All’s Well That Ends with Worker Wellness

Health, or more specifically, wellness, is the more often overlooked part of the health and safety equation.

It’s worthwhile for organizations to bring wellness to the fore of health and safety efforts since the chronic health conditions of employees are significant cost drivers for companies of all sizes. Employers who implement an effective, integrated, comprehensive workplace wellness program can have a substantial positive impact on health-related factors that drag down worker productivity: absenteeism, presenteeism, poor morale and employee turnover that result from poorly-managed chronic health conditions and risk factors like smoking, stress, poor sleep habits, inactivity and obesity. So, here’s the bottom line on workplace wellness: it can be an important component of your efforts to improve worker productivity.

It’s important to know, whether you are putting a wellness program in place or improving your existing program, what issues could affect your program’s effectiveness. To maximize the return on your … Read more...

EHS This Week: The Most Dangerous Day of the Week, OSHA’s Top 10 Safety Violation for 2014 and More!

On this week’s edition of EHS This Week we’ve got the week’s top stories in environment, health and safety news:

  • The most dangerous day of the week
  • OSHA’s top 10 workplace violations
  • Top sustainability strategies for 2015

Remember to write us with your suggestions, questions and comments. Also, if you are an industry expert and ever want to take part in the program, we’d love to have you. Until next week, enjoy the program!

EHS This Week Resources

For more information on the stories and resources mentioned in this week’s podcast, check out the links below.

  • OSHA’s Top 10 Safety Violation for 2014: Click here
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EHS This Week: Workplace Incidents in Canadian Prisons, NIOSH Ergonomic Solutions for Retailers and More!

On this week’s edition of EHS This Week we’ve got the week’s top stories in environment, health and safety news:

  • Workplace Incidents in Canadian Prisons
  • NIOSH:Ergonomic Solutions for Retailers
  • Crude Oil Spill in Northern Alberta

Remember to write us with your suggestions, questions and comments. Also, if you are an industry expert and ever want to take part in the program, we’d love to have you. Until next week, enjoy the program!

EHS This Week Resources

For more information on the stories and resources mentioned in this week’s podcast, check out the links below.

  • NIOSH:Ergonomic Solutions for Retailers. Click here
[audio: 2014/12/EHSTW-120514.mp3]… Read more...

EHS This Week: Gross Workplace Habits, OSHA gets Social and More!

On this week’s edition of EHS This Week we’ve got the week’s top stories in environment, health and safety news:

  • Gross Workplace Habits
  • OSHA to host a Twitter chat
  • Black Friday Safety Hazards

Remember to write us with your suggestions, questions and comments. Also, if you are an industry expert and ever want to take part in the program, we’d love to have you. Until next week, enjoy the program!

EHS This Week Resources

For more information on the stories and resources mentioned in this week’s podcast, check out the links below.

  • OSHA’s letters to major retailers, retail associations and fire associations. Read them here
  • OSHA Fact Sheet on Crowd Management Safety Guidelines for Retailers. View it here

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Webinar – Building an Effective Training Strategy for a Growing Workplace

Acknowledging the need for an effective training strategy is only the first step you need to take to ensure your organization is ready for the myriad of challenges that will be part of keeping your workforce properly trained, highly productive, and happy. Studying a pool of 3,000 companies and their communications efforts, the University of Pennsylvania discovered that a 10 percent revenue diversion into capital improvements yielded an average 4 per cent increase in productivity while the same amount invested into developing human capital more than doubled that gain to 8.5 per cent!

The question isn’t whether your company needs a Training Strategy, it’s about whether or not you can effectively implement one. This free 30-minute webinar looks at the critical considerations for building an effective training strategy that companies can use to promote exponential and sustainable workforce growth through education and communication.

Key topics covered include:

  • Defining what, exactly,
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Workplace fatality stats from 2011, an OSHA employee impersonator’s indictment, GHS update and more on EHS This Week

On this week’s edition of EHS This Week we’ve got the week’s top stories in environment, health and safety news:

  • Stats on 2011 workplace fatalities and ASSE’s reaction.
  • The tale of an imposter OSHA trainer and the fallout she faces.
  • A big update to the GHS, and more.

Remember to write us with your suggestions, questions and comments at paul@ehsthisweek.com. Also, if you are an industry expert and ever want to take part in the program, we’d love to have you. 

Until next week, enjoy the program! 

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Decoding corporate culture: key questions to consider when evaluating that new job

As I’m sure everyone has been told, the interview process is not only a way for a company to assess your fit, but also your opportunity to interview the company. You need to ask yourself the question, ‘Is this somewhere I would like to come to everyday?’ We are told over and over again that we spend more time with the people we work with than we do with our families, a fact that makes it all the more important to ensure that there is a cultural fit.

Many companies (especially in the tech industry) are moving towards developing corporate cultures that  set them apart in order to foster employee engagement and thrive in a tight labour market. The problem is, a company’s corporate culture is not something that you can understand from looking at their mission statement or taking someone’s word for it – you need to experience it … Read more...

Honouring those killed and injured at work on Workers’ Memorial Day

While it ought to be top-of-mind 365 days a year, tomorrow is probably the most important day in the world of workplace health and safety. April 28th is Workers’ Memorial Day and thousands of individuals in cities around the world with attend events honouring workers killed, disabled, injured or harmed at work.

As OSHA head Dr. Davis Michaels stated in a recent audio message in honour of the day of mourning, every day 12 American workers go to work and never come home as a result of workplace fatalities. On a global level, the statistics are even more staggering: one worker dies every 15 seconds and more people die at work than fighting wars.

Workers’ Memorial Day has special resonance north of the border for a number of reasons. More than 28 years ago,  before it gained widespread international attention, Workers’ Memorial Day was founded by the Canadian Union of … Read more...