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Last updated: 3 December 2003

Productive and safe workplaces for an ageing workforce

Managing the future

This section outlines strategies to assist agencies to address workforce ageing. It is recognised that not all of the strategies will be relevant to all workplaces. For example, some of the strategies have particular application to physical working environments. These strategies have been included because of the wide variety of work situations within the Australian safety and workers compensation jurisdiction.³¹ Whether it is necessary to apply any of the strategies, and the appropriate mix of strategies, will depend on the specific workplace and workforce characteristics of particular agencies and their risk assessments.

Health promotion

Health and well-being promotion by employers aims to maintain health, reduce the impact of risk factors and slow the changes associated with the ageing process.³²

As noted above, a range of factors determine healthy ageing, but key modifiable risk factors that occur within the age range of employment include:

• physical inactivity
• smoking
• alcohol and drug use
• diet
• stress.

Addressing these factors can be of relevance to the development of a broader strategy to sustain higher proportions of employees in good health and free of injury as they age.

Current recommendations emphasise that vigorous, intense physical activity is no longer considered to be necessary for health benefits. However, whether undertaken by young adults or the over 55s, physical activity needs to be regularly and consistently maintained over time.³³ Health promotions should aim to make physical activity a permanent way of life, rather than occur in temporary spurts. Research suggests that exercise intervention to improve physical fitness and health and reduce musculoskeletal problems is important not only for sedentary office-based workers, but also for more active occupations (such as police and fire fighters, construction workers and cleaners).³⁴

The important health benefits associated with physical activity can be gained through activity of moderate intensity—such as walking, swimming or gentle exercise—for a recommended total of 30 minutes or more on most days. This activity can be accumulated through bouts as short as 10 minutes.³⁵ Efforts to increase physical activity could be targeted towards ageing workers who participate in physical activity only occasionally or are physically passive.³⁶

Where food services are provided at the workplace, healthy and light alternatives should be available to promote healthy nutritional habits. Support from occupational health care and the work community may also be required for the prevention of obesity.³⁷

Increasingly, researchers and employers are recognising that health promotion is not merely a public policy issue, but that support from the work community and occupational health professionals is needed to change life habits.³⁸ A number of Commonwealth agencies and private sector employers have introduced health and well-being strategies that reflect an appreciation of the importance to an organisation of its employees’ general health. These strategies may involve the provision of specific employee entitlements designed to improve health and productivity, such as in relation to one or more of the following:

• access to employee assistance programs
• health promotion programs and activities (such as healthy life seminars, fitness programs, weight loss programs, stretching and flexibility or yoga sessions)
• in-house gym facilities
• discount arrangements for staff joining fitness or health clubs
• annual or periodic health assessments (including periodic screening for cholesterol, glaucoma, diabetes and hypertension)
• eye-sight, hearing, cholesterol or other specific health testing
• reimbursement (within defined limits) of the cost of spectacles prescribed specifically for use with screen based equipment
• assistance to quit smoking
• annual flu and other vaccinations
• access to therapeutic massage or physiotherapy
• rehabilitation support for non-work related injuries.

In some cases, approaches include coordinated programs to promote health and well-being (as distinct from issue-specific approaches).³⁹ The more comprehensive approaches may link health promotion strategies to stress prevention policies and programs, strategies to minimise the extent to which staff are required to work exceptional hours on a regular basis, and strategies to enable a better balance between work and personal commitments (such as through flexible hours, working from home, job sharing, paid parental leave, paid carers’ leave, part-time work, staged retirement, family care rooms and family care assistance).⁴⁰

Improve work task design

Promote employees’ control over theirwork

People of all ages are better able to cope with work demands when they feel that they have sufficient autonomy or control over key aspects of their work.

Also, their injury risk is lower and they experience greater job satisfaction. Managers can give control to their employees by providing them with some scope to plan their own work, make decisions about how that work should be completed and how problems should be tackled.

People whose work performance pace is largely determined by machine process times or by a moving production line typically experience higher fatigue and stress levels than people whose performance is self-paced, so that they can vary their rate from time to time. This is true even when the average rate is the same for machine-paced as for self-paced work.⁴¹ Machine-paced work should therefore be avoided to the maximum extent practicable. Where unavoidable, its effects should be reduced by using engineering modifications to de-couple the worker from the machine speed, increasing the worker’s capacity to vary their pace and giving them a greater sense of personal control.⁴²

It is not only machine-paced work that reduces the scope for self-pacing and employee control. Time limits imposed on handling calls by call centre staff, and customer service areas where work pace is determined by the number of customers may have similar effects. British research suggests that customer service representatives will experience lower anxiety, lower depression and higher job satisfaction when, amongst other things:

