“Recent surveys have found that decreased work-family stress is related to reduced injury risk, and increased safety compliance and safety participation among workers.” So writes Leslie Hammer, Ph.D., in a recent article for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Hammer continues by sketching out the connection between current research and its ramifications for worker safety:
“Further, evidence from the Work, Family, and Health Network suggests that work-family stress is related to worker health and well-being. However, research is just beginning to uncover the significant links to occupational safety and health and work-family stress despite the mounting evidence that work-family stress is related to higher absenteeism, lower performance, and higher job and family stress among workers and their families.”
The author, who teaches at Portland State University and acts as the Associate Director of the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center, gives us five tips for employers and leaders to help their teams achieve better work-family balance to heighten their safety performance.
The article, which you can access here, complements nicely our safety-leadership focus on a worker’s family as a primary motivator for working safely in the first place, and a key reason for adopting and leading safety as a core value.
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