Development of a job profile for occupational health managers

Abstract

Background: The tasks of occupational health managers (OHMs) are diverse. Currently there is no up-to-date job profile for OHMs that can be used for demand-oriented selection of personnel and the development of training curricula in workplace health management (WHM). Objectives: The aim of this study was to develop a job profile for OHMs involving subject-matter experts. Materials and methods: We conducted a job analysis with Task Analysis Tools (TAToo) [6]. The three-step approach comprised 21 semi-structured interviews with job holders and supervisors, two workshops, and an online survey (n = 46) to ecologically validate the results. On that basis, a job profile for OHMs was developed. Results: The tasks, targets, and interfaces of OHMs are diverse. Expertise in health sciences, psychology, ergonomics, and business administration is particularly important for their work. Regarding methodological skills, networking, systematic work, presentation and project management skills are relevant. Important soft skills are trustworthiness, passion for health, enthusiasm, reliability, and the readiness for teamwork. COVID-19 has slightly changed the job profile, so that digital skills, healthy leadership, mental health, healthy home-offices, and pandemic preparedness have become more important. Conclusions: Limitations with regard to the generalizability of the job profile may result from the fact that the analysis is not based on a representative sample. Expertise around occupational safety, occupational health, return-to-work, evaluation, and digitalization should play a greater role in the training and selection of OHMs.