Warehouse Work, Health, and Well-Being

Warehouse Work, Health, and Well-Being was a large-scale, randomized controlled trial to test a novel participatory workplace intervention—“Health and Well-being Committees” (HaWCs)—to improve worker voice and well-being among hourly associates across multiple sites in one firm. This study focused on workers in fulfillment centers in the e-commerce segment of the warehousing and storage industry—a growing and important industry. Warehouse workers face a double burden of physically taxing and high-strain jobs that negatively impact mental and physical health, including injury-related disability. Because fulfillment center workers earn low wages and are disproportionately Black and Latinx, this study aimed to modify conditions of work to promote the health of workers who are often subject to systemic health inequities. This project was a collaboration with the Center for Work, Health, and Well-Being at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and part of the Work and Well-Being Initiative.