8:15am – 8:30am
Chairperson’s Opening Remarks 

8:30am – 9:15am
Workers Compensation and Occupational Safety and Health Challenges
Workers, employers and other stakeholders involved in workers compensation administration have long voiced concerns about the extent to which workers compensation promotes occupational safety and health and the well-being of injured workers. Safety culture is an organization’s norms, beliefs, roles, attitudes and practices concerned with minimizing exposure of employees to workplace hazards. The goal of a safety culture is to develop a norm in which employeeTuess are aware of the risks in their workplace and are continually on the lookout for hazards. A safety culture motivates and recognizes safe behavior by focusing on the attitudes and behaviors of the employees. It is a process—not a program; it takes time to develop and requires a collective effort to implement its many features. This session will explore important components of a safety program, challenges and how to overcome them.

Anne Christensen MD MPH
Occupational Health Services, Public Health Emergency Response
Smithsonian Institution 

9:15am – 10:00am
Ways Employers Can Address Mental Health in the Workplace
Mental health is top of mind everywhere these days as about 20 percent of adult Americans report symptoms of mental illness according to the Centers for Disease Control. It’s no secret that work-related factors are impacting employee’s mental health. In fact, The World Health Organization classified employee burnout as a medical condition. The two most important steps employers can take to help address this is 1) talk about mental health and 2) offer resources. Employees are better able to navigate mental health issues when their employers have a plan in place. This session will explore recommended strategies for employers to adopt, including:

– Offering additional training for management

– Making sure people take time off

– Promoting workplace wellness

– Creating a comprehensive mental health benefit within your benefits package

– Offering and promoting supportive resources

Monte Masten MD, MBA, MPH, FACOG
Chief Medical Officer
MarshMcLennan Agency, LLC 

10:00am – 10:30am
Networking & Refreshments Break 

10:30am – 11:15am
The Workplace of the Future:  Employing a Total Worker Health Philosophy
Over 60% of Occupational Health and Safety professionals have heard of Total Worker Health ® (TWH) but only 20% are actually using the guiding principles in their practice.  TWH® plays at the intersection of worker protection (Safety) and health promotion (Wellness) to offer the most cost effective results!  This session will unpack the secrets to getting these results in a strategic and formulaic way, that is easy to implement, so you too can begin achieving these better results for you and your client organizations. 

Shanna S. Dunbar BSN RN COHN-S FAAOHN
Total Workplace Health Strategist
Workplace Health, Inc. 

11:15am – 12:00pm
How to Use an Onsite Physician for Work Performance Issues Possibly Related to Health
 A physician’s (not lawyer’s) perspective on the interactive and fitness for duty process. Strategies to leverage the use of onsite clinical staff to best navigate this complex area of employment and health to maximize effectiveness.

Rajiv Das, MD, MPH FACOEM, FAAPMR
Medical Director, Employee Health Services
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland 

12:00pm – 12:45pm
“I’m Exhausted!” What’s Next? Harnessing Human Connection Skills to Mitigate Leader and Employee Burnout and Accelerate Workforce Wellbeing.
The current stressful work environments have strained human connection and communication skills between leaders and the workforce. There is a shortage of healthcare workers in all fields as well as employees across many industries. Exhaustion and burnout have major consequences on workforce productivity, performance, engagement, and wellbeing. An integrative model of wellness-centered leadership has been proposed in the literature. Three key elements of this model are 1) Care about

people always. 2) Cultivate individual and team relationships. 3) Inspire change. This presentation will focus on the human connection skills and strategies to cultivate individual and team relationships. Skills that will be explored include: narrative storytelling, active listening and asking thoughtful questions. These core human connection skills are essential to mitigate burnout and accelerate workforce wellbeing. Incorporating these skills into your daily personal interactions will help you build a culture that accelerates workforce wellbeing through community and human connection.

In this session participants will learn:

1) The signs and symptoms of psychological stress that compromise workforce wellbeing.

