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Health, safety and wellbeing of older workers
The health, safety and wellbeing practices of your business should support older workers. This will become particularly important as our workforce continues to age.
Health conditions are not inevitable as we age, but they do become more likely and can impact our working lives.
Workers should feel comfortable to talk openly about health conditions that are affecting them. This is important at any stage of life and may become even more so as a person ages.
You and your workers have a shared responsibility for health and safety in the workplace.
Here we provide tips and guidance on how you can help your older workforce to meet these responsibilities.
Health considerations of older workers
Some common conditions that older workers may experience include:
- deteriorating vision and/or hearing
- diabetes
- menopause
- mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression
- musculoskeletal (MSK) injury and damage of the joints in the limbs or back
- mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
- occupational injuries.
Ask questions or do your own research to find out more about the health conditions affecting your workers and what support they need at work.
Benefits of a healthy workplace
Taking a proactive approach to reduce the risk of illness and injury for older workers has been shown to:
- increase workplace productivity
- improve retention
- reduce time off and staff absence
- lower staff turnover
- improve workplace relationships.
Health, safety and wellbeing benefits all staff, not only older workers. It can also help with your network of suppliers and customers who are likely to be diverse.
Providing safe working conditions
Safe working conditions may look different for a workplace with older workers.
Providing these conditions ensures your older workers can contribute to your business goals.
- Make sure your workplace is accessible and hazard free, ergonomically friendly (with options to stand or sit, and appropriate equipment), to reduce injury and illness.
- Offer fans and feminine hygiene products to make your workplace more menopause-friendly.
- Manage stress levels and workload by reviewing roles, and if possible, using technology and automation, job sharing and varying tasks to help avoid workplace injuries (for example, fatigue).
- Manage reduced vision by using larger text in documents, encouraging employees to have regular eye tests and, if necessary, wear glasses.
- Manage reduced hearing by encouraging regular hearing tests and the use of hearing aids if necessary. Plan for staff with hearing difficulties in the case of an emergency or evacuation.
- Be open to flexible working arrangements (such as working from home) which support older workers with health or disability conditions.
Managing health and safety(external link) — WorkSafe
Assessment and planning
Treat health, safety and wellbeing as part of your day-to-day business by managing it proportionately to the level of risk at your work.
Raise awareness at your workplace about physical and mental health challenges. This can help to remove negative attitudes about the topic and increase understanding. This includes topics that may have been avoided, such as menopause, which can affect women as they age.
Promoting workplace health and wellbeing
- Offer or encourage frequent screenings or health checks to monitor the health of workers.
- Allow workers time off to attend appointments for treatments.
- Promote active living, healthy eating, stress management and work-life balance. This could include workplace initiatives that involve your whole team.