COVID19 and Irish Workplaces - Perspectives and Experiences of Occupational Safety and Health / Human Resource Personnel

The COVID-19 pandemic has had deleterious effects on the global population, including the employees who have had to frequently adapt their working style for the purpose of mitigating COVID-19 workplace transmission. It is important for the employers, OSH management and policymakers to understand how COVID-19 adaptation may have impacted on workplaces and workers’ health and wellbeing, along with experiences associated with mitigation measures such as newly introduced control measures, COVID-19 related communication strategies and behavioural apathy. This work package (WP2) as part of a larger SFI research grant that focuses on the impacts on organisations and their employees in Ireland from an OSH perspective using focus group interviews with OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) and/or HR (Human Resource) professionals who work closely with OSH counterparts as their experiences of working during the pandemic are considered invaluable for reflection on how Irish organisations managed during the pandemic as well as future planning. Based on the thematic analysis, the findings were reported from four perspectives: organisational preparedness and support; organisational impact from COVID-19; impact on workers from COVID-19; and the future of OSH in a post COVID-19 world. Since the data collected were richer than anticipated, an emergent theme ‘Worker Mental Health and How to Support’ has also been reported as an independent chapter. Additionally, a survey instrument was developed based on the findings of the focus groups, which can be used by OSH professionals to evaluate COVID-19 adaptation impact on workers in their respective organisation has been designed and validated and a user guide prepared. Overall, WP2 was conducted as optimally as possible given the limitations COVID19 placed on research and the goals for the work package have been achieved. Furthermore, WP2 also provided added value to the macro project, owing to the impressive amount of data collected which could be used for other aspects of the project.

Work package 1: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/25747