CHICAGO, Ill. (January 26, 2016) – UL’s Integrated Health & Safety Institute (IHSI) announced that it has published a new standard to address how closely aligning health and safety strategies can yield measurable benefits.
The Standard for Integrating Health and Safety in the Workplace, UL 904Z, was developed in collaboration with key industry stakeholders and received unanimous approval for publishing. It offers organizations a set of components that should be considered as part of integrated health and safety programming.
Although a growing body of research conceives that establishing a culture of health, safety and wellbeing for workers is dependent on the integration of health and safety efforts, the number of employers actively implementing this concept remains small.
The standard provides guidance for organizations to operationalize integrated health and safety programming, and using IHSI’s Integrated Health and Safety Index, organizations will be able to measure the effectiveness of their integrated health and safety strategies. Developed by UL and ACOEM (American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine) and based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the IH&S Index allows companies to translate the impact of employer health and safety programs in three core dimensions: economic, environmental and social.
“Over the last several decades, health and safety workplace activities have evolved in tandem, but they have operated mostly independently, with separate work teams and organizational reporting structures,” said Todd Hohn, IHSI’s global director. “The standard for integrating health and safety in the workplace offers organizations the guidance necessary to fully integrate their health and safety programs, maximizing employees’ health and productivity, while improving both programs’ effectiveness and reducing costs.”
Of particular interest to the insurance and investment communities, the standard provides an improved method to assess an organization’s ability to keep its employees safe and healthy while working.
To view IHSI’s Standard for Integrating Health and Safety in the Workplace (UL 904Z), click here.
