Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Program

Program Goals

NIOSH Program Portfolio Approach

NIOSH organizes its research, guidance, information, and service efforts into specific programs that can be readily communicated and strategically governed and evaluated. Ten sector programs represent industrial sectors, and seven cross-sector programs are organized around health and safety outcomes. There are also numerous core and specialty programs that represent special emphasis areas, methodological approaches, core activities and legislatively mandated programs.

The sector programs intersect with cross-sector programs in a matrix-like fashion, with relevant core and specialty Programs playing a supporting role. For example, an Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Program goal of reducing farm-related deaths and injuries due to tractor rollovers and trucks would likely be a shared goal with the Traumatic Injury Prevention Program, and if appropriate would be adopted by both programs. This approach will allow multiple Programs to work towards accomplishment of intersecting NIOSH goals.

A key leadership role for the Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Program is the development of goals. The Healthy Work Design and Well-Being program is in the process of developing goals to guide NIOSH research over the next decade. Until these goals have been drafted, we list below the current, most closely related goals that guided the previous decade’s research. Since HWD is a new cross-sector program that is a merger of three previous NIOSH cross-sector programs: Work Organization and Stress-Related Disorders, Economics, and Total Worker Health, the goals are from these individual programs.

Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Program Strategic Goals for Intramural Research

Work Organization and Stress-Related Disorders

• Strategic Goal 1: Improve the health and safety of working people through research and surveillance to better understand work organization exposures and their associations with health and safety outcomes.
• Strategic Goal 2: Improve the health and safety of working people through intervention studies and guidance to improve the organization of work.
• Strategic Goal 3: Improve the health and safety of working people through partnerships and capacity building to advance research and practice addressing the organization of work.

Economics

• Strategic Goal 1: Increase investment in prevention efforts that result in the biggest improvement in worker safety and health for the least cost.
• Strategic Goal 2: Reduce the adverse impact of economic factors on the incidence and severity of worker injury and illness.

Total Worker Health

• Strategic Goal 1: Advance and conduct etiologic, surveillance, and intervention research that builds the evidence base for effectively integrating protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.
• Strategic Goal 2: Increase the implementation of evidence-based programs and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.
• Strategic Goal 3: Increase adoption of policies that integrate protection from work- related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.
• Strategic Goal 4: Build capacity to strengthen the Total Worker Health® (TWH) workforce and TWH field to support the development, growth, and maintenance of policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.

Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Program Priority Strategic Goals for NIOSH-funded Extramural Research

The NIOSH Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Program selected the following strategic goals as particularly suited for extramural research during fiscal year 2017:

Economics

• Strategic Goal 1: Increase investment in prevention efforts that result in the biggest improvement in worker safety and health for the least cost
• Strategic Goal 2: Reduce the adverse impact of economic factors on the incidence and severity of worker injury and illness

Total Worker Health

• Strategic Goal 1: Advance and conduct etiologic, surveillance, and intervention research that builds the evidence base for effectively integrating protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.
• Strategic Goal 2: Increase the implementation of evidence-based programs and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.

Work Organization and Stress Related Disorders

• Strategic Goal 1: Improve the health and safety of working people through research and surveillance to better understand work organization exposures and their associations with health and safety outcomes.
• Strategic Goal 2: Improve the health and safety of working people through intervention studies and guidance to improve the organization of work.

Those seeking NIOSH grants to conduct studies related to the Healthy Work Design and Well-Being program are invited to view the current funding opportunities.