Tuesday, September 14, 2021

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET Plenary Session 1

Work, Stress, and Health conference co-chairs

E. Kevin Kelloway, MSc, MFA, PhD
Saint Mary’s University, Halifax

The current pandemic has focused attention on issues related to organizational leadership – requiring leaders to focus their attention on new outcomes (e.g., social distancing, mask wearing) and to lead in novel circumstances (e.g., working from home). Drawing on a year-long, multi-study project, Dr. Kelloway will present data relating to both aspects. First, he will present the S.A.F.E.R. model of safety leadership and show how it is related to pandemic-related outcomes. Second, he will consider leadership in the remote environment and present initial data suggesting the effectiveness of the C.I.B.E.R. model of leadership. Implications for organizational practice and leadership research will also be discussed.

Career Lifetime Achievement Awards in Research

Kari Lindström, PhD, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Lawrence R. Murphy, PhD, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

1:00 – 2:30 p.m. ET Curated Paper Session 1

Chair: Russell A. Matthews, PhD
University of Alabama

Over the past 30 years, applying increasingly rigorous methodologies, work-family scholars continue to make advances in theory and practice, founded in a broadening of research foci. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the critical role that work-family scholars play in defining and preparing for the changing nature of the 21st century workplace. This session brings together work-family thought leaders with an emphasis on underscoring the diversity of research currently ongoing in the field, with a particular eye towards understanding the impacts scholarly work-family research can have on individuals, organizations, and society.

Within-Person Considerations for the Work-Family Interface

Allison S. Gabriel, PhD
University of Arizona

Scholars are increasingly recognizing that several of our core organizational theories and constructs are likely best situated episodically—understanding how people affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally respond to the events that unfold around them day-to-day. This presentation provides some considerations for scholars studying events and phenomena at the work-family interface as well as discusses ways we can use within-person studies conceptualized at various levels of analysis to build our temporal understanding of work-family phenomena.

Family-supportive supervisor behaviors and employee mental health: Close but no cigar

Laurent Lapierre, PhD
University of Ottawa

Family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSBs) have garnered significant research attention over the last 20 years. They appear useful in helping employees more successfully juggle work and family roles and have been positively linked to employee mental health. However, FSSBs represent a highly focused form of supervisory social support that is most likely insufficient to maintain, let alone enhance, employees’ mental health. Given the increased importance given to workplace mental health, this presentation explains where FSSBs would lie within the more broadly applicable concept of mental-health-supportive supervision.

Work-nonwork balance: Looking to the Past, Present, & Future

Julie Wayne, PhD
Wake Forest University

This presentation will highlight past and present balance research, focusing on themes in terms of theories, research questions, and methodologies. These themes will be considered in the context of current work-life topics and trends in practice. From this, potential gaps will be identified and recommendations that advance science and practice will be offered.

What’s Next? Challenges in Our Transition to the Post-Pandemic Workplace

Cathleen Swody, PhD
Thrive Leadership

As organizations and employees navigate an uncertain work environment, unique issues have emerged. Opportunities to better understand and address these issues will support workers’ health, well-being, and ultimately, productivity. This presentation discusses some of these opportunities in the workplace.

3:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET Curated Panel Session 2

Chair: Paul Spector, PhD
University of South Florida

As remote work has become more and more prevalent, a growing concern has been people’s exposure to virtual mistreatment using communication technology. This panel of expert researchers on workplace mistreatment will discuss its nature and its impact on employees with a focus on technology-mediated mistreatment. Included will be actions organizations can take to manage negative behaviors remotely.

Panelists:

Gary Giumetti
Quinnipiac University

David Howard
Tampa General Hospital

Ashley Nixon
Willamette University

YoungAh Park
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Mindy Shoss
University of Central Florida

5:00 – 6:30 p.m. ET Networking Event

For this virtual networking event, we’re trying something different. Join us in a virtual environment supported by kumospace and engage with your OHP-minded peers for some class networking (but in a virtual room and style). Check out this helpful getting started guide so you can be “in the know” when it’s time.

Wednesday, September 15, 2021

10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET Curated Paper Session 3

Chair:  David DeJoy
University of Georgia

Healthy Work Design (HWD) focuses on protecting and advancing worker safety, health, and well-being by improving the design of work, management practices, and the physical and psychosocial work environment. HWD’s holistic perspective focuses on how work affects overall safety, health, and well-being, including physical, psychological, social, and economic aspects.  Within the NIOSH National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), HWD is a cross-sector council involving work organization, economics, and Total Worker Health.  This session is designed to reflect both the breadth of HWD as well as its centrality to improving employee well-being in all its facets. 

