Psychosocial Safety Climate as an organisational level determinant of working time lost and expenditure following workplace injuries and illnesses

This new study may interest people – it explored whether working time loss and expenditure following compensable injury can be predicted by organisational characteristics, in this case via Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC).

PSC refers to “a positive system level factor that reflects how the organisation values and prioritises the psychological health (humanity) of its employees.” And is defined as “employee “shared perceptions of policies, practices and procedures for worker psychological health and safety”.

Data came from >1k interviews from an Australian workplace barometer sample and from  government compensation data.

Findings:

·        “Results support organisational PSC as a leading indicator of future time loss and expenditure, and its effect was mediated through skill discretion, job satisfaction, and rewards”

·        “Decision authority, supervisory support, and bullying were also related to time loss but not as strongly as PSC”

·        “In very low PSC organisations, days lost were 160 % higher than for those in high PSC organisations (177 vs 68 days)”

·        “Likewise, expenditure for the injury or illness (e.g., health expenses, wages) was 104 % higher in very low PSC vs high PSC organisations (AUD $67 260 vs $32 939)”

·        “PSC is a modifiable social determinant of injured workers working time loss and expenditure”

·        “Practically, it is essential to target PSC for safety improvement — beyond injury prevention PSC is important for return to work and to prevent the shift of the burden of organisational problems to the individual and public health”.

Ref: Dollard, M. F., Loh, M., Becher, H., Neser, D., Richter, S., Zadow, A., … & Potter, R. (2024). PSC as an organisational level determinant of working time lost and expenditure following workplace injuries and illnesses. Safety Science, 177, 106602.

Study link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2024.106602

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