Demographic changes, such as the ageing of society and the decline of the birth rate, are gradually leading to the loss of valuable knowledge and experience in the Dutch Labour market. This necessitates an explicit focus on workers' sustainable employment so that they can add value to the organisation throughout their career. This study looks into the way in which the workers' motivation might affect their investments into their own sustainable employment. It was conducted in a major industrial service provider, Sitech Services. The conclusion is that intrinsic motivation plays an important role in both younger and older employees, and that the younger workers undertake more action in order to give physical form to their sustainable employment than their older colleagues.
BACKGROUND:Knowledge on long-term participation is scarce for patients with paid employment at the time of stroke. OBJECTIVE:Describe the characteristics and the course of participation (paid employment and overall participation) in patients who did and did not remain in paid employment. METHODS:Patients with paid employment at the time of stroke completed questions on work up to 30 months after starting rehabilitation, and the Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of Rehabilitation-Participation (USER-P, Frequency, Restrictions and Satisfaction scales) up to 24 months. Baseline characteristics of patients with and without paid employment at 30 months were compared using Fisher’s Exact Tests and Mann-Whitney U Tests. USER-P scores over time were analysed using Linear Mixed Models. RESULTS:Of the 170 included patients (median age 54.2 interquartile range 11.2 years; 40% women) 50.6% reported paid employment at 30 months. Those returning to work reported at baseline more working hours, better quality of life and communication, were more often self-employed and in an office job. The USER-P scores did not change statistically significantly over time. CONCLUSION:About half of the stroke patients remained in paid employment. Optimizing interventions for returning to work and achieving meaningful participation outside of employment seem desirable.
The use of in-body wearable devices is increasing in the healthcare sector, given their capacity to diagnose diseases and monitor health conditions. At the same time, some of these devices have entered the market and are being researched for use in workplace settings to enhance workers’ health and safety. However, neither specific EU legislation nor national law currently regulates the use of in-body wearables in employment, raising questions about the safeguarding of workers’ fundamental rights to privacy and data protection. Addressing the challenges posed by this regulatory gap, this article explores whether the European legislative framework employed in the healthcare sector for medical devices could be applied to the use of in-body wearables in employment settings. It also discusses the application of a key principle of the General Data Protection Regulation when in-body wearables are used in the workplace: lawfulness.
MULTIFILE
The focus of this project is on improving the resilience of hospitality Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by enabling them to take advantage of digitalization tools and data analytics in particular. Hospitality SMEs play an important role in their local community but are vulnerable to shifts in demand. Due to a lack of resources (time, finance, and sometimes knowledge), they do not have sufficient access to data analytics tools that are typically available to larger organizations. The purpose of this project is therefore to develop a prototype infrastructure or ecosystem showcasing how Dutch hospitality SMEs can develop their data analytic capability in such a way that they increase their resilience to shifts in demand. The one year exploration period will be used to assess the feasibility of such an infrastructure and will address technological aspects (e.g. kind of technological platform), process aspects (e.g. prerequisites for collaboration such as confidentiality and safety of data), knowledge aspects (e.g. what knowledge of data analytics do SMEs need and through what medium), and organizational aspects (what kind of cooperation form is necessary and how should it be financed).Societal issueIn the Netherlands, hospitality SMEs such as hotels play an important role in local communities, providing employment opportunities, supporting financially or otherwise local social activities and sports teams (Panteia, 2023). Nevertheless, due to their high fixed cost / low variable business model, hospitality SMEs are vulnerable to shifts in consumer demand (Kokkinou, Mitas, et al., 2023; Koninklijke Horeca Nederland, 2023). This risk could be partially mitigated by using data analytics, to gain visibility over demand, and make data-driven decisions regarding allocation of marketing resources, pricing, procurement, etc…. However, this requires investments in technology, processes, and training that are oftentimes (financially) inaccessible to these small SMEs.Benefit for societyThe proposed study touches upon several key enabling technologies First, key enabling technology participation and co-creation lies at the center of this proposal. The premise is that regional hospitality SMEs can achieve more by combining their knowledge and resources. The proposed project therefore aims to give diverse stakeholders the means and opportunity to collaborate, learn from each other, and work together on a prototype collaboration. The proposed study thereby also contributes to developing knowledge with and for entrepreneurs and to digitalization of the tourism and hospitality sector.Collaborative partnersHZ University of Applied Sciences, Hotel Hulst, Hotel/Restaurant de Belgische Loodsensociëteit, Hotel Zilt, DM Hotels, Hotel Charley's, Juyo Analytics, Impuls Zeeland.
In an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world, traditional disciplinary approaches to the framing and resolution of social and economic problems deliver ever diminishing returns.Discussions abound, therefore, about how best to educate and prepare graduates for the fresh challenges of the 21st century.Knowledge Alliances between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and enterprises which aim to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, employability, knowledge exchange and/or multidisciplinary teaching and learning are therefore becoming increasingly necessary and relevant. The challenge is to determine what we should teach in the future and how it should be taught. The changing nature of contemporary society highlights that social issues are often highly complex and multifaceted.The aim of this Action is to demonstrate, through the adoption of Multi-Disciplinary Innovation (MDI) methods, how we can respond to social problems with a design-led approach which has a problem-oriented ethos, supporting positive social change and the development of international public policy discourse. It will be achieved through the establishment of a Pan-European Public Sector Innovation (ePSI) lab. It will prepare students for roles in employment by integrating education programmes into the lab’s operations and it will support agencies that have a role in responding to and developing public policy.COST action on social innovation in labs
Helping business networks and clusters to collaborate in international value chains and interregional collaborations as part of regional growth strategies.[project in progress]To improve regional/national policy instruments seeking to intensify clusterization processes (especially in KETs related sectors), fostering clusters’ and business networks interregional cooperation, integration into innovative value chains and better employment for the implementation of smart specialization strategies.