Effects of a Total Worker Health® Leadership Intervention on Employee Well-Being and Functional Impairment

Leslie B. Hammer, Oregon Health & Science University
Krista J. Brockwood, Oregon Health & Science University

The presentation examines an integrated Total Worker Health® intervention that combines health protection in the form of supervisor support training (i.e., family supportive supervisor behaviors and supervisor support for sleep health) with a health promotion approach in the form of feedback to improve sleep health behaviors. Using a cluster randomized controlled trial drawing on a sample of 704 full-time employees, results demonstrate that the Total Worker Health intervention improves employee job well-being (i.e., increased job satisfaction and reduced turnover intentions), personal well-being (i.e., reduced stress before bedtime), and reduces personal and social functional impairment at 9-months post-baseline through employee reports of supervisors’ support for sleep at 4-months post-baseline, but not through family supportive supervisor behaviors. Implications will be discussed. 

Franchising in the Janitorial Services Industry: Effects on Working Conditions

Michael Foley
Washington State Department of Labor and Industries

Franchising as an organizational form has been spreading within the janitorial services industry. The franchise form provides brand recognition to franchisees in exchange for detailed performance standards, as well as payment of royalties and management fees. These conditions can be expected to intensify pressures to reduce labor costs, leading to lower wages and higher worker turnover.  In Washington State we identified over 600 franchised firms in janitorial services. Of these, we matched 120 franchised firms to administrative records for workers compensation and unemployment insurance and compared them to traditionally organized firms.  A higher proportion of franchised firms did not report any “covered” employees.  Workers employed by franchised firms had lower wage rates, lower earnings, and higher turnover. They also had higher workers’ compensation claims rates for injuries leading to more than three lost workdays.

Job insecurity: A crucial consideration for healthy work design in pandemic and post-pandemic times

Mindy Shoss
University of Central Florida

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced many “shocks” to people’s work —millions of workers were laid off, and those who were employed experienced new work-related threats to their health and safety. This presentation draws from research on job insecurity, including newly collected data on the COVID-19 pandemic, to examine the important connection between job insecurity and workplace healthy design. I will argue that job insecurity is intricately connected with healthy work design, such that healthy work design can help mitigate future-oriented uncertainty and its ensuing negative well-being effects.   

Hotel Workers: Understanding their Exposures, Health and Wellbeing

Marie-Anne Rosemberg
University of Michigan

Despite their contribution to the US economy, hotel workers continue to experience preventable illnesses and injuries at alarming rates. This presentation will include two parts. Part 1 will be an overview of the industry, with an emphasis on key factors that may affect the health and wellbeing of these workers. Part 2 will include findings from a cross-sectional study focusing on exposure and health outcomes among 200 hotel workers across various job titles. Implications will be framed through the lens of Healthy Work Design and Well-being focusing on the psychosocial work environment (e.g. stress), organization of work, as well as the trend toward non-standard work arrangement (e.g. agency hire). Given that these workers were already experiencing high risks for poor health, the COVID-19 pandemic is only amplifying those modifiable factors impinging on their health and wellbeing. Implications of the pandemic will also be discussed.

11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. ET Early Career Speed Mentoring Session

Pre-registration is strongly encouraged, to help with mentor match-ups.

1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET Plenary Session 2

Chair: Keyona King-Tsikata, MPH
American Psychological Association

Panelists:

Sarika Abbi
Aspen Institute

Mindy Bergman
Texas A&M University

Mahima Saxena
University of Nebraska Omaha

Bob Sinclair
Clemson University

Early Career Achievement Award
Juliet Hassard, PhD, University of Nottingham

Gwendolyn Puryear Keita Award for Social Justice and the Welfare of Working People
Mindy Shoss, PhD, University of Central Florida

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET Curated Paper Session 4

Chair: David LeGrande, MA, RN
Retired Occupational Safety and Health Director

Communications Workers of America

Since early 2020, and the onset of the COVID 19 Pandemic, American workplaces and workers have been in a state of crisis.  Although all American workers and their families have been affected, essential workers (who are often low-income and minority workers) have been most seriously affected by the threat of exposure, the onset of disease, or death. Essential workers include those employed within the health care, emergency response and other public sectors, food and agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, utilities, wholesale and retail trade, education, mining, and construction industries. Essential work, often characterized by significant workplace stressors, such as high job demands, low job controls, and job insecurity, has been shown to be related to the increased occurrence of COVID-19 cases, worker occupational stress, and negative health outcomes.

