Strategies to enhance productive and healthy environments for the older workforce

Project Update 4 Working Late is a four year collaborative research project addressing practice and policy issues associated with later life working. The project is funded by the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) Programme. Working Late is developing and evaluating interventions and design solutions to promote health and quality of working life. The project comprises four interconnected work packages and this project newsletter includes a summary of developments within those work packages over the past six months.
User Engagement Panels 2011 Organisational Expert Panel 2011

Older Worker Engagement Panel February 2011

The second older worker panel was held in February with 16 participants attending. The panel included workers over the age of 50, recently retired people or representatives from the NDA older persons reference group.

The second organisational expert panel was held in March and included 10 participants. The panel comprised policy experts, occupational health experts and employers of workers over 50.

The main focus of the two panels was work package 2.1, exploring the dynamics of later life working and work package 4, investigating workplace design. The discussions generated rich and varied data which we are currently analysing.

WP2.1 Experience, enactment and discrimination

Work package 2.1 has now started and we are pleased to welcome Ricardo Twumasi to the research team.

WP2.2 The Journey to Work

Ricardoisalsotraining fortriplejumpaspart ofadevelopmentteam ofOlympichopefuls.

Following 17 telephone interviews with respondents to our questionnaire survey, we conducted a focus group to discuss advantages and disadvantages of solutions used to make the journey to work easier. Discussions included flexible working hours; working at home on some days; car sharing, buying a smaller, more fuel efficient car; or using alternative means of transport.

We are excited about this timely work package with its focus on the experiences of later life working. The development of our research has been informed by user engagement panels and an expert advisory panel (held last year) which featured animated discussions about this topical issue. We are most grateful to those who participated in these panels and are very enthusiastic about the findings.

The consensus from the research was that these solutions cant work for everyone. However, it was clear from talking with participants that they had concerns which they were not sure how to address in the future.

We are currently developing the research instruments for the work package and aim to start data collection towards the end of May following ethical clearance. Several organisations are already excited to be working in co-operation with us, and the research team will be meeting with other organisations in the very near future.

Further interviews and focus groups will now consider any additional issues and solutions posed by younger workers and people with disabilities to ensure that their needs are represented. As one of our participants stated:

We are thrilled to be investigating such a topical issue, and are delighted at the feedback we have received so far. The research really has commenced at a perfect time. Dr Hilary McDermott.

In a general way, if the employment situation changes and more people in my age group [60+] are going to continue working, a journey to work like that [1.5 hour commute] could be an issue for them because they might be perfectly capable of continuing the job and have a lot of skills that younger people are just beginning to develop. And they may wish to carry on working, but if they have a long journey I can see that that might put people off.

WP3 Interventions to promote health and workability

Recruitment for this work package has been extremely successful, with an overwhelming interest from the employees in each site. The first set of baseline measures have now been collected from a total of 1119 participants. The site breakdown of participants is as follows: Glasgow (116) London (218) Newcastle (116) Ipswich 3 sites (303) Dundee (102) Liverpool (41) Edinburgh (107) Leeds (116) All baseline data collected has been entered into the relevant statistical packages. The next stage will involve analysis of the data. The measures are: Psychological (lifestyle and physical activity information, work ability, pain and discomfort, self-reported wellbeing, sleep patterns, attitudes to the job and organisation) Physiological (height, weight, body composition, waist/hip circumference, blood pressure and resting heart rate) The 1119 participants were given a free pedometer in addition to the feedback from their individual health screening. The research team keep in regular contact with participants via email. Participants are able to record their step count figures via the dedicated website www.walkingworkswonders.com To date, over 40,000 step counts have been recorded! The research team are currently conducting revisits, which will allow participants to have a second health screening in order to see how they have been getting on and assess if there have been any changes to date. The initiative has also received some very positive feedback:

Organisational feedback:
The walking initiative has been implemented successfully in a number of our sites across the UK and the Working Late team are midway through the first series of follow up health screenings. We have been encouraged with the response rates and enthusiasm from our employees. Employees have shared their experiences of using the pedometer, changes in walking activities as well as greater awareness of their health measures. At our Adastral Park site, employees have spoken about their team based walking activities, such as the Pegasus Tower stair climb challenge, and their engagement with the Work Fit get active 10,000 steps initiative. We look forward to our continued participation in this research and the results from the twelve month follow up which will commence in September 2011.

Employee feedback:
I cannot praise Working Late & Walking Works Wonders highly enough. In my opinion, especially in these days of prolonged working at a computer desk for most people, there has been growing need for such an initiative and it surprises me that something like it didnt start years ago. On a personal point of view, after six months on the scheme, I feel much healthier and fitter.

WP4 Ageing productively through design We have had an excellent response to our survey looking at how design in the workplace impacts on peoples ability to work. Furthermore, many workers have told us about their experiences of working late: Yes, age has an effect on this work because as you age, things become physically harder and the body slows down. Its hard to work at the same pace as when you were younger. Male construction worker aged 47.

To date, 21 organisations have taken part ranging from construction work, animal care, manufacturing, education and office work, leading to nearly 800 completed questionnaires. We are now working closely with four of these organisations encouraging workers, team leaders and managers to think about workplace design and to encourage healthy ageing through better design. Our research has been Topic of the Month with one manufacturer and an example of Research that Matters within another organisation. We are keen to communicate the role of good design and ergonomics to employers and employees. Finally, in February and March this year, we were pleased to host two very lively panels a User Engagement Panel and an Organisational Expert Panel, both of which have helped us kick start what is needed for designing healthy ageing and our OWL (Organiser for Working Late) resource.

SKInS A Loughborough team has developed a set of wearable devices to simulate age-related occupational ill-health conditions called SKInS (Sensory and Kinaesthetic Interactive Simulation). The team includes Sharon Cook and John Richardson from the Design School, Alistair Gibb (NDA co-investigator on the Working Late project) from the School of Civil & Building Engineering and Occupational Therapist Karen Walmsley. The SKInS simulate dermatitis; vibration white finger; musculo-skeletal disorders (arms/backs & knees); respiratory disorders and tinnitus.

Papers and Conferences

Dr Diane Gyi and Dr Elaine Williams presented at the Design Principles & Practices Fifth International Conference in Rome in February 2011. The title of the presentation was Ageing Productively through Design? A Survey of Cement Manufacturing Workers. A paper is currently under review to accompany this presentation. An abstract for the Safety and Health in Construction Conference has been submitted entitled Constructive ageing A survey of workers. The journey to work team presented at the include conference, the presentation was entitled The Journey to Work a barrier to older workers. www.Workinglate.org is currently being redeveloped. Look out for the new website coming soon Dont forget to follow us @WorkHealth on twitter in the meantime for regular updates

Tests have identified SKIns potential for helping younger workers to have some experience of how these conditions would feel and look like if they contracted them. The team are now seeking funding to deploy the SKInS in a training environment to test their effect on worker behaviour. For more information please contact: Alistair Gibb (A.G.Gibb@lboro.ac.uk)