Aging and Work

The 4 attributes of productive aging

A life-span perspective

A life-span perspective views aging as an adaptive and dynamic process. Aging impacts your body, your mind, and how you interact with the world around you.

Changes that occur as workers age do not take place in a vacuum. In the workplace, the following factors play a role in productive aging:

• The nature of work and its structure
• Workplace relationships
• Work-related events, like career progression and retirement
• Ageist beliefs that may interfere with support of productive aging

Comprehensive and integrated strategies

Programs to improve productive aging need to be multi-dimensional and well-coordinated. Work Ability and Total Worker Health^® provide useful frameworks for productive aging by emphasizing sustainable strategies.

Work Ability is a worker's capacity to continue working in their current job. It considers work demands and available resources. Work demands include work organization, supervision, time pressures, and fatiguing work. Resources include health and abilities, job skills, autonomy, and support from your supervisor/colleagues/family.

Strategies to maintain or improve work ability focus on:

• Working Conditions: including ergonomics and safety)
• Employee Health: including safety, health, and well-being)
• Professional Skills: maintaining and developing knowledge and skills
• Psychosocial Factors: how employees experience and react to
  • Organizational policies and practices
  • How their work is designed
  • Inter-personal relationships at work

Carefully plan and implement programs or interventions and target several of the factors above.

Total Worker Health (TWH) integrates workplace safety interventions with activities that advance well-being. A TWH approach comprehensively addresses:

• Safety
• The control of psychosocial hazards and exposures
• The organization of work

Outcomes that recognize the priorities of workers and organizations

A productive aging approach targets outcomes that are important to workers and to organizations, understanding that each can influence the other.

Worker-centered and organization-centered outcomes can affect each other. For example, improving worker well-being provides organizational benefits like:

• Reduced absenteeism
• Higher productivity
• Fewer reported workplace injuries

Organizations that transfer knowledge between older and younger workers through mentoring and reverse mentoring programs may increase:

• Skills and collaborations
• Productivity
• Engagement

Focusing on both worker-centered and organization-centered outcomes can contribute to a sustainable culture of health.

Work culture that supports age diversity

Age-related differences between generations can include:

• Attitudes toward work and supervision
• Communication style
• Training needs
• Work habits

Creating a culture supportive of productive aging involves:

• Understanding the age composition of your workforce.
• Discussing generational and age diversity issues.
• Developing programs and policies that address the needs of all workers.
  • For example, family leave policies that appeal to young and older workers.
• Encouraging positive interactions between different age groups.
  • For example, mentoring and reverse mentoring programs.

This culture should recognize and use the unique skills, knowledge, and perspectives of workers in all age groups.