U.S. labor unions have been extremely active in working to ensure their members have been protected against exposure to COVID-19, the onset of COVID-19, and related health problems, including those associated with increased occupational stress. This work has been primarily achieved through the collective bargaining process with represented private and public sector employers; the education and training of their members and the general public about COVID-19; efforts directed towards the development and achievement of regulatory and legislative solutions; as well as work with academics/public heath scientists to identify poorly designed working conditions, the occurrence of worker COVID-19 health outcomes, as well as methods of disease resolution. In turn, these efforts have been designed to produce improved working conditions free from COVID-19.

This panel will feature a variety of presentations that focus on these issues – all with the goal of obtaining more safe and healthful working conditions for represented workers (and the general public). The panel will include presentations specific to methods and tools used in conducting scientific investigations with labor unions as well as the use of collected/analyzed data.

The translation of collected scientific data into substantial changes in work organization, i.e., changes that result in improved working conditions, decreased worker health effects, and increased worker performance and productivity, is necessary to advance the field of work organization and worker health and safety. Several unions have been able to initiate such efforts with represented employers. Thus, presentations will include a focus upon the implementation of research findings on work organization and the manner in which work is performed.

COVID-19 Pandemic: What Has Work Got to Do with It?  

Pouran Faghri MD, Marnie Dobson PhD, Paul Landsbergis PhD, MPH, Peter Schnall MD, MPH*, Center for Social Epidemiology

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck “essential workers” especially hard (Faghri, et al., 2021).  Their jobs cannot be performed at home and require face-to-face contact with the public or working in close proximity to coworkers. These speakers will discuss the greater risks at work for many essential workers and what labor unions and worker advocates have been doing to reduce them. 

Healthcare Worker Commitment to Addressing Burnout Pre- and Post-Pandemic

Jeremy Weiland LICSW*, Serena Rice MS*, Cesar Morocho MS, MPH, Sundus Siddique MBBS, MPH, Alicia Kurowski, ScD, Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace, University of Massachusetts Lowell 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a multi-union, joint labor-management team of mental health staff prioritized burnout at their public-sector worksite. A comprehensive set of interventions to address root causes was in its implementation phase when the global pandemic both interrupted those plans and exacerbated burnout for all healthcare workers.  This team is now exploring what changes to their original interventions might be needed to address the massive post-pandemic burnout which they and co-workers are experiencing.  This session discusses autonomous efforts among the workers and the presence of worker empowerment in finding solutions.

Protecting New Jersey Public Sector Workers from COVID-19: A Labor Program for Education, Training, and Collective Action

Micki Siegel de Hernandez MPH*, Communications Workers of America      

New Jersey and New York were the epicenter at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.  Essential state and local government workers in New Jersey, represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), were particularly hard hit by COVID-19.In May 2020, the CWA initiated a training and education program for CWA local union members to build the number and capacity of local union health and safety committees to enable them to effectively fight for safer workplaces. This presentation discusses aspects of this training as well as coordinated efforts by local union activists and CWA staff to impact workplace protections.     

Participatory/Intervention Investigations in Corrections: The National Institute of Corrections Participatory Group

Mazen El-Ghaziri PhD, MPH, RN*, Lisa Jaegers PhD*, Pamela Fallon NP, PhD candidate, Natalie Schur BS, Martin Cherniack MD, MPH                      

Since the fall of 2020, a national panel of over 40 administrators, line workers, union representatives and academic professionals in criminal justice has regularly convened to develop best practice interventions for mental health risks including stress, burnout and psychological distress from on-the-job traumatic events.  The goal has been improving state-by-state practices in US prisons and jails.  Currently, a multi-level survey is being piloted to assess experience at the institutional, supervisory and line worker levels. This discussion shares preliminary data and goals for improving training resources in criminal justice facilities to address trauma and stress in personnel.

