Aging at Work From a health and safety perspective, this shift raises important considerations.

Sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass, really kicks in significantly from 50-years old (actually starts around 30 years old). This leads to reduced strength, muscle mass, and balance thus increasing the risk of falls and injury, particularly in physically demanding roles.

As Health & Safety professionals, we must take proactive steps to support older workers and reduce the risk of a serious work-related injury. Here are five practical tips you can implement in your workplace:

TIP 1

Promote Physical Activity

Let’s first look at combating Sarcopenia. Regular physical exercise is essential to reduce the rate of age-related muscular decline. Resistance training is the most effective, but even low impact activities like Tai chi have shown to reduce falling risk. But let’s keep this simple: no matter the activity, your aging workers need to do regular physical exercise outside the workplace.While what workers do outside of work is out of your control, you can influence their mindset and motivation:

  1. Run awareness campaigns and poster promotions
  2. Incorporate movement & education into toolbox talks
  3. Organise site fitness challenges e.g. 8-week challenge
  4. Connect workers with exercise professionals

Through our on-site physio programs, we often work with worker’s to provide tailored exercise plans to build up their strength. And our data shows that stronger people are far less likely to get injured.

TIP 2

Job role changes or ergonomic changes

The brutal truth is that not all of our older workers will take ownership of their health. So lets try make their work easier where we can. Some ideas include:

  1. Offering upskilling into coaching, admin, or lighter duties. These new skills can break up prolonged labor tasks in a day
  2. Increasing task rotation to reduce prolonged physical strain
  3. Making ergonomic changes to their workplace: lift-assist devices, adjustable benches, anti-fatigue mats, and reduce floor-to-waist lifting

TIP 3

Regular check-ins with the higher-risk workers

So who’s high risk? Look out for:

  1. Regular reporters for injury & pain.
  2. Aged workers returning to work following illness. Sarcopenia accelerates with physical inactivity
  3. Workers who have had a significant surgery in the past year (FYI, these ones NEED strengthening rehab well after pain is gone).
  4. Eye-ball test: workers who appear physically fragile

Check-ins don’t need to be only done by you. Champion the supervisors and Health & Safety Reps to perform check-ins. This can be informal too; “Hey how’s everything going lately?”.

Also, have an action plan ready if an issue is reported. For musculoskeletal issues (joint, muscle, movement pain), get a Physio involved.

TIP 4

Injury Prevention & Early Intervention

I wrote about the importance of Early Intervention. In a nutshell, acting on a niggle or pain early can prevent a Lost Time Injury (LTI). So have processes in place. Some of the options here include:

  1. Partner with on-site occupational physiotherapists who know your workers and work demands.
  2. Use a Telehealth Physio service for rapid triage. They will guide you & the individual towards what the next best step is.
  3. For anything outside musculoskeletal issues, your workplace GP is your go-to.

I also suggest completing a risk assessment on any task where a work injury occurs. It’s just good injury prevention practice.

TIP 5

Regular health Screenings

Regular health screenings throughout the year can reveal early signs or risk. These can rotate and can include

  • General: Blood pressure, diabetes, sleep, fatigue, mental health
  • Occupational: Hearing, vision, and lung function (spirometry), where required

Health Professionals are also trained to identify red flags (signs of serious or hidden health issues) with every interaction, thus benefiting not just your safety data, but the workers themselves.

Building Stronger Teams Together

I want to challenge you to action one of these 5-tips over the next week. We’d also love to hear what you have found effective for older workers within your workplace?

Let’s build safer, stronger teams together!

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