Envisioning the future of work to safeguard the safety, health, and well‐being of the workforce: A perspective from the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

<p class="first" id="P17">The future of work embodies changes to the workplace, work, and workforce, which require additional occupational safety and health (OSH) stakeholder attention. Examples include workplace developments in organizational design, technological job displacement, and work arrangements; work advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and technologies; and workforce changes in demographics, economic security, and skills. This paper presents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Future of Work Initiative; suggests an integrated approach to address worker safety, health, and well-being; introduces priority topics and subtopics that confer a framework for upcoming future of work research directions and resultant practical applications; and discusses preliminary next steps. All future of work issues impact one another. Future of work transformations are contingent upon each of the standalone factors discussed in this paper and their combined effects. Occupational safety and health stakeholders are becoming more aware of the significance and necessity of these factors for the workplace, work, and workforce to flourish, merely survive, or disappear altogether as the future evolves. The future of work offers numerous opportunities, while also presenting critical but not clearly understood difficulties, exposures, and hazards. It is the responsibility of OSH researchers and other partners to understand the implications of future of work scenarios to translate effective interventions into practice for employers safeguarding the safety, health, and well-being of their workers. </p>

Related collections

Most cited references 37

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Re-evaluating Occupational Heat Stress in a Changing Climate

June Spector, Perry E. Sheffield (2014)

The potential consequences of occupational heat stress in a changing climate on workers, workplaces, and global economies are substantial. Occupational heat stress risk is projected to become particularly high in middle- and low-income tropical and subtropical regions, where optimal controls may not be readily available. This commentary presents occupational heat stress in the context of climate change, reviews its impacts, and reflects on implications for heat stress assessment and control. Future efforts should address limitations of existing heat stress assessment methods and generate economical, practical, and universal approaches that can incorporate data of varying levels of detail, depending on resources. Validation of these methods should be performed in a wider variety of environments, and data should be collected and analyzed centrally for both local and large-scale hazard assessments and to guide heat stress adaptation planning. Heat stress standards should take into account variability in worker acclimatization, other vulnerabilities, and workplace resources. The effectiveness of controls that are feasible and acceptable should be evaluated. Exposure scientists are needed, in collaboration with experts in other areas, to effectively prevent and control occupational heat stress in a changing climate.