The number of employees above 50 is increasing in organizations because of demographic changes. People above 50 feel less involved in work and societal activities as they should be and as they are expected to be. Older workers‟ employment is accompanied by stereotyping that workers are less productive and less capable than younger workers. The current research is about older workers‟ wishes, desires and wants to further develop gradual retirement schemes as scenarios for both employers' and employees' mutual benefit. Furthermore, the perception of ICT tools supportiveness is researched for older workers‟ sustainable employability. The study is conducted in the northern part of the Netherlands and data were collected by questionnaires and interviews. Data were analysed with the statistical tool SPSS and with Excel for the search of patterns. Results suggest that workers between 50 and 65 like to retire gradually by applied flexible working schemes, reducing the workload and reducing the weekly hours. ICT tools are considered as helpful tools as long as they do not affect workers‟ health. Training is required as well as constantly being updated in the ICT arena. Respondents also indicated that they want to work after retirement either voluntarily or on a small-scale salary to cover their basic costs.
The realization of human rights standards depends in part on the commitment of local actors. It can be argued that local public service professionals such as social workers can also be regarded as key players. The possible role of social workers becomes imperative if these professionals are working in a policy context that is not congruent with human rights. If existing laws or policies cause or maintain disrespect for human rights, social workers are in a position to observe that this is having an adverse impact on clients. When social workers are regarded as human rights actors, the question arises how they can or should respond to law and policy that impedes them in carrying out their work with respect for human rights. This article adds to existing theories on social workers as human rights actors by examining the practices of social professionals working in such a challenging policy context. The research took place among professionals in social district teams in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Following a series of decentralizations and austerity measures the social care landscape in the Netherlands has changed drastically over the last few years. As a result, social workers may find themselves on the one hand trying to realize the best possible care for their clients while on the other hand dealing with new laws and policy expectations focused on self-reliance and diminished access to specialist care. The article explores how social professionals’ responses to barriers in access to care affect human rights requirements. In doing so, this socio-legal study provides insight into the ways in which everyday social work relates to the realization of human rights at the local level.
Low heart rate variability (HRV) is related to health problems that are known reasons for sick-leave or early retirement. A 1-minute-protocol could allow large scale HRV measurement for screening of health problems and, potentially, sustained employability. Our objectives were to explore the association of HRV with measures of health. Cross-sectional design with 877 Dutch employees assessed during a Workers’ Health Assessment. Personal and job characteristics, workability, psychological and mental problems, and lifestyle were measured with questionnaires. Biometry was measured (BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol). HRV was assessed with a 1-minute paced deep-breathing protocol and expressed as mean heart rate range (MHRR). A low MHRR indicates a higher health risk. Groups were classified age adjusted for HRV and compared. Spearman correlations between raw MHRR and the other measures were calculated. Significant univariable correlations (p < 0.05) were entered in a linear regression model to explore the multivariable association with MHRR. Age, years of employment, BMI and waist circumference differed significantly between HRV groups. Significant correlations were found between MHRR and age, workability, BMI, waist circumference, cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood-pressure and reported physical activity and alcohol consumption. In the multivariable analyses 21.1% of variance was explained: a low HRV correlates with aging, higher BMI and higher levels of reported physically activity. HRV was significantly associated with age, measures of obesity (BMI, waist circumference), and with reported physical activity, which provides a first glance of the utility of a 1-minute paced deep-breathing HRV protocol as part of a comprehensive preventive Workers’ Health Assessment.Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creat ivecommons .org/licen ses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate redit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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The Healthy Workplace monitor is being developed to monitor the health and well-being of knowledge workers in relation to the office space and their home workplace. Since the corona period, a lot has changed in the way knowledge workers work. Both offices and employees require more flexibility to carry out work in an efficient but also healthy and enjoyable way. It is important to identify office workers needs with regard to workspaces at the office and at home from a holistic view, in which mental , physical and social aspects play a role. A vital, happy employee is a productive employee.
Manual labour is an important cornerstone in manufacturing and considering human factors and ergonomics is a crucial field of action from both social and economic perspective. Diverse approaches are available in research and practice, ranging from guidelines, ergonomic assessment sheets over to digitally supported workplace design or hardware oriented support technologies like exoskeletons. However, in the end those technologies, methods and tools put the working task in focus and just aim to make manufacturing “less bad” with reducing ergonomic loads as much as possible. The proposed project “Human Centered Smart Factories: design for wellbeing for future manufacturing” wants to overcome this conventional paradigm and considers a more proactive and future oriented perspective. The underlying vision of the project is a workplace design for wellbeing that makes labor intensive manufacturing not just less bad but aims to provide positive contributions to physiological and mental health of workers. This shall be achieved through a human centered technology approach and utilizing advanced opportunities of smart industry technologies and methods within a cyber physical system setup. Finally, the goal is to develop smart, shape-changing workstations that self-adapt to the unique and personal, physical and cognitive needs of a worker. The workstations are responsive, they interact in real time, and promote dynamic activities and varying physical exertion through understanding the context of work. Consequently, the project follows a clear interdisciplinary approach and brings together disciplines like production engineering, human interaction design, creative design techniques and social impact assessment. Developments take place in an industrial scale test bed at the University of Twente but also within an industrial manufacturing factory. Through the human centered design of adaptive workplaces, the project contributes to a more inclusive and healthier society. This has also positive effects from both national (e.g. relieve of health system) as well as individual company perspective (e.g. less costs due to worker illness, higher motivation and productivity). Even more, the proposal offers new business opportunities through selling products and/or services related to the developed approach. To tap those potentials, an appropriate utilization of the results is a key concern . The involved manufacturing company van Raam will be the prototypical implementation partner and serve as critical proof of concept partner. Given their openness, connections and broad range of processes they are also an ideal role model for further manufacturing companies. ErgoS and Ergo Design are involved as methodological/technological partners that deal with industrial engineering and ergonomic design of workplace on a daily base. Thus, they are crucial to critically reflect wider applicability and innovativeness of the developed solutions. Both companies also serve as multiplicator while utilizing promising technologies and methods in their work. Universities and universities of applied sciences utilize results through scientific publications and as base for further research. They also ensure the transfer to education as an important leverage to inspire and train future engineers towards wellbeing design of workplaces.
Individuals are increasingly confronted with ‘diseases of modernity’, such as stress and burnout. While insights from the work-family interface have mainly pointed towards demands and resources coming from the work and nonwork domains, the proposed multi-method PhD research project aims to contribute to contemporary scholarly and societal work-life and burnout debates by presenting an alternative theoretical lens on the development of mental health complaints in today’s society, especially among the younger Millennial generation. The project aims to shed light on how and why Millennial employees engage in a so-called ‘work/nonwork image (re)construction process’.The project will reflect on the following questions:How, why and when do individual workers engage in a process in which they construct their image(s) in the work and nonwork domains? What are the relationships, if any, between the image (re)construction process individuals engage in and potential positive- and negative consequences?The findings are expected to have important implications not only for preventive measures for individuals and organizations, but also for possible avenues for future studies. Project Partner: Nyenrode Business Universiteit