• they have high control over the timing of their work and the methods they use in their work
• job demands, such as the level and difficulty of problems faced, are accompanied by a level of control that enables them to meet demands in the way they consider optimum.⁴³

Australian research has also identified job control issues as a major contributor to stress for customer service representatives.⁴⁴

Having adequate control can enable older workers to adopt performance strategies to minimise problems that may be associated with age-related reductions in response speed. Greater control may also enable them to take rest breaks when they feel they are needed, compensating for reductions (if any) in some physical capacities.⁴⁵

In summary, greater personal control enables workers to adapt work demands to fit their individual needs. By giving people sufficient control over their work, many potential problems may be avoided, including:

• overload—and resultant poorer quality performance, physical overuse injuries, accidents and stressrelated injuries and illness
• underload—which can result in poorer performance quality, as well as boredom-induced psychological injury and related health problems.

Enhanced employee control also increases job satisfaction and supports greater productivity.

Reduce physical loads

Experiencing heavy physical loads at work will not prevent an individual’s physical capacity from declining with age. Older workers in more physical jobs need to have their physical work load decreased, and will also benefit from an organised exercise program.⁴⁶

Older workers will be more able to perform effectively and without undue risk of injury if physical loads are reduced to match reduced physical strength. This can be achieved by decreasing the weights and/or sizes of objects lifted, minimising their distance from the person lifting them, and/or providing mechanical lifting equipment where practicable.

A reduction in total exposure to physically demanding work will slow the development of more general, agerelated deterioration in physical capacities, sustaining better health for both older and younger workers.⁴⁷ With this objective in mind, a reduction in exposure to repetitive movements for workers of all ages should be a key aim. This is particularly important if repetitive movements are combined with postures that take effort to maintain, fast or forceful movements and/or cold conditions.

Ensure good visibility of task-related information

Eyesight usually decreases with age⁴⁸, so the working environment may need to be modified to meet the changing visual capacities of older workers. Their reduced ability to focus on objects close to them can be largely corrected by glasses, but there may also be a need to improve the visibility or legibility of taskrelated information. This may require modifying visual display characteristics (such as by using larger screen and font sizes, and providing contrast with background) and improving task lighting.⁴⁹

These strategies often have the additional benefit of reducing postural demands and related injury risks, by reducing people’s tendency to lean forward to get a closer view of their work.

Reduce postural demands

For workers of all ages, postures that take effort to maintain are one of the most commonly experienced risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries. For older workers the problems associated with such postures can be worsened by age-related reductions in joint mobility because of decreased elasticity of ligaments and muscles.⁵⁰ In addition to this normal deterioration, the incidence of arthritis increases with age, and can further reduce the movement range of affected joints.

A wide range of potential strategies exist for reducing postural problems, most of which entail changes to the design of the task and/or the design or layout of related furniture and equipment. Strategies include careful design or selection, and positioning of workstation furniture and equipment, tools and other materials. The aim should be that their location and dimensions in relation to each other and to the worker allow a relaxed working posture with everything within easy reach.

For seated work, the layout should allow a reasonably upright posture without any need to twist around or to lean away from this position to reach things, or to get a better view of something. Most tasks should be performed at about waist height, with some variation to fit particular task requirements. For visually demanding tasks or those requiring a high level of precision, it might be best to work a little higher than waist level, and for heavy tasks, a lower height is better. Seated workers need opportunities to vary their posture, particularly by walking around.

Continuous standing in the one position increases the risk of lower back pain and swelling of the legs and feet. If work must be performed in such a position, it might be possible to use a sit-stand chair, which enables workers to vary their posture and is less tiring. The total amount of standing time should be reduced by providing plenty of opportunities for sitting down during breaks, including short, informal breaks. Tasks requiring squatting or kneeling are very risky for all workers and should be avoided if possible.

Avoid excessive work rates, production targets or workloads

Workers of all ages should not be required to sustain very fast work rates for extended periods, to meet very high production targets routinely or more generally to cope with excessive workloads. Such work demands are likely to be stressful for many employees and should be avoided. Production requirements and workloads should be based on an understanding of the time needed to achieve the required quality, as well as quantity, of work output.

The requirement to avoid excessive workloads or work rates should not be confused with a need to reduce task complexity or to make work easier.⁵¹ For all employees, monotonous or excessively easy work, lacking in any kind of challenge, is de-motivating and is a recognised factor in psychological injury. Older peoples’ capacity to cope with complex work demands is not reduced. The quality of older employees’ decision making may in fact be better than that of younger people, particularly if their more extensive experience is relevant to the task. Also, more experienced workers are likely to have a wider range of effective performance strategies.

