Despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a majority of the world’s working population does not enjoy access to decent work and a sustainable livelihood. Humanitarian work psychology focuses on this issue, which resonates with the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of decent work and shared prosperity for all. The chapter outlines a series of human rights structures that should, as a matter of course, be incorporated into work psychology teaching, research, and service – including workplace consultancy. Their incorporation contributes to the International Labour Organization’s Decent Work Agenda under SDG8, as well as to the remaining sixteen SDGs, including SDG17, Partnership. We outline the nature and ethos of key human rights structures at work. These include UN charters such as the UN Development Programme and the Global Compact; the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for MNEs [multinational enterprises] and the Living Wage; and finally, a series of New Diplomacies (CSEND, 2012) for utilizing these structures to help bring workplace policies into line with the SDGs in general and SDG8 in particular. In so doing, we show that human rights are not at the periphery of good business and decent sustainable organizations; rather, they are their heart. Human rights are a nucleus for making work more humanitarian and livelihoods more sustainable.

Discussions of the changing nature of work would be incomplete without a consideration of the changing role of the private sector in sustainable development, which affects what companies are working toward and how they are accomplishing their aims. This chapter considers and illustrates how the private sector can contribute to the accomplishment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Opportunities for impact extend beyond traditional forms of Corporate Social Responsibility. Enabling companies to embed people-friendly, planet-sensitive policies and practices in ways that are good for business can propel the positive transformation needed to achieve the SDGs. This leads to questions of how to create such enabling environments. Answers require a keen understanding not only of businesses, but of the people who lead, comprise, and support them. As such, the behavioral and organizational sciences are key to facilitating the kinds of private sector contributions necessary to accomplish the SDGs.