Managing the Health and Safety Interests of Young Workers in Small Business Principal investigator(s): Huguette Blanco, John Lewko (Laurentian University) Co-investigator(s): Rolland LeBrasseur, Kate Tilleczek (Laurentian University); Richard Volpe (University of Toronto); Bonnie-Jean Wilson (Ontario Service Safety Alliance) Sponsoring Institution: Laurentian University Objective The objective of this study was to better understand how young workers/supervisors deal with each other in managing risks and advancing safety in their work places and assist the Ontario Service Safety Alliance (OSSA) in transferring these findings into their prevention business practices. Method The two-phase research project focused on young workers and supervisors from service settings. The Research Phase provided data from case studies and interviews for the Transfer Phase. Case study adhered to a a multidimensional model and involved site visits, participant observations, semi-structured interviews and a review of business materials. Based on case materials, a recursive interview process was used to explore the young worker and supervisor perspectives of various work settings, issues and relationships. Cases and interviews were content-analyzed in order to identify commonalities and variations in how young workers and supervisors view work, risk, safety and the supervisory process. Results Research Phase Cases were moved through a series of translation exercises yielding discrete outputs in the form of vignettes, scenarios and training cases, all of which became input to the transfer process. Interview content provided the raw data for extraction of themes. The data revealed a number of interesting points around areas such as risk/hazard perception, training and supervisory dynamics. Themes became a main source of results for transformation, first in Research Transfer Meetings followed by action groups. Transfer Phase The transfer process was approached at two levels: System Actions and YW Focused Actions. Key transfer results include: upgrades, modifications and additions to the OSSA Continuum, enhancements to the award winning Dare to Care, tip sheets for YW/YS, and the creation of Real Life Stores. Integration of these actions will take place, immediately, intermediately (within one year), or over the long-term. Conclusions The research phase of this project generated key findings that indicate some cause for concern on behalf of youth at work is not unfounded. Discussion of the striking parallels between what is emerging about YWs and what is known about mature new workers was undertaken. Data collected suggests YWs often experience splinter training with an emphasis primarily on the specifics of the task. Interviews and Cases revealed that Young Workers associate and take for granted the hazards that are in their workplace. We can also conclude that YWs and Young Supervisors are not trained to “think” about the need to manage risk and hazards in the workplace. The link between YW training and increased understanding of safe work practices is tenuous at best and may be tied to the lack of specific training of management and Young Supervisors in this area. The transfer phase (Phase 2) also produced key learnings and conclusions that could be used in future studies. In order to assist a safety association in using research findings, researchers must learn the language of the safety association and the prevention process that the association offers to clients. It was found that research results can not be simply cast into a prevention system but must be translated and transformed to align them with organizational business practices. To ensure an accurate and complete capture of knowledge transformation data, researchers must consider ways in which “meaningful data” can be moved into the field. In this project, accurate and complete capture of research results was achieved by moving data into OSSA at two levels: System Actions and YW Focused Actions. YW Focused Actions served as an easy insertion point as it allowed direct application to devices and tools that would affect YWs the most. System Actions will be implemented as a long-term enhancement to OSSA’s unique business approach and will serve to broaden their resources to accommo-date the needs of young workers and young supervisors. Transfer of research findings into the business practices of a safety association requires a considerable length of time. In the transfer to transformation process it is strategic to identify early leverage/insertion points that would come from YW Focused Actions. For more information: jlewko@nickel.laurentian.ca