Retaining ageing workforces through workability

Assoc. Professor Elizabeth BrookeBusiness Work and Ageing Centre for Research

Swinburne University of Technology

October 18th 2012

1. Introduction

2. Workability concept and measures

3. Workability workforce development framework

4. Workability recruitment and retention

5. Conclusions

Overview

Industry faces the prospect of ageing workforces, June 2010 71% aged 55-59 in the labour market, 51% 60-64, 24%, 65-69

Trend data show people intend to work for longer (due to superannuation deficits, GFC)

Increasing employment of older people will help offset labour and skill shortages and the economic impact of ageing.

Opportunity to extend the working life of the current group of workers aged 45 years and over.

But a significant change in the way work is structured and offered to people in later working life will be necessary

Active interventions needed to counter pressures in operational environment affecting older workers

1. Introduction

Demography of labour supply

Health and community services This sector Across all industries

Total employment 1 108 800 (10%) 10 559 800

Employment growth in last five years 17.3% 12.7%

Workers aged 45 years or older 42% 28%

Female 79% 45%

Working part-time 46% 37%

Employed outside state capital cities 37% 37%

Source: Australian Jobs 2008, DEEWR

• Supply/demand pressures increase due to demographic trends increase in ageing population and disease burden

• Living Longer Living Better $1 billion workforce development workforce compact plus 100000 by 2014

• Residential and community aged care more complex care

• 70% of community care aged care staff, 60% of residential care workers 45+, 40% of new recruits are aged 45 + (Martin & King 2008)

• Ageing workforces ignored

• Increasing recognition by state government of the need for proactive policies in recruitment and retention.

Workforce pressures in aged care

• Australian philanthropic funds: VicHealth (2007-2011) and J.O and J.R Wicking Trust (2008-2010) (ANZ Trust) ‘Trials of more effective means of recruiting, training and retaining aged care professionals’.

• Workability is the balance between an individual’s resources, including health, skills and experience and organisational demands.

• Life course approach, priority emphases on workers 45+

• Residential aged care facilities, home care agency, multipurpose rural centre, hospital with acute geriatric beds, HACC coordinators

2. Workability concept and measures

2.i. Workability framework

• Concept: Multidimensional house, health and lifestyle, competence, values and attitudes and work structures and operational environment

• Measure: Workability index: subjective measures of current workability compared to lifetime best, own prognosis of work ability two years from now, mental and physical demands of the job, impairment, objective and subjective health indicators and depression (7 Item scale)

• Measurement instrument: Workability Survey, work demands, working time, physical work, ergonomics and health; and psychosocial factors, including leadership emotional demands, trust, support and recognition, control, influence, training, work-family balance(European Foundation survey items and Copenhagen Psychosocial survey)

2. 2. Workability measures

3. Applying the Workability workforce development cycle

4. RECRUITMENT4. Interventions

3. Consultation

2. Report

1. Workability measurement

5. Quality assurance Retention

Increasing Older Workers

Labour supply

3.1. Non-government residential aged care agency

Personal care workers (PCAs) =68, 80% female, 80% CALD (South Asia, Africa), median age-49

Physical aspects residential care, showering, moving/supporting, lifting heavy loads (44%) standing in residential care (88%), repetitive (66 %)

‘Being stressed’ (53.6%), ‘work affect health-stress (46.9%), high pace of work all day (60%), have to work very fast (71%) (Always, often).

Meaning of work high (93%) (very large extent, large extent)*** Organisation respects you -87%, feel part of community at work- 87.5%***

How organisations deal with stress or not provide support for job stress, 37.9% (v lg extent, lg ext).

High pace of work, stress, high meaning

3.2. Factors in retention

•Work is important to you p =.026

•Optimistic about future p =.039

Personalcapacity

•Management trusts employees

•p =.026

Organisationalcapacity

•Working beyond physical capacity p =.047

•Being stressed p =.033

•Working beyond mental capacity p =.012

Personal capacity

High Work

Ability<36

Low Work Ability>36

3.3. Workability Research

When the WAI of staff in the pre-intervention group was compared to the WAI of staff in the post-intervention group, the average WAI increased by 4 units, p= <.001. WAI score- 29 (pre) -32 (post)

Grouped interventions: internal activities (rewards, meals), workplace actions (counselling, diffusion of stress, tai chi) work organisation (reorganising workloads and staff time) ergonomics (workplace design, equipment maintained (3rd, 4th floor), training (2nd floor)

Only significant intervention was “increasing the number of PCA’s in high care to allow working in pairs” which produced a moderate to high WAI while staff who rated the intervention poorly, a low WAI. p= <.001. (4th floor)

Interventions to retain ageing workforces in work organisation

Staff deployment-working in pairs to reduce mental and physical demands of work

Department of Health (Vic) project Aged care interventions: application of working time

structures and flexibilities, a team-based approach and retirement pathways.

Case studies -Corporate Champions (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations). Aged care, health and energy workers, manual handling training

3.4. Interventions

• Workability pre-employment training (DEEWR funded) multidimensional approach (lifestyle, training, work structures, anti ageism

• Certificate 111 in aged care workability training• Currently evaluating VECCI unemployment program Planning a ‘joined up’ project within a region.• Demography of local labour supply industry & occupation• How are industry and occupation growth projections

aligned with patterns of labour supply (eg unemployed, part time, full time workforce by age and gender)?

• Specifically how do workplace destinations, residential location and supply-demand interact, focusing on aged care and health services?

4. Workability and recruitment

Recruiters

TAFEs

Workability tool

:

Aged care facilities

HACC

Acute care

Workability pre-

employment

Workability tool

4. Workability and recruitment

Active ageingmeasures

Productivity

Joined-up place based

4. Conclusions

17

Dynamic framework measuring interactions between individual resources and organisational capacity

Integrated multidimensional approach to retain older workers (not just OH and S)

Workability tool identifies significant factors and barriers to high workability

Quality assurance method for benchmarking the effects of organisational change over time

Important to intervene to retain ageing workforces

Application to both recruitment and retention

Matching Employees and Training to Employers for Ongoing recruitment and Retention

Assoc. Professor Elizabeth Brooke Email: lbrooke@swin.edu.au