Grant: Operating Grant - Priority Announcement: Population Health Interventions

Supervisors of injured workers play a key role in preventing prolonged work absences. Providing supervisors with tools to improve their response to musculoskeletal and other workplace injuries may improve worker health and disability outcomes. The purpose of the proposed study is to determine if a supervisor training program can improve work disability outcomes for injured workers. The project will involve one large employer in Canada. Work units within the company will be randomized to either receive the training or not. All supervisors within those work units randomized to receive the training will be given 2 two-hour sessions of supervisor training. The goals of the training program consist of increasing opportunity for problem solving to reduce injury rates, improving supervisor response to prevent or decrease work disability, and improving communication between supervisors, employees and health care providers. Worker outcomes, to be determined from workplace records, include number of lost-time injuries, duration of lost-time injuries, and number of days of sick leave. Results from this study will provide a strong conceptual basis for the inclusion of supervisor training in the implementation of future workplace intervention trials.