The role of communication in employee safety and health management

Each year, several thousand U.S. workers die from work-related illnesses and injuries, and over two million experience nonfatal injuries (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d.). In addition to the devastating human costs for workers, workplace safety and health create significant costs for employers. The direct workers compensation costs of the ten most disabling injuries totaled $51.1 billion in 2010 (Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, 2012), and indirect costs (e.g., lost productivity, administrative costs) exceed the direct costs (Huang, Leamon, Courtney, Chen, & DeArmond, 2011). Employee health also has significant implications for organizational productivity and profitability (Aldana, 2001; Loeppke et al., 2009). Chronic health conditions such as obesity, depression, and back pain represent an estimated 10.7% of total labor costs (Collins et al., 2005), and unhealthy employees cost the U.S. economy an estimated $1.3 trillion annually (DeVol & Bedroussian, 2007).