The Importance of a Positive Safety Culture

A new study by a Toronto-based human-resources consulting firm, Morneau Shepell, looks at the question of whether or not significant changes in the workplace have an effect on the mental and physical health of employees.  They conducted a nationwide survey of employers and workers, asking them about their reactions to major organizational changes like job redesign, downsizing, restructuring and mergers.  Only slightly more than one-quarter of employees said that organizational change had improved their health, performance and perceptions of their companies.  About 40 percent of employees said the changes had affected their health and well-being in a negative way.  Thirty per cent of workers claimed that change had negatively affected their job performance, while 43 per cent said that it had affected their perceptions of their employers in a negative way.  These numbers were low enough to…Read More