B Corps is a community and certification process for businesses who seek to redefine success in business and to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. The B-Corp community works towards reducing inequality and poverty, building a healthier environment, stronger communities and the creation of high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose. Certified B-Corporations undergo a rigorous assessment of the company’s impact on its workers, customers, community, and environment and are required to amend their legal governing documents to require their board of directors to balance profit and purpose. Check out the B-Corp Directory for companies that have been certified and may offer many of the elements of a healthy workplace.**

Family Values @ Work is a national network of 27 state and local coalitions helping spur the growing movement for family-friendly workplace policies, such as paid sick days and family leave insurance, which will result in better individual and public health, and greater financial security for families, businesses and the nation. If you would like more information about the benefits of family-friendly work policies such as paid sick days and paid leave, check out these resources, toolkits, and employer examples.

The Good Jobs Institute is a nonprofit that was established to help companies thrive by creating good jobs. The Institute offers tools and resources to executives who want to improve the jobs and lives of their employees in a way that improves the performance and competitiveness of their companies. The Good Jobs Strategy is a book authored by co-founder of the Good Jobs Institute, Zeynep Ton, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. It is a system offered to businesses interested in providing good jobs by combining investment in employees with operational choices that increase employee productivity, contribution, and motivation.

The Good Companies, Good Jobs Initiative is anchored within MIT Sloan’s Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER). It strives to be a catalyst for ideas, a testing ground for new management models, and a hub where learning and business practice meet. The Initiative strives to answer the questions: What is good work? What are good jobs? What is a good company? What factors encourage or hinder the creation of high-quality jobs?

The International Labour Organization (ILO), a U.N. agency since 1919, brings together governments, employers and workers from 187 member states, to set labor standards, develop policies and devise programs promoting decent work for all women and men.

Stress Prevention at Work Checkpoints is an app and a manual designed for use by anyone interested in workplace stress prevention: national authorities, company and organizational managers, trade unions, human resource personnel, and occupational safety and health practitioners. The ILO SOLVE program is also available to download. It is an interactive educational program designed to assist in the development of policy and action to address health promotion issues at the workplace. It deals with the prevention of work-related stressors (both workplace stress and economic stressors), alcohol and drug abuse, violence (both physical and psychological), the prevention of HIV/AIDS, as well as the promotion of tobacco-free workplaces and health lifestyles, including good eating, sleeping and exercise habits. It includes guides for trainers and participants.

In January 2019, the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of Work released the report, “A Human-Centered Agenda Needed for a Decent Future of Work.”

Among the ten recommendations are:

• A universal labour guarantee that protects fundamental workers’ rights, an adequate living wage, limits on hours of work and safe and healthy workplaces.
• Guaranteed social protection from birth to old age that supports people’s needs over the life cycle.
• A universal entitlement to lifelong learning that enables people to skill, reskill and upskill.
• Managing technological change to boost decent work, including an international governance system for digital labour platforms.
• Greater investments in the care, green and rural economies.
• A transformative and measurable agenda for gender equality.
• Reshaping business incentives to encourage long-term investments.

The ICHW at UC Berkeley has a mission to reinvent workplaces by applying interdisciplinary sciences to achieve worker health and psychological well-being. ICHW has built relationships with researchers, practitioners, policymakers, service providers and corporate representatives to learn about the ways health and well-being are addressed and the barriers to achieving greater progress. ICHW’s interdisciplinary team reviews and evaluates the effectiveness of interventions, programs and practices.

NIOSH resources on sleep, fatigue, shift-work and long hours: A significant number of U.S. workers are exposed to health and safety risks associated with shift work, long work hours, and related workplace sleep and fatigue issues. If you are an organization in the aviation, transportation, or healthcare industries, or are in emergency services, or have found employees in your organization are working long hours and night shifts, this can be particularly dangerous to the health and well-being of your employees and organization—and potentially the public. NIOSH has made available a webinar series and other resources about how shift work and long hours affect fatigue and sleep, as well as trainings and resources for coping and minimizing the effect of shift work and long hours.

NIOSH resources on Non Standard Work Arrangements include workers considered temporary help, contingent, part-time, on-call, direct hire, agency, contract, app-based, on-demand, freelance, and gig workers. Independent contractors do not have a legal right to a safe workplace and are not legally eligible for workers’ compensation benefits if they are injured on the job. Many non-standard, low-wage workers do not earn minimum wage. Studies have shown that non-standard workers are more likely to get injured on the job and are more likely to become ill compared to permanent workers which may be related to a lack of paid sick leave. OSHA and NIOSH have developed a joint guideline for employers of temporary workers (e.g. staffing agencies): Recommended Practices for Protecting Temporary Workers and Cal OSHA has also produced a Safety and Health Fact Sheet on this issue.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health funds six Centers of Excellence (COE) to conduct research on Total Worker Health (TWH) approaches. The COEs advance knowledge to improve the overall safety, health, and well-being of the diverse population of workers in our nation. The COEs use multidisciplinary research projects, including intervention-focused research, outreach and education, and evaluation activities to improve our understanding of which solutions work. Check out the Essential Elements of Effective Workplace Programs and Policies for Improving Worker Health and Wellbeing, which is a guide for employers and employee-employer partnerships that identifies 20 components of a comprehensive work-based safety and health program, and includes both guiding principles and practical direction for organizations seeking to develop effective workplace health programs.