Worker Led Mental Health Participatory Interventions in Corrections

Sara Namazi, PhD, Alicia Dugan PhD, Collin Provost, Stanquinto Sudduth*, Krystle Pierce*, Sherine Bailey, Amanda Tower, Teresa Perez, and Timothy Kelsey AFSCME Local 391, Matthew Brennan MPH, Tim Cocozza BS, Jamie Blackmon PhD candidate, and Martin Cherniack, MD, MPH

A design team (DT) consisting of eight core union members, representing five prison facilities, partnered with the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace research staff to focus on identifying and addressing mental health stressors for correctional staff.  Participatory interventions have included protected work areas to reduce stress around critical incidents; peer support training for staff with external experts; a training program for a designated facility peer training officer; and training for staff family members. These efforts are discussed as well as pre-and post DT-led surveys to gauge intervention effectiveness.

Impact and Evaluation of a Correctional Supervisors’ Design Team Intervention on Healthy Eating

Tara Keaton CSEA/SEIU Local 2001*, Matthew Brennan MPH, Alicia Dugan PhD, Sara Namazi PhD, Timothy Cocozza BS, Martin Cherniack MD, MPH

A design team from the Connecticut Supervisors’ Council (CSC) has been collaborating with researchers from the University of Connecticut for the past seven years to identify health, safety and well-being concerns of their workforce and to develop and implement trainings to address these concerns. In line with Total Worker Health® principles, the first two rounds of interventions focused on improving sleep and mental health. The third round of training, on healthy eating, was facilitated by CSC members including the administration of pre and post surveys.  The results of the training survey can be used to guide future healthy eating interventions for correctional supervisors.               

Labor’s Response to COVID-19 in the European Union (EU) and in Germany at Different Levels

Michael Ertel Dipl-Soz*, Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Germany) 

At the European Union (EU) level, the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) called attention to working conditions in sectors where the pandemic could be seen as a magnifying mirror on occupational safety and health problems that were present for a long time, primarily in the healthcare sector and the meat sector. This spotlight creates opportunities for improvements, based on the EU legal occupational safety and health framework. This presentation discusses legislative amendments in Germany on January 1, 2021, aimed at improving working conditions in the meat industry and at more frequent inspections of workplaces, across all sectors.

Monday, November 1, 2021

Poster presentations available for asynchronous viewing (through January 2022)

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

10:00 a.m. – 11:30 am ET Curated Paper Session 5

Chair: Juliet Hassard, PhD
University of Nottingham

COVID-19 has affected the health and economies of the global population, as well as the employment reality and futures of a substantial proportion of the global workforce. Since the beginning of the pandemic the scale of work-related stress and poor mental health within working populations has grown. It is, therefore, important to understand the experiences of workers during the pandemic; and, in turn, to further explore opportunities to support the management and prevention of work-related stress through targeted workplace interventions. This session will explore work-related stress and recovery from work. It will provide reflections from both research and practice regarding the management of work-related stress, including how workers have coped with and recovered from work during the pandemic. This session will include four presentations from a global panel of experts, followed by a live panel discussion.

Digital Media @ Work: How Smartphones Impact the Recovery Process

Dr. Daantje Derks
Eramus University of Rotterdam, Netherlands

Many employees stay use their smartphone for work during leisure time which may have consequences for their recovery process, health, and well-being. The current diary study shows that behavior (work-related smartphone use) is the explaining mechanism in the relationship between telepressure and psychological detachment. This seems to be an interesting avenue for future (intervention) research.

Exploring Coping Strategies in Response to Work and Family Demands During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dr. Gargi Sawhney
Auburn University

The global pandemic has presented workers around the world with novel challenges to their daily lives, as a result of which individuals have developed a variety of coping strategies to alleviate feelings of stress as the pandemic progresses. The present study explores different coping strategies that workers utilize in response to work- and family-related demands over the course of the pandemic, as well as the association of these different coping strategies with respect to work, family, and health outcomes.

Resilience in the Workplace as a Team Sport

Dr. Candice Schaefer
Twitter

Over the past 18 months, employers have seen a greater demand for mental health support for their employees in coping with the difficulties brought on by COVID-19, including adjusting to working from home, increased isolation, and the blurring of work-life balance.. In this presentation, organization-driven workplace psychosocial hazards will be examined as well as some organization-driven interventions used to help mitigate these hazards.

