Total Worker Health® and Small Business Employee Perceptions of Health Climate, Safety Climate, and Well-Being during Covid-19

Bibliographic Data

ID15466041
AuthorsCarol E Brown (0000-0001-7422-4566, Colorado School of Public Health, corresponding author), Lynn Dexter (0000-0001-7942-3812, Colorado School of Public Health), Natalie V Schwatka (0000-0002-3768-9572, Colorado School of Public Health), Miranda Dally (0000-0003-1537-3355, Colorado School of Public Health), Liliana Tenney (0000-0002-0134-4396, Colorado School of Public Health), Erin Shore (0000-0001-5754-8323, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Lee S Newman (0000-0002-8067-1159, Colorado School of Public Health)
Year2021
Volume18
Issue18
Pages9702-9702
Publication date2021-09-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph18189702
PMID34574628
OpenAlexW3199577986
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited50

The COVID-19 pandemic created workplace challenges for employee safety and health, especially in small enterprises. We used linear mixed-effects regression to examine changes in health climate, safety climate, and worker well-being, prior to the pandemic and at two timepoints during it. We also examined whether employees at organizations that had received a TWH leadership development intervention prior to COVID-19 would better maintain pre-pandemic perceptions of climates and well-being. The final study cohort consisted of 261 employees from 31 organizations. No differences were observed in mean outcome scores between the leadership intervention groups at any of the survey timepoints. We combined intervention groups to examine the difference across timepoints. Perceptions of health and safety climates remained stable across all timepoints. However, employee well-being scores declined between the pre-pandemic period and subsequent COVID-19 timepoints. These findings suggest that while small organizations continued to be viewed as supporting employees' health and safety over the course of the pandemic, well-being scores declined, indicating that other factors contributed to decreased well-being. The findings from this study have implications for small business leaders as they navigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health, safety, and well-being on their organizations and employees

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Business · Business as usual · Climate change · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Economics · Environmental health · Occupational safety and health · Outbreak · Perception · Safety climate · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · Well-being · Environmental Science · Medicine · Occupational Health and Safety Research · Psychology · Risk and Safety Analysis · Workplace Health and Well-being · Ecology · Virology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access