2) The roadblocks to human connection and how to overcome the barriers.

3) The strategies and skills to build a culture of trust and workforce wellbeing through development of deeper human connections.

Mary Ann Orzech, MD, MS, MBA
Retired Air Force Flight Surgeon
Mary Ann Orzech Consulting 

12:45pm – 1:45pm
Luncheon 

1:45pm – 2:30pm
Ways to Improve Employee Engagement and Wellbeing
Employee engagement is a crucial element in every organization; it drives productivity, profitability, and business success. Although crucial, it can be one of the most difficult workplace elements to understand and improve. There is a striking relationship between engagement and wellbeing, with major consequences for employee productivity and performance: Engagement and wellbeing are highly reciprocal, with each influencing the future state of the other to a similar degree. But they are also additive—high wellbeing enhances the benefits of engagement, lifting employee performance to levels not reached through engagement alone. Given the clear returns on investment for building workers who are both engaged and have high holistic wellbeing, leaders can make a substantial difference in their employees’ performance and lives by including wellbeing principles in engagement programs and making the most of their reciprocal, additive effects. This session will explore actions leaders can take to increase employee engagement and wellbeing and improve business outcomes—all at the same time.

Marc Wilkenfeld MD
Chief, Division of Occupational Medicine
NYU Langone—Long Island Hospital
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
NYULISO 

2:30pm – 3:30pm
Panel: Building a Culture of Safety and Health in the Workplace
Healthy employees, in every respect, make for a more productive workplace with a happier workforce. They require fewer sick days, recover more quickly from ailments, and they are less at risk for long-term illnesses. But a healthy workforce doesn’t just appear; it’s cultivated by companies that value a healthy culture, and that collaborate with their health plans to create programs that play an active role in an employee’s health and well-being. More businesses are making it a priority to encourage and support their employees in adopting healthy behaviors. This means businesses are providing preventive support, convenient treatment options, and the tools employees need to take control of all aspects of their health. Wellness is more than managing acute or chronic medical conditions—it extends to all elements of an employee’s life and your business. For example, it can and should go hand-in-hand with safety training programs, tie ergonomics training with exercise programs, and connect to worker compensation loss prevention training. This session will explore ways companies are fostering a culture of safety, health and wellness on the job.

Moderator:

Shanna S. Dunbar BSN RV COHN-S FAAOHN
Total Workplace Health Strategist
Workplace Health, Inc. 

Panelists:

Mary Giovannetti, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP
Director & Nurse Practitioner Employee Health Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Employee Health
Instructor Limestone University School of Nursing 

Brenda Chu
Associate Director, Benefits
Nektar Therapeutics 

Jessica Domann
Advisor, Benefits
Total Rewards
Phillips 66 

3:30pm – 4:00pm
Networking & Refreshments Break 

4:00pm – 4:45pm
Best Practices for Transitional Duty Programs and Early Return to Work
This presentation will provide insight into best practices for formulating and maintain an effective transitional duty program that will optimize return to full duty for workers with work related injuries. The presentation will identify evidence-based research to support early return to work. A back to work program for employees who fail essential function testing in rehab for personal or work-related injuries will be discussed. 

Mary Giovannetti, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP
Director & Nurse Practitioner Employee Health
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Employee Health
Instructor Limestone University School of Nursing 

5:00pm
End of Day One

8:15am – 8:30am
Chairperson’s Recap 

8:30am – 9:15am
How Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Impact Workplace Safety
Changing workplace demographics create challenges and opportunities for occupational safety and health. Some workers may be disproportionally affected in a diverse workplace based on their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age and other factors. In this session, learn how diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives mean more than simply improving demographic data—they can help workers receive equal treatment, training, advancement and representation that can, in turn, help create a safer workplace. 

