Occupational health and safety is concerned with how the work environment contributes to illness and injury of workers. Of particular importance are psychosocial hazards or risk factors that include fatigue, workplace violence, workplace bullying. Other factors important to employee health and well-being include work schedules (e.g., night shifts), work/family conflict, and burnout. Tools have been developed by I/O researchers and psychologists to measure these psychosocial risk factors in the workplace and "stress audits" can be used to help organizations remain compliant with various occupational health and safety regulations around the world.
Another area of concern is the high rate of occupational fatalities and injuries due to accidents. There is also research interest in how psychosocial hazards affect physical ailments like musculoskeletal disorder. A contributing psychosocial factor to accidents is safety climate, that concerns organizational policies and practices concerning safe behavior at work. A related concept that has to do with psychological well-being as opposed to accidents is psychosocial safety climate (PSC). PSC refers to policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. Safety leadership is another area of occupational health and safety I/O psychology is concerned with, where specific leadership styles affect safety compliance and safety participation.
