What is Total Worker Health?

Introduction to Total Worker Health

In this introductory video, Midwestern employers and national experts describe the Total Worker Health® approach and encourage viewers to integrate their safety and health programs to improve workers’ safety, health, and well-being at work and beyond.

NIOSH is dedicated at its very core to keeping workers safe and that’s an important cornerstone or foundation of the Total Worker Health® Program. We think the best organizations start there, keep their workers safe, and then invest in the health and well-being of their workers throughout the day so they that can go home at the end of the day with more health than when they arrived that morning.
Casey Chosewood
Director of the Office of Total Worker Health
It’s all just one big piece and not just work is work and home is home, it all kind of inter-relates… a total employee.
Randy Westman
Human Resources Director, Johnson Machine Works

Related Resources

Videos

Interview with Dr. John Howard: Total Worker Health was first introduced in 2011, and the definition has since evolved. View this video to learn how the concept was initially conceptualized from an interview in 2012 with NIOSH Director, Dr. John Howard.

Total Worker Health Topics In-Depth: Supplementary video series where experts and small business industry leaders share their expertise, tips, and experiences on important topics related to Total Worker Health.

Web Links

NIOSH Total Worker Health: Learn more about the NIOSH Total Worker Health Program and access a variety of supporting resources such as promising practices, implementation guidelines, research perspectives, and archived TWH in Action! eNewsletters and webinars.

NIOSH Fundamentals of Total Worker Health® Approaches: Essential Elements for Advancing Worker Safety, Health, and Well-being: This workbook will help you develop new Total Worker Health initiatives or better align existing workplace interventions with the TWH approach. Because each workplace is unique and the experiences of the people who manage and work in them differ widely, this is not intended as a one-size-fits-all tool for program development.

National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), National Total Worker Health® Agenda (2016-2026): This Agenda is meant to stimulate innovative research, practical applications, policy guidance, and capacity-building of Total Worker Health practitioners to improve workplace practices as they relate to Total Worker Health. 

Supporting Literature

Research Methodologies for Total Worker Health®: A Total Worker Health (TWH) Research Methodology Workshop was convened to discuss research methods and future needs. This report discusses and outlines principles important to building the TWH intervention research base. Rigorous, valid methodologic, and measurement approaches are needed for TWH intervention as well as for basic/etiologic, translational, and surveillance research.

The Effectiveness of Total Worker Health Interventions: A Systematic Review was conducted for a National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention Workshop. This publication evaluates evidence on the benefits and harms of integrated TWH interventions.

NIOSHTIC-2: A searchable database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and journal articles supported in whole or in part by NIOSH.