NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series

NIOSH is pleased to launch a new webinar series on the future of work. With the participation of NIOSH researchers and external experts, this series aims to inform and engage audiences on fundamental future of work priority topics and sub-topics. We hope that you will join us as we explore subjects and critical questions vital for the safety, health, and well-being of tomorrow’s workforce.
Upcoming Webinars
Thursday, October 19, 2023: 1:00-2:00pm ET
Registration Page/Link: https://cdc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_7SBolVSVTCGC3Qi0XYdbiA
You are invited to join the eighth webinar in the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) series on the Future of Work, covering the priority topic of Work Arrangements. There are not universally accepted or standardized definitions of work arrangements, but there are many terms used to describe them:
Alternative ∙ App-based ∙ Contingent ∙ Contractual ∙ Direct hire ∙ Distributed ∙ Free-lancer ∙ Job sharing ∙ Non-standard ∙ On-call ∙ On-demand ∙ Part-time ∙ Platform ∙ Precarious ∙ Seasonal ∙ Single vs. multi-employers ∙ Temporary
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) supplements to Current Population Survey (CPS) and the General Social Survey (GSS) help define and understand limited categories of work arrangements. It’s important to understand all factors influencing work arrangements in detail, and how these may change in the future. It is vital to revise these surveys and expand the work arrangement categories to fully encompass the different individual-level needs and considerations affecting workers. Improved and detailed data collection on work arrangements will inform our understanding of these changes and their consequences for the future of work.
Featured speakers will highlight select sub-topics and discuss safety, health, and well-being opportunities and challenges facing tomorrow’s workforce.
Moderator:
Dr. Tapas K Ray
Tapas K Ray is an Economist at NIOSH and the Assistant Coordinator for the NIOSH Healthy Work Design and Well-being (HWD) program. In addition, he teaches graduate-level managerial and health economics courses at Miami University, Oxford. He is also an outcome research consultant at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Tapas has over 25 years of interdisciplinary research experience in environmental economics, public health, and social research in developed and developing economies. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Connecticut and his MS from the Delhi School of Economics. His areas of interest include health evaluation; well-being measurement; survey design and analysis (NHIS, GSS, CPS, Gallup Well-being index); decision analysis, and future of work.
Speakers:
Dr. Regina Pana-Cryan
Rene is Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Research and Support Office in the Office of the Director of the NIOSH. She also co-manages the NIOSH Healthy Work Design and Worker Well-being Cross-Sector Program. Her current interests include understanding how to improve the design of work, management practices, and the physical and psychosocial work environment in order to enable workers to thrive and contribute productively at work, at home, and in society. Rene joined NIOSH in 1996 as a post-doctoral Prevention Effectiveness Fellow.
Dr. Ed Yelin:
Edward Yelin is the Edward A Dickson Emeritus Professor at UCSF and Principal Investigator of the California Labor Laboratory, a NIOSH Total Worker Health Center of Excellence. His research has focused on the relationship between work and health, both the impact of the organization of work on the health of the working age population and how persons with health problems can maneuver through the thicket of contemporary employment. The research on how persons with health problems can successfully navigate employment concerns how the shift from a manufacturing to services economy and from a labor market in which most workers were formally hired by the firm for which the work is done to one in which alternative forms of employment become the norm as well as how variations in working conditions affect employment outcomes. Dr. Yelin has won numerous awards for his research and is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Past Webinars
The Role of Skills in the Future of Work
Tuesday, August 15, 2023: 1:00-2:00pm ET
The seventh webinar in the NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series focused on the role of skills in the future of work. The webinar offered an overview of how vital developing and maintaining skills proficiency is to the innovation and competitiveness for the rapidly changing global economy. Workers must continually
- Upgrade their existing skills.
- Maintain their employability.
- Pursue career advancement.
- Respond to unexpected changes in demand for their current skillset.
- Gain in-demand skills to keep up with the new automation age.
Ensuring that occupational safety and health related skills are included in this vision is essential for today’s and tomorrow’s workers’ safety, health, and productivity. This webinar is appropriate for anyone interested in the topics listed.
Features Moderator and Speakers:
Molly Leshner, MPH
Communicator role in the Future of Work Webinar Series, and Health Scientist/Health Communication Specialist in the Risk Evaluation Branch at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Lauren Menger-Ogle, PhD
Assistant Coordinator of the Safe∙Skilled∙Ready Workforce (SSRW) Program at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Co-Coordinator of the NIOSH Services Sector Program, and Co-Chair of the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Services Sector Council.
Brian Bisson
Assistant Director of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
The Role of Economic Security in the Future of Work
NIOSH Science Blog: https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2023/05/02/fow-economic-security
The sixth webinar in the NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series focused on the role of economic security in the future of work. The webinar helped occupational safety and health (OSH) and allied professionals and practitioners understand how adequate wages, equitable and commensurate compensation and benefits, and minimum guaranteed hours are vital to determining worker health and well-being.
