Creating better working conditions for older workers

Working conditions need to be adapted to encourage older people to remain in the workforce. Sweden’s National Institute for Working Life and the Swedish Work Environment Authority have produced joint guidelines aimed at improving the working conditions of older workers.

Around 50% of the Swedish population over the age of 61 has already retired, according to Statistics Sweden (in Swedish) . In addition, the latest forecasts predict that, in line with current demographic trends, the percentage of workers in the total population will fall during the early years of the twenty-first century. For this reason, it is important to safeguard and retain older people in the workforce up to the official retirement age of 65.

The possibility of staying in the labour market until the official retirement age depends largely on health status and the work environment. It is also common for people to terminate their working life prematurely due to company rationalisation or closure.

Sweden’s National Institute for Working Life and the Swedish Work Environment Authority have recently published a joint document, Adaptation of work conditions from an age perspective, 2004 (in Swedish) . Based on Swedish occupational health and safety legislation and the application of systematic work environment management (SWEM), it is designed to act as a guide for labour inspectors in their work.

Work performance and age

Several studies (e.g. McEvoy and Cascio, 1989) have examined the relationship between work performance and age. While the results vary considerably, in general no clear-cut association has been found. It is true that the performance of older people can deteriorate in functions that require speed and precision with regard to sight, hearing and movements. However, there are also examples of a positive association between age and performance, for example, where older workers, by virtue of their greater experience, outperform their younger counterparts.

Counteracting age-related problems

The guidelines recommend adapting the workplace to take into account the diminishing sight of older workers, particularly in the case of work which involves the need to see clearly at close distance over long periods as well as a high degree of accuracy. In many cases, appropriate glasses or special lighting can alleviate or counteract age-related sight problems. Occupational groups required to use visual monitors of various kinds are particularly vulnerable in this respect.

Increased sensitivity to noise disturbances in the work environment can make it more difficult for older workers to perform their regular work tasks. This could lead to increased stress, poorer concentration, mistakes and possible accidents. To avoid this problem, it is important to ensure that older employees work in premises with a healthy sound environment, i.e. with low background noise.

Physically heavy work is most common among blue-collar workers. According to the Swedish Work Environment Authority (pdf file) , 50% of women and 46% of men in blue-collar jobs in the 50-65 age group believe that the physical work demands should be changed to enable them to work up to retirement age. The corresponding figures for women and men in white-collar jobs are 24% and 13% respectively. The guidelines recommend that tasks requiring a high level of muscular strength should be facilitated by means of technical aids, such as lifting devices.

Benefiting from the experience of older workers

Given that new technologies and new work methods are being introduced into the workplace, there is a risk that some of the experience of older workers is made redundant. This can lead to physical and psychological strain. It is important to give older people equal opportunities for training in new systems as is provided to younger workers. While younger employees may have greater technical skills, e.g. in the use of the new technologies, older workers usually have considerable expertise that is lacking among younger colleagues. In some cases, employers have taken advantage of this experience by inviting older workers to act as mentors to their younger colleagues. The advantage for the employee is that mentorship offers more stimulating and less physically demanding work circumstances. The advantage for the company is that valuable knowledge is preserved and passed on.

Reference

McEvoy, G.M. and Cascio, W.F., ‘Cumulative evidence of the relationship between employee age and job performance’, Journal of Applied Psychology 74(1), 1989, pp. 11-17.