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 young worker at her computer workstation holds her shoulder and neck in pain

Examining the link between job insecurity, work limitations and persistent symptoms among young adults with rheumatic disease

Young adults with rheumatic disease who reported high work activity limitations were also more likely to report persistent high levels of pain, fatigue and active rheumatic disease symptoms. Those who experienced job insecurity were more likely to report persistent pain and active disease symptoms.
A man and a woman work together to push a trolley through a warehouse

Review synthesizes differences between men, women in injury risks and outcomes

Men and women may be part of the labour force in similar proportions, but many industries and occupations are still dominated by one sex/gender or another. A new systematic review at IWH looks at differences between men and women in work exposures and injury/illness outcomes.
A worker bends over, cutting paving stones in a landscaping job

Inadequate employment standards, OHS vulnerability add to higher injury risks

IWH researchers found workers whose jobs fail to offer minimum employment standards are at an increased risk of work injury. When these workers also face health and safety vulnerability on the job, their risk of injury is even higher than the combined risk.

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.

Future-focused job accommodation practices for the school-to-work transition

Difficulties faced by young people during the school-to-work transition can have a lasting effect and contribute to adverse labour market outcomes that extend across one's working life. This studies explores the emerging barriers that young people with disabilities could face in accessing needed job accommodations within the changing world of work.

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