From a physical viewpoint, the reduced cardiovascular capacity that may occur with age means that physically demanding work, or work in heat, would generally need to be performed at a lower average rate than in the case of younger workers. If such work is unavoidable, flexibility in taking rest breaks is essential.⁵²

Improve job design and work organisation

Improve work scheduling

Older employees often experience greater difficulty than young people in coping with tiring shift work, particularly night shifts.⁵³ The design of the shift regime can significantly affect employee fatigue. It is particularly important for older workers that best practice shift systems be adopted, to minimise fatigue levels and associated problems. Ideally, mandatory night shifts should be avoided.

Allow flexibility in taking rest breaks

Work and jobs should be designed so that employees are able to vary the timing of their own rest breaks to match their individual needs. This helps them to compensate when necessary for differences in their physical performance capacities⁵⁴—which may be related to age, physical fitness, general health or other factors.

Allow individuals time to adapt to changed work requirements

en new tasks, new equipment or other changes to physical work performance requirements are introduced, it is important that adequate time is allowed for older workers, or younger workers who are physically unfit, to learn and adapt to the new requirements. Workers of all ages may need to develop the required strength and fitness over a period of several weeks, gradually increasing time doing the new work activities, depending on their fitness levels.

As people age, strength does not decrease uniformly across all muscles and all types of movement. Lower body strength declines faster than upper body strength, which might be relevant if the new work task requires unaccustomed use of leg muscles, such as in lifting from a squat position, pushing or pulling trolleys, or shovelling. Performance requirements should be reduced during the period of learning and adaptation to new work requirements.

Support flexible working conditions

Employees’ overall exposure to workplace risk factors is reduced by a decrease in working hours. Therefore, job sharing, extended leave or part-time work are ways in which more vulnerable workers can reduce their risk of injury and sustain their general health. In physically demanding jobs, reducing work hours should be considered if it is not possible to reduce workload with age.⁵⁵

Such strategies may also be useful for the oldest workers, enabling them to remain as useful members of the workforce for a longer period than otherwise. Part-time work or job sharing can play a key role within a phased retirement program.

Improve the physical work environment

Minimise glare

Changes within our eyes as we age make older people significantly more susceptible to the effects of glare.⁵⁶ It is therefore important for older workers that there is effective shielding of direct light sources, such as can be provided by suitable diffusers on light fittings. In addition, reflective surfaces such as computer monitors may need to be adjusted to avoid reflected glare. increased levels of general illumination

Ensure good lighting levels

Because eyesight usually decreases with age, increased levels of general illumination may be needed to enable older people to work without visual strain.⁵⁷ In addition, task-specific lighting should be provided where necessary to ensure good visibility of relevant information. However, the need for good illumination must be balanced against the need to minimise glare.⁵⁸ It is therefore recommended that room lighting should meet, but not substantially exceed, Australian Standard recommendations. Supplementary task lighting should be used where higher levels would be helpful.

Minimise noise levels

People’s hearing often deteriorates with age, so older workers are more likely to have difficulty hearing speech in noisy environments.⁵⁹ Even relatively low levels of noise which would not injure people’s hearing can impede conversation, make it more difficult to concentrate on complex tasks, and cause stress and related health problems.⁶⁰ For these reasons, noise levels should be minimised. Also, to minimise 22 age-related deterioration in the hearing of younger workers, noisy work areas should be assessed as a matter of course, and controls implemented.⁶¹

Eliminate hazards that might cause slips, trips and falls

Slips, trips and falls have been identified as a leading cause of injury for Commonwealth employees, and particularly older workers. Our sense of balance tends to deteriorate with age, so that older people have greater difficulty in regaining their balance when they slip or trip. Also, they may be more prone to serious injury when they do slip or fall.

Obvious and quite simple solutions include installation of non-slip floor surfaces, provision of adequate lighting for stairs and corridors, and removal of trip hazards such as uneven surfaces. In addition, good housekeeping procedures can be important—for example, by ensuring that spills are immediately cleaned away, and that objects are not stored on floors where people are likely to be walking.

Exercise can also be an important part of a prevention regime. Regular physical activity can favourably impact on three of the most important risk factors for falls—i.e. balance, muscle strength and osteoporosis. A broad-based exercise program, tailored to the ability and preference of the individual, which includes balance training, resistance exercise and weight transfer has been shown to decrease the risk of falls.⁶²

Make allowances for working in heat and sun

Older people typically have a reduced ability to work in hot or humid environments, compared with younger people, and this may be particularly so for people who are working outdoors or are not acclimatised to the conditions.⁶³ In hot or humid conditions all workers should have adequate rest breaks, easy access to drinks at all times, and some shade at least during rest breaks. Work should be self-paced with flexible timing of rest breaks.

