compliance are in place. These programs identify any instances of non-compliance with the law, trace the causes, and enact relevant corrective action to prevent recurrence (Johnson & Stoskopf, 2010).

Inspections carried out on EHS management systems confirm that EHS standards and policies are being implemented across the United States. Qualified professionals conduct the inspections and forward results to senior management. The frequency of inspections depends on operational complexity and prior performance history. These inspections complement regulatory compliance evaluations conducted by local and regional EHS staff, while ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 registrars carry out third-party inspections. This process involves analyzing policy and standards nonconformance, taking appropriate corrective action, and establishing measures to prevent the recurrence of future nonconformance. The systems ensure a continuous basis for improvement across companies operating in the U.S. (Reniers, 2010).

Employees are able to receive EHS training in local languages with the assistance of companies such as HP. The fundamentals of EHS are components of regularly refreshed orientation training delivered through online EHS policies, standard training modules, employee websites, and EHS communications. In addition, employees receive safety and health training specific to their job functions (Perezgonzalez, 2007). EHS performance standards apply to all sites. The management system standard addresses EHS management processes such as management responsibilities, auditing and inspection, measurement and monitoring, awareness and training, objective setting, and risk assessment. Accompanying standards address specific operational controls, including electrical safety and ergonomics, fire and life safety, waste minimization, chemical management, and energy management (O'Donnell, 2008).

Risk solutions based on emergency preparedness and response programs are designed to provide continued protection of the environment, property, people, and business operations. These programs encompass recovery, response, prevention, and planning. Recovery plans address chemical releases, security threats, natural disasters, fires, evacuations, and other emergencies. Response teams are trained in spill response, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, first aid, and facility control operations, as relevant to their local working environments. These teams also undergo regular testing of the above competencies (Goldman, Corrada & Goldman, 2011).

The Occupational Safety and Health Act is legislation that seeks to safeguard the welfare and safety of every worker and all people who are legally present at workplaces, to provide for the establishment of the National Safety Council, and for related purposes. The Act was passed to ensure worker safety in the workplace and at work generally. Its main objective was to ensure that employers provided employees with a work environment free from recognized hazards to health and safety, such as unsanitary conditions, cold or heat stress, mechanical dangers, excessive noise levels, and exposure to toxic chemicals (Buckner & Koepp, 2009).