Boustras, Georgios

Working environment is constantly changing with working population increasing in terms of ageing, feminization and immigration. Due to the changes in the working pattern, new emerging risks have been introduced at the workplace along with many challenges that employers are called to manage. While ageing has been identified by Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) community as an emerging risk, organisations stand in need of guidelines on how to manage this additional challenge. Occupational Health and Safety Performance (OHSP) is acknowledged as one of the factors affecting the future of an organisation and should be considered when dealing with OSH management with the aim to accomplish Industrial System Productivity (ISP). Nowadays, OSH management should be able to adapt to changes and consider emerging risks within the risk assessment, the procedures and policies. The aim of this paper is to introduce guidelines and practical solutions on OSH management helping the employers and employees adapt to the changing working environment, while explicitly considering individual's characteristics. Using the focus group method, factors affecting the ability to work have been identified and valued. In particular, the Work Individual Performance (WIP) tool is introduced as a tool which is specifically designed to identify factors, potentially affecting the performance of the workers and assist the employers in the identification and implementation of protective and preventive measures, focusing on worker's well-being, OHSP and ISP. The tool has been tested in 2019, during a research which took place in Cyprus involving the police workforce (559 police officers).

Working environment is constantly changing with working population increasing in terms of ageing, feminization and immigration. Due to the changes in the working pattern, new emerging risks have been introduced at the workplace along with many challenges that employers are called to manage. While ageing has been identified by Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) community as an emerging risk, organisations stand in need of guidelines on how to manage this additional challenge. Occupational Health and Safety Performance (OHSP) is acknowledged as one of the factors affecting the future of an organisation and should be considered when dealing with OSH management with the aim to accomplish Industrial System Productivity (ISP). Nowadays, OSH management should be able to adapt to changes and consider emerging risks within the risk assessment, the procedures and policies. The aim of this paper is to introduce guidelines and practical solutions on OSH management helping the employers and employees adapt to the changing working environment, while explicitly considering individual's characteristics. Using the focus group method, factors affecting the ability to work have been identified and valued. In particular, the Work Individual Performance (WIP) tool is introduced as a tool which is specifically designed to identify factors, potentially affecting the performance of the workers and assist the employers in the identification and implementation of protective and preventive measures, focusing on worker's well-being, OHSP and ISP. The tool has been tested in 2019, during a research which took place in Cyprus involving the police workforce (559 police officers).

From the perspective of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), the concept of work ability is based on the balance between individual characteristics and work demands. If the personal characteristics of the worker meet the work demands, then work could be part of a healthy life. However, work might affect worker's health due to physical or psychosocial factors that do not meet worker's abilities and expectations. Older workers are probably facing additional challenges in comparison to younger ones. Several studies have shown that Work Ability Index (WAI) decreases with factors such as ageing, unsatisfactory working conditions, poor organisation management and lack of freedom. Improvements in the working environment and ergonomic equipment are factors positively affecting WAI. A nationwide study on the ageing workforce has been conducted during 2018 in Cyprus. Based on information elicited through questionnaires and interviews, the factors affecting positively and negatively the ability to work have been identified on different age groups. Variables such as work demands and the work environment, features of work organisations, characteristics of company/ organisation, as well as employee characteristics, have been evaluated as potential factors affecting the ability/performance of the workers. Our findings indicate that personal characteristics are more crucial than work demands and working environment for the performance of the workers of all age groups and that poor ergonomic conditions particularly affect older workers. Also, health status and sleeping quality might be major factors affecting all age groups, while gender and years of experience affect younger workers.