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Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Subject "aging workforce"

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    Managing through measurement: occupational health and safety in the construction industry
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Schwatka, Natalie V., author; Rosecrance, John, advisor; Gilkey, David, committee member; Brazile, William, committee member; Henry, Kimberly, committee member
    The purpose of my dissertation was to describe five original research activities designed to characterize and enhance the health and safety of U.S. construction workers. The sequence of research activities illustrates my focus on occupational health and safety (OHS) measurement methods (i.e., lagging and leading measures), as well as an interest in translating this research into practical methods for industry stakeholders. First, I investigated a vulnerable sub-population of construction workers, the aging workforce, via a literature review and analysis of workers' compensation (WC) data. Through the results of these studies, I found that aging workers may have a different OHS experience than younger workers (e.g., greater lost work time costs), but the frequency and cost of injuries and illnesses was high regardless of worker age. Furthermore, in the cost regression models, the age of the claimant only accounted for a small amount of variance, which suggests that other factors influence the cost of a WC claim (e.g., organizational factors such as safety climate). Second, I investigated safety climate measurement methods, and translated prior safety climate research into an intervention for construction site supervisors. I demonstrated that safety climate could be measured via worker perceptions of top management, supervisor, and co-workers' response to safety on the job. Furthermore, a supervisor workshop focused on safety climate concepts could improve the safety participation behaviors of supervisors, and their crew members. Together, my findings demonstrate that both lagging and leading measures are valuable indicators of safety performance. Lagging measures such as WC data may serve as motivators for contractors to make decisions regarding safety. Leading measures such as safety climate and safety behaviors may also be useful, because we can use them to identify hazards and their associated risks before they result in serious negative outcomes. Since it was beyond the scope of my dissertation to measure both lagging and leading measures simultaneously, it is important for future research to evaluate the predictive validity of these measures of OHS.
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    The role of aging on the cause, type and cost of construction injuries
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Schwatka, Natalie V., author; Rosecrance, John C., advisor; Butler, Lesley M., committee member; Stallones, Lorann, committee member
    As older workers continue to delay retirement, understanding the health and safety needs of an aging workforce will be critical over the next twenty years. The goal of the project was to determine the impact of age on workers in the construction industry as age relates to selected workers' compensation variables. Descriptive and multivariate analysis of over one hundred thousand workers' compensation construction industry claims for the state of Colorado was conducted to understand the relationship between the claimant age and workers' compensation costs by the causes and types of injuries and illnesses. The results indicated that the cost of injuries among older workers was greatest for indemnity costs alone, where there was a 3.5% increase in the indemnity cost of a claim for each year increase in age. Workers over the age of 65 were injured most frequently from falls, slips and trips and workers aged 35 to 64 were injured most frequently from strains. Though repetitive motion causes of injuries were not frequent among all age groups, they resulted in a 6.8% increase in the indemnity cost of a claim for each year increase in age. Strains were the most common type of injury for workers over the age of 35 but workers over the age of 65 experienced strains and contusions at similar frequencies. The shift towards an older work force will result in an increase in the proportion of occupational injuries among older workers, which will result in increased costs associated with lost work time and disability. Employers who wish to remain competitive must effectively manage a health and safety program that acknowledges the needs of the aging worker. Encouraging companies to address the specific needs of older workers is the first step in reducing the frequency and cost of occupational injuries related to older age.