1. Research priorities

Worker diversity and inclusion

The labour market in Ontario and across Canada is becoming more diverse. Greater attention to the labour market experiences of newcomers and recent immigrants to Canada is needed, as is greater attention to the ways race, age, gender and health status affect occupational health and safety (OHS) and disability management outcomes. Our research examines how our increasingly diverse workforce—racially, culturally and linguistically—affects OHS awareness, training and health outcomes. It also seeks to better understand the varied health and work experiences of workers with diverse health conditions and identities, and how workplaces can best support these workers.

Latest findings

A seated woman with a clipboard in-hand speaks to a female client

How do employment support programs impact the health of young adults with episodic disabilities?

Episodic disabilities can make it challenging for workers to find and sustain employment while managing their symptoms and work demands. An IWH study investigated the health impacts of employment support programs for young adults with episodic disabilities.
A series of blocks stacked together with icons representing various workplace benefits

Lesbian, gay and bisexual workers in Canada more likely than straight workers to report low quality, precarious jobs

Drawing on a survey of Canadian workers, a recent study found that lesbian, gay and bisexual workers reported lower job quality than their straight counterparts.
A young man working on a laptop as a female instructor guides him

How job training can better meet the needs of persons with disabilities

Job training initiatives are an important gateway to work opportunities, especially for persons living with disabilities who face persistent barriers to employment. A pair of IWH studies found three key areas where these skilling programs should focus.

Featured impact case study

WCB adapts toolkit for newcomers to Manitoba context

Manitoba turns to an IWH tool to help newcomers learn about OHS and workers' compensation issues

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Featured resource

Working with a rheumatic disease

An interactive tool designed to help youth and young adults with rheumatic illnesses as they enter the working world

Illustration taken from the tool

Ongoing projects

Job quality and wellbeing in Canada: generating insights on the new world of work

Amid shifting labour market conditions in Canada, including the rise of precarious employment and of low quality jobs, this project will describe the current landscape of job quality in Canada and examine the relationship between job quality and wellbeing.

Incentives-based approaches to support stay at work/return to work: an environmental scan

This project will identify and examine the incentives for adults with disabilities that promote staying at or returning to work.

Creating safe workplaces for newcomers

An IWH qualitative study is looking at feasible and effective approaches for helping employers create safe workplaces for newcomers.

Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA): Transition to work and career development

This project will identify and synthesize innovative school-to-work transition programs, practices and interventions for persons with disabilities that emphasize access to high-quality jobs and career success.

Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA): Evidence synthesis

As part of the IDEA initiative, IWH is leading an evidence synthesis component to identify needs/challenges, knowledge gaps and existing evidence-informed tools and promising practices related to IDEA's objectives.

What are the long-term health and labour market outcomes of workers who experienced work-related COVID-19 transmission?

This project fills an important knowledge gap by determining the health and return-to-work outcomes of Canadians who acquired COVID-19 at work.

Developing approaches to measuring the dimensions of gender and their relationship to health outcomes

An IWH-led project aims to develop a multidimensional measure of gender, with a focus on the working-age population.

Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA): A social innovation lab to increase demand-side capacity to employ persons with disabilities in Canada

This large, national project includes many research team members, collaborators and partners—all taking an innovative approach to increasing the sustainable employment of people with disabilities in Canada by building disability confidence and accommodation capacity among employers

Examining sex/gender differences in exposures to workplace-acquired communicable disease: a systematic review

An IWH systematic review is examining whether men and women within the same occupations have different exposures to workplace-acquired communicable diseases.

Transitioning to the future of work: an intersectional study of vulnerable youth and young adults

This project applies an intersectional theoretical framework to explore the impact of the future of work on the transitional work experiences of vulnerable groups of young people—including women, visible minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ2+, and those with low socioeconomic status—and to uncover the overlapping structures that contribute to labour market inequities for different groups.

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