The success of a business is dependent on the holistic health of its workers. In this video, we're going to explore some case studies that address health and safety challenges faced by workers, with a view to provide upstream benefits to firms through improved worker productivity and retention. As we talk about physical conditions and how they affect businesses, the role of increasing emissions becomes more and more important. It's simple, with increasing emissions of particulate matter and greenhouse gasses, more health problems are likely to arise. Major cities in the developing world like New Delhi and Beijing, have been facing increasingly worsening air quality and sometimes, pollution in these urban environments reaches toxic levels. This has been a persistent problem that has also been seen in developed countries historically. For example, the London Smog in the 1920s, or Los Angeles air pollution in the 40s and 50s. There are clear consequences for health like decreased lung function, asthma and vision problems, for people who live in these areas and breathe polluted air over long periods of time. So industrial productivity also declines as workers fall sick and are unable to function at their full capacity. According to a study by the Clean Air Fund, New Delhi loses 6% of its GDP due to air pollution every year. This is mainly due to workers falling sick and the decrease in footfall for businesses when people stay home. To further explore the impact of pollution on business outcomes. We partnered with Shahi exports, India's largest apparel exporter to analyze pollution and firm production data. And investigate the relationship between pollution levels and worker productivity. Our analyses provided some really interesting results, we found that a one standard deviation increase in particulate matter pollution in the air, led to a 1.6% drop in worker productivity. With older workers and those working on high skill and cognitively demanding tasks, being more greatly impacted. And further analyses, showed that supervisors play a critical role in managing pollution induced production shocks. In particular, attentive supervisors, meaning supervisors who are either more experienced or are more relatable to the workers in their lines, were more effective at reallocating particularly sensitive workers to stations in the line, where there were less intensive tasks going on. and in doing so, they were able to mitigate some of these production shocks and increased productivity. Using accounting data from the firm, we calculated that unmitigated pollution shocks from over the year, would cost the firm $190,000 in profit. And that making managers a quarter of a standard deviation more attentive, for example, by way of a training program. You could avoid roughly $43,000 of this loss. Staying in the garment industry, this next case study is on managing menstrual health in the workplace. Approximately 75% of the total garment workforce are women. And in the low income communities from most of the sorry, let's do that again. >> All right, rolling three, two, one. >> Approximately 75% of the total garment workforce is comprised of women. And in the low income communities from which most workers typically come, menstrual health is a taboo subject. Both women and men have low levels of education on what it is and how to safely manage it. Many women workers, would often just not come into work while menstruating, leading to increased absenteeism which affects firms as they face increased production pressure. This taboo is especially relevant and prevalent in garment factories where most supervisors are male and female workers feel uncomfortable in asking permission to leave their workstations. In collaboration with Shahi exports, the organizational development team at the firm conducted focus group discussions with 150 women, on their menstrual health. What were their perceptions on the topic? The taboos, the myths and the realities of their work experience. And these discussions were truly eye opening. One of the most impactful findings, was that due to the unavailability of menstrual products at the factory. And the hesitation to ask predominantly male supervisors, to leave the workstation for sensitive reasons. Women workers often ended up using dirty scrap fabric from factories, and also taking it home to their female family members, which can be a dangerous practice that can cause infections. Based on our conversations with these workers, we came up with the idea of installing sanitary pad vending machines in women's washrooms. The idea was to provide a solution that considered proximity, discretion and ease in availing menstrual products for workers amidst production pressures. A curated menstrual health management training program was also provided to workers. And while the results of the trial aren't just in yet, we hypothesized that this will improve the collective understanding of menstrual health and reduced absenteeism of female workers, particularly during periods of menstruation. So we've seen how changes in physical health for workers can bring about positive changes for businesses. Now let's take a look at how mental health interventions can improve business outcomes. Migrant workers constitute a significant amount of the workforce in developing countries. Many low skilled and low educated young people migrate from rural to urban and industrial centers, in search of employment and a ticket to a better life. These migrants are absorbed by labor intensive sectors like construction, textile and transportation. But that move is very difficult, have you ever tried moving away from your home, leaving everything and everyone behind to settle into a big scary new place? It's obviously not easy. And the culture shock that many young migrant workers face, can often be very overwhelming, leading to loneliness and general anxiety that eventually forces them to go back home. This is of course really tough for the worker, but it can also be difficult for firms that rely on migrant labor. With workers struggling with their mental health, firms bear the financial brunt of this reduced productivity, increased absenteeism and increased attrition from workers leaving the organization. To better understand the challenges that migrant workers are facing and designed potential solutions, we teamed up with Heather Scofield of the University of Pennsylvania. And conducted an experiment with migrant workers at Shahi factories in India. After multiple rounds of interviews informative research, we decided to create a sort of buddy system, to match new incoming migrants with senior migrant buddies. The allocation of buddies, prioritizes demographic and cultural characteristics. The idea being that, buddies would be more likely to get along with someone who's similar to them or from a similar background or location. And be more likely to have a personal connection that develops into friendship. This trial is currently ongoing and we hypothesize that this system will improve the mental health and well being of buddy workers. With the hope that, we can drive upstream benefits for the firm as well, such as reducing turnover and training costs, as well as increasing the overall human capital of the workforce. Now, these are just a few of the many interesting pieces of research that focus, on improving health and safety in the workforce. If you're interested in designing an intervention around health and safety, these are great studies to draw ideas from