We are seeking companies interested in participating in a research project: “A Multi-Climate Profile Score to Measure Total Worker Health® Climate,” being conducted by Dr. Emily Huang’s Safety Climate Lab at the Institute.

The goal of this project is to develop and validate a Total Worker Health Climate Scale as a leading indicator of occupational safety, health and well-being outcomes that will be generalizable across industries. We want to help companies build good Total Worker Health Culture!

The Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach is about safety, health and well-being in the workplace. It is defined by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Healthy (NIOSH) as policies, programs and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.

After data collection and analysis, we will return the results of the survey to each participating company. Companies participating in this research project may benefit directly from actionable study insights and learnings. Examples include: (a) identifying disconnects between company policies and actual operational practices, (b) program underperformance, and (c) ways to improve employee engagement and participation across safety, health and well-being. Research has shown that anticipated benefits may include: (a) improved ROI, (b) a safer and healthier workplace and higher rate of return to work, (c) lower turnover rate, higher job satisfaction and better engagement. Additional benefits may include increased organizational reputation and goodwill.

This research study is contingent on federal grant funding. We expect that there will be no costs to companies other than the employee time spent taking the survey.

For this study, we will need participating companies’ employees to complete a one-time, online 15-20 minute survey. The survey can be completed on any computer or mobile device (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablet device, smart phone).

We are searching for: multiple companies with 500 or more employees from any industry; we would like one company from the utility sector.

Interested companies will be asked to provide a letter by August 31, 2020 indicating their interest in participating in the study if it is funded (a letter is not a contract, but an indication of willingness to let employees take the survey on company time). These letters will be included in the grant application and example letters will be provided for convenience. We anticipate collecting data in late 2021 – 2022 for the TWH Climate Scale research project.

Interested companies should contact Dr. Emily Huang and the Safety Climate Lab at SafetyClimate@ohsu.edu by August 31, 2020. We would like to hear from you if you are interested in safety culture and climate work!

About this research

The research proposal titled “A Multi-Climate Profile Score to Measure Total Worker Health® Climate” is designed to support the need for organizational leaders to have access to an efficient, validated, and accurate measurement of Total Worker Health® (TWH) to identify strengths or problem areas, and utilize interventions that will improve their TWH culture the most. TWH is similar to Safety Culture which is defined as shared safety values and beliefs that interact with an organization’s structures and control systems to produce behavioral norms, but TWH goes beyond safety culture to include health and well-being.

A TWH Climate Scale could be used to evaluate culture, identify problem areas, select interventions based on the need, and predict outcomes that cut across safety, health, and well-being. A TWH Climate Scale could predict safety outcomes as well as broader outcomes such as job satisfaction and work-life conflict, and has the potential to be an innovation with global impact.

Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang’s Safety Climate Lab is located in the Institute. Dr. Huang is one of the most published scientists within the organizational safety climate field. She has extended the applicability of the safety climate construct to multiple industry contexts and factors such as safety communication, job satisfaction, and employee engagement (See other blog post: Dr. Emily Huang recognized as prolific author on safety climate). Dr. Huang received her Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology/Systems Science from Portland State University. During her more than 20 years as an occupational safety and health researcher and consultant, she has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, 6 book chapters, more than 100 worldwide conference presentations/proceedings and has advised numerous private sector and public sector organizations.

For more information about Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang’s Safety Climate Lab, see our websites at:

• View Dr. Emily Huang’s Faculty Profile
• View the Safety Climate Lab page
• View Dr. Emily Huang’s Safety Climate Lab Consulting and Research Opportunities
• View Emily Huang’s Safety Climate Lab and OccHealthSci’s on LinkedIn

Download our “A Multi-Climate Profile Score to Measure Total Worker Health® Climate,” recruitment one-pager.

This blog was submitted by The Safety Climate Lab.