Psychological Recovery During Periods of Disaster and Public Health Crisis

Dr. Patricia J. Watson
National Centre for PTSD

This presentation focuses on creating frameworks for worker recovery in the context of disasters and public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. In these situations, well-being requires us to respond to ever-changing contexts and to build a capacity to stay present, be tolerant of trying new strategies and open to being creative in accessing and giving support.

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET Society for Occupational Health Psychology Overview and Updates, Awards, and Networking

Society for Occupational Health Psychology Overview and Updates

Best JOHP Article Award
Looking Forward: How Anticipated Workload Change Influences the Present Workload-Emotional Strain Relationship
Michael J. DiStaso and Mindy K. Shoss, University of Central Florida

Service to SOHP awards
Irvin Schonfeld, Ph.D.
Christopher J. L. Cunningham, Ph.D.

Networking

2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET Curated Paper Session 6

Chair: Emily Huang, PhD
Oregon Health & Science University

Discussant: Ted Scharf, PhD
NIOSH

In 1980, Professor Dov Zohar published an original study that defined, measured, and tested safety climate. Safety Climate has been identified as a robust leading indicator or set of predictors of safety outcomes across industries and countries. There has been significant progress in safety climate “research-to-practice” in the last 40 years. To this end, these presentations focus on issues around safety climate measurement, intervention, and engagement within a variety of hazardous work environments, and conclude with gaps that still need to be addressed or even updated in safety climate research. In particular, we consider the COVID-19 pandemic.

Safety Climate Intervention Strategies: Literature Reviews and Qualitative Approach

Jin Lee, PhD
Kansas State University

There is a dearth of empirical research on safety climate interventions. The trend of safety climate interventions and their effectiveness was examined in a systematic literature review. Also, qualitative interviews with professionals in occupational safety and health management from hazardous industries were conducted to extract a comprehensive pool of suggestions for safety climate intervention. More systematic and organized management of safety climate would be available when a safety climate intervention takes into account the attributes of successful safety climate intervention programs and organization- and industry-specific needs for workplace safety and health.

RAPID Safety Climate Assessment in the US fire service: observations from a longitudinal study during the pandemic

Jennifer Taylor, PhD
Drexel University

Safety climate is considered to be a latent construct and therefore slow to change. We investigated safety climate and associated downstream factors in repeated measures over 6-months in a study of mental health outcomes among firefighters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Longitudinal data, such as these provide insight into how safety climate performs over time.

Development and Validation of a COVID-19 Safety Climate Scale

Emily Huang, PhD
Oregon Health & Science University

The present study introduces the concept of a COVID-19 safety climate (SC), including employees’ perceptions of an organization’s policies, procedures, and practices that aim to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Using both prospective and cross-sectional data sets, we developed and validated a measure of COVID-19 SC which consisted of two scales: (1) Organization COVID-19 SC refers to the employees’ perceptions of the strategies and efforts at the organizational level and consists of four dimensions: a) management commitment and proactivity, b) workplace flexibility and capacity, c) equipment and sanitation for COVID-19 prevention, and d) COVID-19-related communication and training programs; (2) Group COVID-19 SC refers to the employees’ perceptions of the intermediate support and care from supervisors and consists of three dimensions: a) supervisor commitment and proactivity, b) safety monitoring, and c) COVID-19-related supervisory communication. Construct validity and criterion-related validity were supported.

Using Close Call Reports to Empower Worker-led Interventions

Emily J. Haas, PhD
NIOSH

Joseph McGuire, PhD
CRH Americas (retired)

Close calls are unplanned events that could have resulted in injury or damage but did not. Following a close call, workers completed reports to document these upstream risk indicators and to initiate organizational and individual responses to mitigate hazards. However, it is unclear how these reports influence actions or controls to reduce hazards. Upon analysis of approximately 250 close call incidents at an industrial construction and aggregates operation, this presentation provides insight into ways that close calls can be used as a metric of safety management and may improve worker engagement in safety climate interventions. We address some of the available approaches to improve safety and safety culture/climate in hazardous work environments, with an emphasis on worker participation at all levels of management.

Key Drivers of Trucking Safety Climate: Bayesian Network Predictive Modeling Approach

Yimin He, PhD
University of Nebraska

This study examines the impact of individual drivers and combinations of drivers on safety climate through Bayesian Network simulations to predict practices which most effectively improve safety climate in the trucking industry. Survey data were collected from 5,083 truck drivers in a large U.S. trucking company. Based on the study results, the strategies that may have the most potential to improve trucking safety climate are: 1) enhancing leaders’ ability to engage in high-quality exchanges (e.g., caring about employees), 2) developing training to encourage employees/leaders to deliver on promises, and 3) providing employees with more autonomy to enhance their ownership.

