IWP Research Seminar: Building a culture of worker safety, health and wellbeing in commercial construction: Overcoming (or not) the organizational challenges of the industry with Professor Jack Dennerlein

• Construction workers have high rates of preventable injuries and illnesses.

• Traditional approaches focus on individuals – worker training, empowerment, etc.

• Organizational policies, programs, and practice influence safety, health, and wellbeing through the work-environment among other pathways.

• We created and tested a worksite program, it worked but had limitations in implementation due to the lack of tools for subcontracting companies on site.

• We are now testing a subcontractor program addressing the limitations of the worksite program.

• Integrating the worksite programs with sub-contractor companies is the ultimate goal and potentially has even greater effect then the individual components.

Biography

Dr. Dennerlein is Professor in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University and Adjunct Professor of Ergonomic and Safety at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also the Associate Director for the Chan School’s Center for Work, Health, and Wellbeing. Dr. Dennerlein is an engineer whose research in public health takes a systems approach to understand and prevent work-related injuries and improve worker health and wellbeing. He holds degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley. https://bouve.northeastern.edu/directory/jack-dennerlein/