Dr. Teaa Allston-Bing, PHR, SHRM-CP
Human Resources Director
Peach Tree City 

9:15am – 10:00am
Preventing Substance Use in the Workforce
Our nation is facing a drug overdose crisis; in some states, drug overdose is the leading cause of workplace death. Some industries and occupations are especially hard hit.  Employers can take vital steps to help prevent harmful substance use and overdose among their workers. Improved approaches to safety and changes to working conditions can both reduce the risk of injury and the need for opioids for the treatment of injury-related pain. Efforts to reduce workplace stressors and to eliminate or reduce alcohol consumption at company social events may also be helpful in reducing substance use in the workforce. Employee assistance programs (EAPs), health and well-being programs, and unions can be allies in preventing substance use by supporting employee education on substance use and providing information on how to access help for a potential substance use disorder. Using the NIOSH’s Workplace Supported Recovery Program as a framework, this session will explore steps employers can take to prevent harmful substance use in the workforce and help those seeking recovery from substance use disorders, including:

• Improving occupational injury and illness prevention programs to decrease need for pain medications
• Addressing ergonomic hazards that might contribute to painful work
• Providing training and information on the risks of harmful opioid and other substance use
• Offering or facilitating access to peer support in the workplace
• Reducing opioid and other controlled substance prescribing through workers’ compensation prescribing guidelines
• Offering alternatives to discipline programs (also known as second chance programs) to support workers in their recovery efforts
  Casey Chosewood, MD, MPH
  Director, Office for Total Worker Health
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

10:00am – 10:30am
Networking & Refreshments Break 

10:30am – 11:15am                                                                                                                                                           Preparing for the Future of Occupational Health and Safety
The hazards faced by workers in the U.S. are changing. While traditional occupational hazards such as chemical exposures and physical safety hazards continue to be responsible for a large number of workplace injuries and illness, changes in the organization of work and the workplace itself present new challenges to providing a safe and healthy work environment. Two examples of changes that impact the health of workers are the increase in precarious work arrangements, and changes in our climate that result in more frequent extreme climate events. This session will explore how employers can apply occupational health and safety training to identify workers likely to be at risk, consider how to quantify these exposures, explore options to control these exposures, and consider approaches to manage these risks through occupational health and safety programs and policies. 

11:15am – 12:00pm
Developing a Smarter Surveillance System for Occupational Safety and Health
The workplace is where 156 million working adults in the U.S. spend many waking hours, and it has a profound influence on health and well-being. Although some occupations and work-related activities are more hazardous than others and face higher rates of injuries, illness, disease, and fatalities, workers in all occupations face some form of work-related safety and health concerns. Understanding those risks to prevent injury, illness, or even fatal incidents is an important function of society. This session will explore the strengths and weaknesses relative to the status quo and both short- and long-term actions and strategies needed to bring about a progressive evolution of surveillance.

12:00pm
Conference Concludes

12:15pm – 2:15pm
Office Ergonomics: Working in Comfort:
Office ergonomics is a critical component of Occupational Health Management. Before you can implement an Ergonomics Program, you first need to understand what ergonomics really is. Most people have never been trained in Office Ergonomics or how to self-assess their workspace, self-correct it and perform safe work practices. Office ergonomics goes beyond a wrist rest, chair, or footrest. This foundational training is designed for anyone who works in an office who has never attended a professional ergonomics training course or thinks they know a little something. Come and learn the basic principles, refute myths, half-truths and flat out lies about ergonomics. Practice fitting your workplace to you and participate in an interactive case study all in this fast-paced workshop.

Each attendee will receive a complimentary copy of Mrs. Heller-Ono’s Home and Office Ergonomics Guide.

 Learning Objectives

• The meaning of ergonomics and why it’s critical for today’s fast paced workforce.
• The leading causes of ergonomic injury in the office and how to mitigate them.
• Practice a simple five step methodology to fit your chair and workstation to you and find out why it’s all about the elbows and the eyes!
• Identify the most common unsafe practices at work and how to turn them into good habits.
• Solve common workstation problems most often occurring in the office.

Alison Heller-Ono PT, MSPT, CPE
President and CEO
Worksite International, Inc.