NIOSH also provides a Stress at Work guide that provides a comprehensive approach to preventing job stress, including resources and steps that organizations can take.

The Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (OHWC) offers four scientifically validated Total Worker Health® toolkits through YourWorkpath.com. These four toolkits are available online and are intended to improve workplace safety, health, and well-being by improving social support, supervisor practices, safety practices and healthy lifestyles. The Safety and Health Improvement (SHIP) toolkit improves safety, health and well-being in the workplace by increasing supervisor support and team effectiveness in any industry. The BeSuper! toolkit helps supervisors and employees in construction industries improve supervisor communication and support, safety practices and healthy lifestyles. Community of Practice and Safety Support (COMPASS) is a program that creates a supportive community for home care workers to increase access to training, reduce the risk of injuries, and promote health through peer support. The PUSH toolkit – Promoting U through Safety and Health – is aimed at young workers to reduce workplace injuries, improve communication skills and increase healthy lifestyle behaviors.

The World Health Organization (WHO) offers this guide to addressing the organizational and work-related psychosocial elements that can increase the risk of suicide among workers. It provides information for employers, managers, and colleagues about how they can promote workforce mental health. The WHO has estimated that one suicide occurs every minute. Suicide accounts for 8% of all working days lost due to death. Recent research shows that those exposed to work stressors such as job strain and effort-reward imbalance are twice as likely to think about committing suicide. (Loerbroks et al, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2016)

Responsible restructuring is an innovative, alternative set of strategies and recommendations for minimizing the impact of restructuring. A 2002 article published in the Academy of Management Perspectives points out that while organizations use employment downsizing to reduce operating costs and enhance their competitive positions in a global marketplace, there are serious doubts as to the long-term payoff of this approach. The article highlights several alternative approaches to restructuring, as well as company examples and research-based findings that illustrate mistakes to avoid and affirmative steps to take when intending to restructure responsibly. Given the known impact of restructuring on the health and well-being of downsized employees and their families and communities, a network of experts in Europe developed a website on responsible restructuring that included a number of projects funded by the European Commission. In 2013, the European parliament adopted a set of 14 recommendations in a plenary session, regarding corporate restructuring. In June 2019, the European Union issued a formal directive on responsible restructuring.

RAISE is an association of restaurant industry leaders committed to taking the “high road” to profitability. Through RAISE, restaurant owners learn about sustainable business models that champion living wages, basic benefits, fair promotion policies, among other “high road” employer practices as recipes for success, not impediments to profitability. Convened by Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), the leading restaurant workers’ rights advocacy organization in the country, RAISE is including restaurant owners in the conversation.

The U.S. Breastfeeding Committee is an independent non-profit organization that includes representatives from government, non-governmental organizations, and health professional associations, who advocate for policies and practices that support breastfeeding across the U.S. They offer resources for employers regarding the “Breaktime for Nursing Mothers” law and provide webinars for employers to understand their responsibilities in this important area of work-family balance. Also check out these resources from the Office on Women’s Health about Supporting Nursing Moms at Work.

U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs CREW is a culture-change initiative launched by the VHA National Center for Organizational Development after employee feedback that low levels of “civility” were affecting job satisfaction. More than 1,200 VA work groups have utilized this program to improve the work climate by encouraging more civil and respectful interactions. The results have been higher job satisfaction and intent to stay, reduced sick leave, fewer EEO complaints, and better patient care outcomes.

The Work Family Health Network is an interdisciplinary team of researchers who have conducted research on work-life balance (and other issues) to improve the health and well-being of working people and benefit employers. These researchers found that workers supervised by family-supportive managers were significantly more likely to experience lower levels of work-family conflict, higher job satisfaction, lower intention to change jobs, and higher reports of physical and mental health. If your organization has high levels of work-life conflict, check out these important scientifically validated toolkits that could be used to help your organization find ways to reduce work-family conflict and increase productivity by decreasing unnecessary work and increasing everyone’s control over their time.

Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) offers comprehensive resources about workplace bullying, including for organizations that want to address bullying in the workplace. WBI includes self-help advice for individuals, personal coaching, research, books, public education, union assistance, training for professionals, employer consulting, and legislative advocacy. In 2001, WBI launched the Healthy Workplace Bill, which has now been introduced in 31 states/territories. If you want to get involved in supporting this bill in your state, review your options.