Preparing the Future Workforce for Safety with Dr. Jermaine Hunter

Dive into Episode #107 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Dr. Jermaine Hunter, an Occupational Safety and Risk Manager, who administers a grant funded by OSHA to provide basic safety-related training to primarily young workers, and workers with disabilities. In 2022, Travelers, the largest workers’ compensation insurer in the United States, released a 2022 Injury Impact Report that analyzed more than 1.5 million workers’ compensation claims over five years from 2015 to 2019. The study revealed that 35% of workplace injuries occur during a worker’s first year on the job, highlighting the importance of comprehensive onboarding and training programs for employees, especially in the pandemic era when there has been considerable movement in the labor market. New workers are often exposed to both psychosocial and physical hazards because they don’t know how to recognize either. Over the four years of the grant, Dr. Hunter and his team have provided approximately 3,500 students with basic safety training, many before they graduate high school, arming them to work physically and psychologically safer when they enter the workforce.