NIOSH, school partner to advance 'business case' for workplace safety

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health is hoping a new academic partnership will help advance the "business case" for the important role safety and health have in corporate strategy and planning.

Under the partnership, NIOSH and the Williams College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati will seek opportunities for developing an improved understanding of the return on investment in occupational safety and health relating productivity to healthy workers.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for reaching business leaders, notably America's emerging generation of new executives and entrepreneurs, with the message that a safe and healthy workplace is a golden asset for a company in today's increasingly competitive marketplace," said Christine M. Branche, acting director for NIOSH.

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Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the Graduate School of Business at Xavier, said that corporate social responsibility is an important aspect of the school's mission.

"By partnering with NIOSH, we want to raise the level of awareness in organizations about health and safety," he said. "Our goal is to train students to view health and safety as business investments and to demonstrate the return on investment."

Through the partnership, NIOSH, Xavier, and the National Safety Council are developing a course for masters of business administration students. The course -- The Business Value of Safety and Health -- will address how businesses can use occupational safety and health improvements and initiatives for long-term planning, operations management, and other decision-making. The course will be offered in spring 2009.

In collaboration with the NSC, the class will incorporate examples from the Robert W. Campbell Award for Safety/Health and Environment Business Case Studies. These are real-world cases from multiple industries that have capitalized on the incorporation of occupational safety and health into their respective business models with outstanding results. The council also is linking Xavier and NIOSH with other MBA programs with whom the council has been working in developing business case studies.

November 24, 2008

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