The primary responsibility of NIOH is to develop and support occupational health initiatives to improve and maintain the health of the South African workforce which is estimated to be about 11.5 million workers. With a relatively small core staff of less than 100, fulfilling a meaningful role requires focusing on priority exposures and diseases and collaborating with all national occupational health practitioners to start to support all elements of the occupational health system, including the inspectorates, public sector and enterprise level occupational health services.

The successful role of the NIOH as a national, regional and international player is facilitated by the multi-disciplinary nature and high level of skills and academic achievement of the NIOH staff. This enables NIOH to deliver a comprehensive referral service, integrated teaching and multifaceted long-term research. The multi-disciplinary teams at NIOH also create an ideal milieu for capacity development both within the institution and for occupational health practitioners who form a national, regional and international network, which in turn fosters international links and scientific exchange within a number of areas of expertise.

International and regional linkages are necessary to maintain expertise and knowledge of developments and best practices in occupational health and to bring resources and skills to the country and the region. Ongoing multinational contact at an individual, semi-formal level is complemented by formal bilateral agreements with similar institutions overseas for exchange of personnel, training and collaborative research. The models of collaboration vary from electronic networking to funding research and personnel development and collaboration in multinational initiatives.