Topics

The central concern for the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz and Arbeitsmedizin, BAuA) is how to humanise the design of work. This means taking approaches to work design that factor in employees’ characteristics, capabilities, and skills.

Today’s world of work has many faces and is constantly evolving in new directions. Our research is therefore accordingly multidimensional and concentrates especially on relevant new developments. This enables us to provide science-based guidance about the human-centred design of work today and will ensure we are able to continue doing so in future.

To organise the various kinds of information we provide about healthy working, our website is structured around the following four thematic pillars:

Work design

Healthy, human-centred jobs stand and fall by the concrete ways work is designed within organisations. This thematic area gathers a great deal of information relating to work design. It covers practical topics such as risk assessment, working times, work organisation, the safety of machinery, and operational safety, but also higher-level developments such as the impacts of climate change on occupational safety and health (OSH) and artificial intelligence.

Chemicals and biological agents

Chemicals and biological agents can pose risks in the workplace - both for employees and for the environment. Our research in this area contributes to the safe use of chemicals and biological agents in daily working life. In addition to its regular research, BAuA coordinates the national implementation of the EU’s chemicals regulations in Germany. This pillar brings together information about working with hazardous substances and biological agents, as well as the regulation of chemicals and biocides.

Monitoring and evaluation

We observe on an ongoing basis how the world of work is developing, how the changes that occur affect employees’ safety and health, and what adjustments to OSH structures are potentially required. Our long-term monitoring and evaluation studies offer empirical perspectives on the dynamics of the world of work. They are complemented by our official market surveillance functions, which help ensure dangerous products are systematically detected and employees protected.

Prevention

Modern, preventive OSH provision pursues interdisciplinary approaches and aspires to comprehensively examine the many facets of employees’ health. Prevention makes it possible to avert work-related health conditions and promote or restore employees’ health. This pillar unites knowledge about occupational health prevention, workplace prevention work (e.g. return-to-work management), physical and mental health (e.g. occupational diseases), and occupational participation.