4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET Plenary Session 3

Chair: David W. Ballard

Highlights of the Household Pulse Survey
Jason M. Fields
US Census Bureau

Psychological Health and Safety at Work: Managing Psychosocial Risk
Norma McCormick
Corporate Health Works, Inc.

Employee Assistance Programs: Trends and Technology
Mark Attridge
Attridge Consulting Inc.

Mental Fitness: Measure and Deliver Support to Every Employee, Exactly Where They Are
Maya Garza
Better Up

Thursday, November 4, 2021

10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET Curated Panel Session 7

Chair: Gwenith G. Fisher
Colorado State University

During this panel presentation and discussion, speakers from around the world will provide an international perspective on emerging topics in occupational health including positive aspects of work and how healthy work organization can support worker safety and well-being. Speakers will describe recent happenings, advancements, new challenges, policy developments, and opportunities in their respective regions.

Panelists:

Will Worker Well-being Finally Find Is Day in the Sun?
L. Casey Chosewood
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, United States

Policy Responses to Atypical Work in Europe
Kevin Teoh
European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology; University of London

Work, Happiness, and Health – a Japanese Perspective
Akinori Nakata
International University of Health and Welfare, Japan

Work Health and Safety for Psychosocial Factors & Psychological Health in Australia
Rachael Potter
University of South Australia

12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET Live Conversation with WSH Poster Presenters

2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ET Curated Paper Session 8

Chair: Peter Kelly
The Health and Safety Executive, Great Britain

Significant work has been undertaken in recent years related to psychosocial stress and worker well-being. This session will look at the impact of psychological health and safety efforts during the pandemic and provide a global overview of the advancements in theory, standards, measurement, and intervention.

Has the Panacea Arrived: ISO 45003 International Standard for Psychological Health and Safety

Peter Kelly
The Health and Safety Executive, Great Britain

This paper will discuss the development and implementation of the International standards organisation standard for psychological health and safety at work ISO45003. The paper will cover lessons learnt through the process of developing a global standard, barriers and the journey of developing a universally agreed standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace and what the role is of psychological practitioners in the implementation of the standard across the globe in particular how it is adopted and used by member countries to develop and promote safe psychological health and safety practices.

Participatory Organizational Intervention to Improve Wellbeing: Changing Psychosocial Working Conditions

Karina Nielsen
University of Sheffield

This presentation will highlight the importance of using participatory organizational interventions to improve employee wellbeing. It will emphasize taking a preventative approach to improving wellbeing and changing psychosocial working conditions by modifying the way work is organized, designed, and managed.

Building Psychosocial Safety Climate in Turbulent Times; An Organisational Intervention in COVID Times

Maureen Dollard
University of South Australia

In response to the parlous state of worker mental health globally, international WHS authorities are calling for more decent human-centred work. This presentation will describe our theoretically driven cluster randomized cohort control study which sought to understand how Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) – a climate/system to protect worker psychological health – could be built in different organizational change scenarios. We drew on Event System Theory to characterize change (planned vs shock) as an event (observable, bounded in time and space, non-routine) to understand how events connect and impact organizational behavior and features (e.g., job design, PSC).

NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ)

Chia-Chia Chang
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

A few years ago, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the RAND Corporation initiated a project to develop a conceptual framework and operationalize indicators for worker well-being. During the past three Work, Stress, and Health conferences, we have reported on the progress of this effort. This presentation will discuss the final NIOSH Worker Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ), implications, and opportunities for future research.

4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. ET Plenary Session 4

John Howard, MD
Director
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely upended our private, social, and work lives. This session will look to the future of work in an era when a coronavirus no longer determines all of our behavior. Although it is unclear when that era will arrive, and it is unclear what that future will look like, we can still construct a few coronanormal scenarios to be prepared whenever the actual future arrives.

Best Student Research Competition Award

Carolyn T. Pham, Ohio University
Spillover effects of anti-Asian sentiment on Asian American employees’ well-being during COVID-19

David W. Ballard, Work, Stress, and Health Conference Co-chair