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Creating a Healthy, Safe, Age-Friendly Work Environment
December 7, 2016
Today’s workforce is comprised of workers of all ages. But older workers still do and will continue to make up a significant portion of the workforce. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one in five American workers will be over age 55 by 2020.
Regarding safety in the workplace, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) notes that older workers may suffer fewer workplace injuries than their younger counterparts. This is attributed to the experience they have acquired over the years and the fact that older workers are generally more cautious.
However, older workers typically require a longer recovery time and chances of them suffering a fatal injury are greater than younger workers. Overall, it makes sense to create a safety culture that is healthy and safe for workers of all ages.
The CDC offers the following suggestions to make a healthy and safe workplace and age-friendly workforce:
- Prioritize workplace flexibility. Provide workers input into their schedule, work conditions, work organization, work location and work tasks.
- Match tasks to abilities. Encourage self-pacing, rest breaks and less repetitive tasks.
- Avoid prolonged, sedentary work. Offer sit/stand workstations and walking workstations. Provide physical activity opportunities.
- Manage hazards. These include noise, slip/trip and physical hazards.
- Provide and design ergo-friendly work environments. This includes workstations, tools, floor surfaces, adjustable seating, better illumination, and screens and surfaces with less glare.
- Utilize teams and teamwork strategies for aging-associated problem solving. Those closest to a situation are best enabled to find a solution.
- Provide health promotion and lifestyle interventions. These include physical activity, healthy meal options, tobacco cessation assistance, risk factor reduction and screenings, coaching and onsite medical care.
- Invest in training and building worker skills. This should be done for workers of all ages.
- Proactively manage reasonable accommodations and the return-to-work process. This should be the standard after illnesses and injuries cause workers to have work absences.
- Require aging workforce management skills training for supervisors. One component should be how to manage a multi-generational workplace.
What benefits do you see from promoting an age-friendly workforce?
Company: Seton
Of: Marji McClure
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