IWH rates high in trust, relevance, value in new stakeholder survey

At the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), our guiding mission is to conduct excellent research that can be mobilized by stakeholders in their work of creating healthy, safe and inclusive workplaces. One of the things we do to help us understand whether we are meeting this mission is to conduct stakeholder surveys, roughly every two years.

In these surveys, we ask about the extent to which stakeholders agree that the Institute’s research is trustworthy, unbiased, relevant and useful. With these questions, we seek to measure how stakeholders view the calibre of our research and its value to them.

The Institute prides itself on more than 30 years of high-quality, independent research that our stakeholders not just trust, but also find useful in the important work of protecting workers and building healthy and safe workplaces, says Dr. Peter Smith, IWH president and senior scientist. It’s important to hear from stakeholders to make sure we continue to meet their needs and remain a trusted and valued partner.

In the latest stakeholder survey, conducted in the fall of 2024, agreement on the key aspects increased—from the already high levels seen in the previous survey held in 2022. In the 2024 survey, which was completed by 540 people, 96.5 per cent said they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that they trusted IWH information, 89.8 per cent said IWH information was unbiased, 96.1 per cent said it was relevant and 95.0 per cent said it was useful. In another question on the value of IWH information, 92.4 per cent said agreed or strongly agreed that IWH information added value to their work.

Our survey also asked respondents whether they shared or used IWH information. Three out of four respondents indicated they had shared IWH information in the last year. Examples they provided ranged from forwarding an email and discussing it at meetings to reporting the information to senior leaders. The survey also found roughly three in five used IWH information. Examples from respondents ranged from using IWH information in prevention campaigns to integrating IWH information when reviewing practices. Many of the open-ended responses described rich engagement with IWH information and products. Open-ended answers about the sharing and use of IWH information, along with other results, can be found in a report posted on the Institute website.

It’s great to see that the work IWH is doing resonates with our stakeholders, says Morgan Lay, IWH director of strategic relations. At IWH, we’re always looking to ensure the research questions we study and the products we develop are helpful to workers, workplaces and policy-makers. Lay invites stakeholders to email her if they have comments or stories to share about the usefulness or relevance of IWH research. If you have a story about how IWH research has helped you in your work, or if you have more feedback about how we can remain relevant and continue to add value, please let us know,” she adds.