WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TRADE

Program Goals

Program Portfolio Approach

NIOSH organizes its research, guidance, information, and service efforts into specific programs that can be readily communicated and strategically governed and evaluated. Ten sector programs represent industrial sectors, and seven cross-sector programs are organized around health and safety outcomes. There are also numerous core and specialty programs that represent special emphasis areas, methodological approaches, core activities and legislatively mandated programs.

The sector programs intersect with cross-sector programs in a matrix-like fashion, with relevant Core and Specialty Programs playing a supporting role. For example, a WRT program goal is to reduce motor vehicle related fatalities due fatigue from long work days or shiftwork would likely be shared with the Traumatic Injury Program or Healthy Work Design and Well-Being Program and if appropriate would be adopted by all three programs. This approach provides an added advantage and will allow multiple programs to work towards accomplishment of intersecting NIOSH goals.

Below are the current goals for the Nation developed for the Wholesale and Retail Trade National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA).

Wholesale and Retail Program Strategic Goals for Intramural Research

• Strategic Goal 1: Reduce chronic musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in wholesale and retail trade (WRT) workers.
• Strategic Goal 2: Reduce acute traumatic injuries in wholesale and retail trade workers by minimizing hazards that cause falls, slips and trips as well as acute injuries from contact with hard objects.
• Strategic Goal 3: Reduce workplace violence in wholesale and retail trades through improved workplace design and improved training in the recognition and abatement of conditions that pose a risk of violence.
• Strategic Goal 4:  Reduce motor vehicle-related injuries and fatalities among WRT workers in the highest risk sub-sectors.
• Strategic Goal 5: Improve outreach to the small businesses within the wholesale and retail trade sector, which account for nearly 65% of the WRT workforce, by providing access to current occupational safety and health information.
• Strategic Goal 6: Increase our understanding of how vulnerable/contingent worker groups experience disproportionate risks in wholesale and retail jobs and expand the availability and use of effective interventions to reduce injuries and illnesses among these groups.

Wholesale and Retail Trade Program Priority Goals for Extramural Research

The Wholesale and Retail Trade Program selected the following priority goals as particularly suited for extramural research during fiscal year 2017.

• Strategic Goal 1: Reduce chronic musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in wholesale and retail trade (WRT) sector workers.
• Strategic Goal 5: Improve outreach to the small businesses within the wholesale and retail trade sector, which account for nearly 65% of the WRT workforce, by providing access to current occupational safety and health information.
• Strategic Goal 6: Increase our understanding of how vulnerable/contingent worker groups experience disproportionate risks in wholesale and retail jobs and expand the availability and use of effective interventions to reduce injuries and illnesses among these groups.

Those seeking NIOSH grants related to the WRT are invited to view the current funding opportunities .