The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) sponsored a panel of experts in developing a framework for measuring and defining “worker well-being”. The team followed an evidence-based process to come up with the framework, intended to improve occupational safety and health, which is featured in this month’s Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in the article “Expanding the Paradigm of Occupational Safety and Health: A New Framework for Worker Well-Being”.

The framework incorporates work and non-work contexts and consists of five major domains:

• Workplace physical environment and safety climate – including physical and safety features of the work environment.
• Workplace policies and culture – organizational policies, programs and practices with potential to influence worker well-being.
• Health status – factors related to individuals’ physical and mental health and welfare.
• Work evaluation and experience – perceived factors related to quality of work life.
• Home, community and society – external factors affecting worker well-being.

The framework also includes subjective and objective assessments, recognizing that a person’s well-being has to do with multiple factors and not just employer-based workplace initiatives. It was developed as part of the “NIOSH Total Worker Health” program, a partnership with the RAND Corporation, intended to define and advance a more holistic approach to worker well-being that considers circumstances at the workplace and outside of the workplace.

“Defining, promoting and evaluating worker well-being is a complex undertaking requiring partnerships and commitments across not just employers but individuals and communities as well,” Dr. Ramya Chari, PhD, of the RAND Corporation, Arlington, Va., and coauthors conclude. “However, the goal of helping workers to flourish is an occupational safety and health and population health endeavor worth pursuing.”

Read the press release from ACEOM and check out the article in the JOEM