Strategies to enhance productive and healthy environments for the older workforce Project Update 5: January 2012 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.

New dynamics of later life working

Considerable progress has been made through collaboration with a range of public and private sector businesses and government agencies. To date, 84 interviews have been completed exploring: experiences of working and securing work after the age of 50; the impact of the latest legislation on opportunities for employment; and policies relating to retirement and age discrimination. We have spoken to job seekers over 50, employers, employees over 50 and recently retired individuals from a range of different organisations. We are also planning to conduct a series of expert panels to consider the policy implications of the findings. Recruitment has been facilitated by the media interest in this work (radio and press). Recruitment is ongoing for employers or line managers and job seekers over the age of 50.

Anyone interested in taking part should contact Ricardo Twumasi on 01509 223 025 or email a.r.twumasi@lboro.ac.uk Analysis of the interview data has just begun, and we look forward to the opportunity to publish and present our findings in the coming year. The BBC has expressed interest in presenting our findings as part of a documentary, so we are very excited about the possibilities for sharing our research findings with the general public.

The Journey to Work

A questionnaire survey of employees over the age of 45, which investigated transport issues, identified people to interview about specific difficulties they have regarding their journey to work. To date, interviews have been conducted with 38 employees and 12 employers, all contributing to a deeper understanding of the issues and potential strategies used. Thematic analysis was conducted on the employee interview transcripts. These issues were grouped into 5 categories: personal; cost; road network; transport mode; and employer related. Difficulties encountered by older workers may not be very different from any other workers, so to add to the data, a second survey was conducted with workers under the age of 45. Cost was found to be a significant issue for both the over and under 45s. However, for the over 45s, cost may have a greater impact on those wanting to reduce their hours of work in the stages running up to their retirement. For example, for those who may work the same number of days, but want to reduce their hours, the cost of the commute is static but income is reduced. Therefore, it is important to recognise the specific issues raised by older workers to ensure that their needs and aspirations are being met. A variety of strategies are being adopted by older workers to enable them to make the journey to work easier and more efficient, for example: My current job is 4 days a week but the kind of work I do can often be done at home and because we have a fairly flexible approach to that here I take advantage of that for at least 1 and sometimes 2 of the 4 days which is a huge help. I generally leave home between 9 and quarter past one of the advantages of flexitime to try and take advantage of the lull in the traffic. Respondents often cited employer flexibility as an enabler to later life working, allowing employees to work from home, have flexitime, or reduce hours or responsibilities.

A workshop is being planned with experts, employer/employee representatives and policymakers to present the research findings. We also aim to demonstrate the beginnings of a resource to share these stories, potential solutions and inclusive strategies to support sustainable travel and well-being. Attendance at the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) Conference: Older, Wiser, Safer, the challenges of an ageing population (13 October 2011) has already raised interest in involvement in this workshop. This research was presented at the Include Conference at the Royal College of Art in London, April 2011, and at the Gerontological Society of America's 64th Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, November 2011.

Interventions to promote health and workability

The research team have completed the first set of health screening visits (6 month follow up) for all 10 participating sites during summer 2011. From the 1119 employees who were originally recruited into the research, 405 employees returned to visit the team. This is an excellent response rate given the organisational changes some sites have experienced during this turbulent economic climate. Since November 2011 we have been collecting data for the second set of revisits and this will be complete by February 2012.

It has been an enriching experience for the team to see so many participants return and provide examples of how the health screening has encouraged them take action to improve their health. Therefore, to supplement the quantitative data collected through the health screenings, the research team have also conducted 59 interviews with individual participants. These interviews will allow the team to assemble real case study examples of how the intervention may have impacted the lives of our participants: A lot of my time involves sitting at my desk at a PC so I try to make a bit of a conscious effort to go a bit further. So rather than going to the loo which is ten yards around the corner I go to the one which is up a flight of stairs and so forces you to stretch your legs. And the pedometer Ive also started wearing it when Im cycling which shows Im thinking more about my activity levels. Male, 46.

Walking Lunch During the final three months of the physical activity intervention period, the research team implemented the Walking Lunch initiative in six of our participating sites. Walking Lunch involves placing a large map (1 metre diameter) in a communal area of a site. The map has a radius of 1.5 km and displays the surrounding areas of each office. The basic idea of the map is to encourage employees to use their lunchtime breaks for a local walk. Employees can get to an area on the map, take a photo on their mobile phone or digital camera, and come back to the office to print out that photo and pin it to the map using tags. The tags also have space for employees to record the number of steps taken to get to the location in the image (via their Working Late pedometers) and any other relevant information.

We have been able to assess the use of the Walking Lunch maps during our twelve month follow up health screenings. The maps have been widely used in the majority of our sites. One site in particular has embraced the initiative and has used the Walking Lunch map to create a number of local walks with supplementary leaflets provided for all staff.

Ageing productively through design

The OWL project has continued to gather momentum following the success of the survey to examine how design impacts on healthy working. The survey covered 21 companies generating a sample of 719. Following the survey, 26 triangulation interviews were conducted with five collaborator companies. For each company, discussion documents were then prepared and the survey and interview findings presented to management. Phase 2 has involved in-depth data collection to understand job tasks in detail; the Half-aday in the life of study was made up of ergonomics observations, objective data and in-depth interviews, followed by focus groups/workshops.

Our collaborations have successfully continued with 4 of the companies; unfortunately, 1 had to withdraw due to organisational changes. We are now working on job tasks with 4 companies in 3 industries; construction, manufacturing and care work. Data collection was mindful of the different work tasks and environments. For example, with joiners we looked at the impact of using hand tools on health and comfort when sawing, drilling/driving and hammering/fixing.

With construction we have observed the work practices and environments of the mobileoffice staff, who work both on the site and in temporary office/desk space which are not necessarily designed around their needs. Objective measurements across all companies included anthropometry to evaluate body sizes/shapes; REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessments) to understand working postures in confined spaces.

In 2011 we presented at 2 international conferences. One paper was also accepted for a journal and will be available in 2012. One of our Undergraduate Ergonomics students, Esme Shanley, won the Major Practice in Ergonomics Award (W. Jahns Award 2011) for her dissertation looking into the design requirements for Animal Care workers. Dr. Elaine Williams won a runner-up prize for her poster at the Research Conference based on work at the Cement Manufacturers. Three conference papers have been accepted for 2012.

Other news and events

In January 2012, Dr. Myanna Duncan presented at the Division of Occupational Psychology Conference, delivering a talk on Work Package 3.1, the Occupational Health context. The presentation generated a good deal of media interest, with the research being cited on over 65 websites and, indeed, on BBC Radio 2. The media were particularly interested with data obtained regarding how much people sit. Further details are available to view at the following sites: http://bbc.in/x0M4qK http://bit.ly/Ae9pa1

Following the Half-a-day in the life of data collection in the each company, focus groups were held where co-design and usercentred design ideas/solutions were explored. The focus groups centred on the needs of the users and their specific job/work tasks. To aid the discussion and co-design process, artefacts were produced, these included; action cards, product cards and body cards, as well as blank cards participants could draw on. These tools will also form part of our OWL resource.