Featured Moderator and Speakers:
Dr. Regina Pana-Cryan
Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Research and Support Office, and Comanager of Healthy Work Design and Worker Well-being Cross-Sector Program at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Dr. Tapas K Ray
Economist and Assistant Coordinator for the NIOSH Healthy Work Design and Well-being (HWD) program at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Sarika Abbi, MPA
Associate Director for the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program.
The Role of Robotics in the Future of Work
NIOSH Science Blog: https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2022/06/03/robotics-fow/
The fifth webinar in the NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series focused on robotics. The webinar offered an overview of robotics trends, implications for worker safety and health, and the NIOSH Center for Occupational Robotics Research. Findings were presented on ways to assess both human-robot interaction safety risks and exoskeleton performance in differing temperatures.
The featured moderator and speakers discussed select technological job displacement sub-topics and the safety, health, and well-being opportunities and challenges facing tomorrow’s workforce.
Featured Moderator and Speakers:
Scott Henn, MS, CIH
Industrial hygienist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Dawn Castillo, MPH
Director of the Division of Safety Research and Manager for the Center for Occupational Robotics Research, the Center for Motor Vehicle Safety, and the Traumatic Injury Prevention Program at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Chukwuma (Chuma) Nnaji, MBA, PhD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.
The Role of Technological Job Displacement in the Future of Work
Webinar Recording
NIOSH Science Blog: https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2022/02/15/tjd-fow/
The fourth webinar in the NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series focused on the role of technological job displacement in the future of work. The webinar helped occupational safety and health (OSH) and allied professionals and practitioners understand and address OSH implications of automation; digitalization; job quantity and quality; occupational polarization; productivity enhancement and quality improvement through automated manufacturing; and stable, new, and redundant work.
The featured moderator and speakers discussed select technological job displacement sub-topics and the safety, health, and well-being opportunities and challenges facing tomorrow’s workforce.
Featured Moderator and Speakers:
Chia-Chia Chang, MPH, MBA
Coordinator in the NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health® and Coordinator in the NIOSH Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Cross-Sector Program
Naomi Swanson, PhD, MA
Senior Science Advisor in the NIOSH Division of Science Integration and Co-Manager of the Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Cross-Sector Program
Shannon Meade, JD
Executive Director of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute and Executive Director of the Emma Coalition
NIOSH Science Blog
Webinar Recording
The third webinar in the NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series focused on the role of demographics in the future of work. Prioritizing growing worker diversity will help occupational safety and health and allied professionals and practitioners identify, examine, and reduce the inequitable distribution of workplace- and work-related risks and benefits due to demographic characteristics, ensuring the well-being of all workers.
The featured speakers discussed selected sub-topics and the safety, health, and well-being opportunities and challenges facing tomorrow’s workforce.
Featured Speakers:
Laura Syron, PhD, MPH
Assistant Program Coordinator for the Occupational Health Equity Program and the Center for Maritime Safety and Health Studies, at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Marie-Anne Rosemberg, PhD, MN, RN, FAAOHN
Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, School of Nursing in the Systems, Populations, and Leadership Department
Watch the Webinar Recording Here
The second webinar in the NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series focused on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the future of work. Understanding how AI works can maximize occupational safety and health (OSH) advantages as well as minimize potential setbacks. Although the application of AI in the workplace is still emerging, OSH professionals, practitioners, researchers, employers, and workers can benefit from developing a greater understanding of workplace AI applications.
The featured speakers discussed selected sub-topics and the safety, health, and well-being opportunities and challenges facing tomorrow’s workforce.
Featured Speakers
Jay Vietas, PhD, MS, CIH, CSP
Chief of the Emerging Technologies Branch, in the Division of Science Integration, at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Houshang Darabi, Ph.D.
Professor of Industrial Engineering and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Watch the Webinar Recording Here
During the first webinar in the new NIOSH Future of Work Webinar Series, this event focused on the role of organizational design, including the basic, foundational physical and functional infrastructures influencing where, when, and how work is conducted. The organization of work refers to psychosocial and physical aspects of the workplace that greatly impact worker safety and health issues, such as: autonomy, burnout and stress prevention, healthy leadership, job flexibility, leave policies, scheduling, social and corporate responsibility, built environment, workspace, and work-life fit.
The featured speakers discussed various organizational design sub-topics and safety, health, and well-being opportunities and challenges facing tomorrow’s workforce.
Featured Speakers
Jessica MK Streit, PhD, MS, CHES®
Research Psychologist and Deputy Director of the Office of Research Integration at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Leslie B. Hammer, PhD
Professor at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences, at Oregon Health & Science University
Co-Director of the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center