Recent research points to a direct correlation between sunburns throughout life and an increase in the risk of developing melanoma.⁶⁴ These findings are important because it was previously thought that sunburns that occurred in later life were not as detrimental as those in childhood.

The best protection against skin cancer is avoiding prolonged periods of unprotected sun exposure. Therefore workers of all ages who work outdoors should be encouraged to follow sun-safe behaviours (including using sun-protective clothing, wide-brimmed hats, sunglasses and sunscreen). Consideration should also be given to making use of natural and artificial shade and reorganising outdoor work programs by doing alternative tasks when the sun is at its hottest. It is also important to have a regular check on all parts of the body for any abnormalities, since skin cancer, when dectected early, can be effectively treated in most cases.

Training for an ageing workforce

A range of different strategies should be used to further develop workers’ performance capacities. For key tasks, clearly define and communicate to employees the easiest and most efficient methods for task performance. Older workers are likely to be a valuable resource in doing this, so consider ways in which they can be used to mentor and support skills development in younger workers.

Information resources need to be developed and effectively communicated to all employees in a format appropriate to their needs. Older workers also need to understand the importance of investing time and effort in maintaining the currency of their work skills—with appropriate support from their employer. Sabbaticals and other personal development opportunities may be considered for older as well as younger employees to assist this process.

Training procedures to meet the needs of older workers should be developed in accordance with normal adult learning principles. For all employees, there needs to be ample time for practice, supported by well-designed, task-specific resource material. Inadequate training and practice, as well as defects in manuals and too frequent changes, have been identified as factors limiting the successful introduction of new technology and are relevant to all age groups.

Training should also be conducted in an environment that is perceived by the trainees as non-critical and highly supportive, with ample feedback throughout to bolster their self-confidence and maintain motivation. Trainers need to help people recognise and deal with possible negative effects when existing knowledge or skills are counterproductive in the learning of a new skill.⁶⁵

An action plan for ageing

At the workplace level, Commonwealth agencies need to review their risk and performance management strategies to ensure that work organisation and job design meets the needs of older employees. Consideration should also be given to the benefits of health promotion, work and family and work/life strategies. The development and application of such strategies can improve workforce health and safety, as well as influence other factors such as retention and productivity.

By working through the following checklist, agencies should develop their action plan for ageing. This plan can become the blueprint for the agency’s conversion to the kind of age-friendly work environment that best suits its particular characteristics. As the proportion of older workers increases over the coming decade, such a plan will play an essential role in developing and sustaining a more productive and healthier workforce of the future.

Workplace agreements and the process by which they are developed may provide a mechanism for furthering this objective and raising awareness of the issue. For example, both Comcare and the Department of Health and Ageing include specific provisions in their certified agreements to support older workers.

 

 

31 In addition to the work covered by the premium paying group of employers, the Commonwealth jurisdiction includes a number of self-insuring licensees employing occupations such as telecommunications and postal workers, and trades associated with munitions manufacture and light and heavy engineering.

32 K Munk, 2002

33 NSW Health, 1999

34 J Ilmarinen, 1999

35 NSW Health, 1999. This publication also includes recommendations about starting physical exercise safely and the physical activities that people over 55 should avoid to minimise injuries.

36 J Ilmarinen, 1999

37 ibid.

38 J Ilmarinen, 1999

39 For examples, see Comcare, 2003

40 Further guidance in relation to provisions that assist employees to better balance their work and family responsibilities (including caring responsibilities for aged relatives) is available at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations website http://www.workplace.gov.au/WorkFamily

41 I Levi and S Levi, 2000; V Woods and P Buckle, 2002; T Cox et al., 2000; J Ilmarinen, 1999

42 Queensland Government, 2000; J Ilmarinen, 1999

43 D Holman and C Fernie, 2000

44 ACA Research, 1998 pp. 43-4

45 J Marquie, 1998; C Gaudart, 2000

46 J Ilmarinen, 1999

47 K Tuomi et al., 1997

48 M Millanvoye, 1998

49 N Spirduso, 1995

50 N Stubbs et al., 1993

51 J Ilmarinen, 1999

52 J Ilmarinen et al., 1991

53 K Reid and D Dawson, 2001

54 J Ilmarinen et al., 1991

55 J Ilmarinen, 1999

56 D Kline and C Scialfa, 1997

57 P Panek, 1997

58 A Robertson and S Tracy, 1998

59 M Millanvoye, 1998; P Panek, 1997; K Tuomi et al., 1997

60 A Kok, 1994

61 National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, 2000

62 NSW Health, 1999

63 K Pandolf, 1997

64 American Academy of Dermatology, 2003

65 A Robertson and S Tracy, 1998; P Panek, 1997; N Spirduso, 1995; P Warr et al., 1999; P Warr, 2002; J Ilmarinen, 1999

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