Get Your Free OSH Credit Score: 6 Elements of Professional Credibility

Professional credibility consists of both the individual’s outward portrayal of key professional elements, including character, competence, capability, and trustworthiness, as well as the external perception of those elements related to the individual. Despite the actual ability of professionals to carry out the demands of their work, the external perception of that ability acts as a crucial facilitator to performance. While credibility is often discussed as an important factor for occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals to do their jobs, there is little to no literature that has explored methods for measuring the credibility of OSH professionals. Consumer credit scoring models, such as FICO and VantageScore, present means to quantitatively measure the trustworthiness of a borrower to carry out agreed upon objectives, beyond actual capability. This presentation explores the elements of consumer credit scoring models and how they could inform how professional credibility among OSH professionals could be measured as well as the strategies for improving credit scores that translate well into improvement methods for professional credibility.