Strategies for Minimizing Incidents in an Aging Work Force

0.5 Safety CM Point/ 0.4 CEU/COC Point

Course Level: Introductory

Prerequisites: A rudimentary understanding of the issue.

Learning Objectives: Students will be provided with tools to better able them to:

• Describe the current state of knowledge and research with regard to the impact of the aging American work force, including incident trends and patterns.
• Describe the impact of the normal aging process on physical, cognitive, and psychosocial areas. 
• Participate in a small group case study to demonstrate substantive understanding of the issue by applying it to a real-life workplace scenario. 
• Use specific demographic data and incidents from personal work settings to write a specific strategic plan. The plan will have measurable goals and objectives and will be developed in small groups.

Course Specifics: The course is designed to provide a fundamental understanding of the impact of aging on the workplace. Participants will be provided with demographic data and general information about how normal aging processes impact workers in their physical, cognitive, and psychosocial lives. Following a review of how the aging process might impact a typical workplace in terms of incidents and productivity losses, participants will be taken through a structured series of lectures and in-class exercises that will enable them to assess their own workplace environmental, health and safety programs. Following the assessment they will be given an opportunity to develop a strategic plan for their workplace and present it to the class for feedback.

Course Outline:

• Introduction
• Development of personal learning objectives
• Statistical overview of the aging of the American work force
• Understanding the normal aging process
• Impact of normal aging process on workplace/review of incident data and trends
• Case study on developing a strategy for minimizing impact in a real-life work setting
• Individual time to develop strategic plans for participants’ workplaces
• Presentation strategic plans for feedback
• Implementation issues
• Conclusion

Time to Complete: This course will take approximately four hours to complete. You will have up to 12 months from your enrollment date to complete the course.

Instructor:

Pamela Ferrante, CSP, CHMM

Pamela Ferrante is the owner of J&C Safety Consultants, a health and safety, industrial hygiene, and environmental management consulting firm with offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ferrante is a certified safety professional and a certified hazardous materials manager. Her company provides a variety of services to manufacturers, environmental remediation firms, and construction companies.

Ferrante has been studying and lecturing on the impact of aging on workplace safety and health for several years and has been helping companies to assess and proactively develop plans  for minimizing the impact of this subgroup on the safety and health program.

Ferrante regularly presents at national conferences including the American Society of Safety Engineers Professional Development Conferences in New Orleans (2005) and Seattle (2007), the 2007 AIHce Conference in Chicago, and the 2007 National Safety Council Conference in San Diego. She is the president-elect for the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of ASSE and is also the newsletter editor for the society’s Consultants Practice Specialty and writes regularly for it. Her articles have also recently appeared in The Synergist, Professional Safety, and Compliance Magazine.

Course Components: Video of the live PDC, supplemental reading materials and reference list, course presentation, exercises and case studies, a final exam and an evaluation.