An official website of the United States government
National Occupational Research Agenda for Healthy Work Design and Well-Being
The National Occupational Research Agenda for Healthy Work Design and-Being is intended to identify the knowledge and actions most urgently needed to identify occupational risk factors to prevent avoidable adverse health outcomes among workers. This agenda provides a vehicle for interested parties to describe the most relevant issues, research gaps, and needs for the U.S. workforce. It is meant to be broader than any one agency or organization.
The Healthy Work Design and Well-Being (HWD) Agenda was developed through a series of conference calls and email communications. A draft list of relevant topics was drawn up, then refined and grouped into seven broad objectives by the HWD Council. Working subgroups were formed for each of the seven objectives. A variety of information sources were used, including articles from the scientific literature, and HWD Council member expertise and experience.
Although there is some overlap in the risk factors and outcomes across the objectives, each has a unique primary focus.
Objective 1: Identify and examine the impact of worker demographics on employer or organizational practices and worker safety, health, and well-being
Objective 2: Improve the safety, health, and well-being of workers with non-standard work arrangements
Objective 3: Address the safety and health implications of advancing technology
Objective 4: Reduce work organization-related chronic health conditions among workers
Objective 5: Decrease the burden of shift work, long hours of work, and sleep deficiency
Objective 6: Improve the safety, health, and well-being of workers through healthier work design and better organizational practices
Objective 7: Promote a sustainable work-nonwork interface
In January of 2020, the HWD Council published its research agenda which focuses on furthering the most needed research and interventions to advance the safety, health and well-being of America’s workers through healthy work design approaches. In 2022, the Council wrote an Implementation Plan with the goal of motivating action by researchers and interested parties to address the seven research objectives and associated gaps identified in the HWD research agenda. The Plan identifies achievable next steps to prevent adverse worker health and safety outcomes and improve the work experience.