In Finland, maintaining work skills is a long tradition that dates back to the 1990s. Current support includes the development of the working environment, the working team and the strengthening of staff resources. This support is supported by organizations that support workforce health as well as company personnel.
Maintaining working capacity includes these dimensions common to all generations:
- Staff resources and employee health, including his/her initiative
- Management and interaction in the work team
- The nature of work and working conditions including ergonomics and occupational hygiene
- Employee’s expertise and qualification
Good work ability and health significantly affect work quality, productivity as well as quality of life and well-being.
Taking into account the aging of the population, the development of health care and the financing of the pension system, the long-term stay of workers in the labor market is very desirable. Life expectancy is gradually prolonging, and although this fact is one of today’s successes, it raises questions about financial security.
According to Illmarinen (2005), mental and social work skills are essential in the future. These requirements are multiplied by the upcoming Industry 4.0, which brings a steadily growing trend of digitization and automation of production and changes in the labor market.
In spite of the above-mentioned unpredictability of changes in the labor market, it is possible to name the possibilities of promoting changing work capacity at workplaces. Among these recommendations, according to Illmarinen (2005):
- Reduce exposure to unfavorable environmental influences with increasing age in physical work
- Requirements for physically demanding work should decrease with increasing age, especially for women
- The psychological work environment should focus on supporting and utilizing the strengths of employees
- Systematically plan and influence the possibilities of aging workers
- Individual management and age management as a key tool for aging workers
- Enable flexibility, respect for individuality and ergonomics as the key value of corporate culture
- Do not tolerate age discrimination at work without exception
The measures and recommendations also concern the dimension of personal resources, as an example:
- Strong emphasis and intensification of support for the health of aging workers, including responsibility for the life of individual workers
- Invest in the prevention of illness and injuries at the workplace
- Reduce the impact of the disease on work capacity and prevent occupational illness and accidents
- Promote functional capacity and develop it in physical, mental and social terms
- Enabling and supporting lifelong learning and the development of expertise through appropriate educational activities
- Take into account the value system of workers in managing changes in working life
- Working well and being able to support consistently and systematically
The general recommendations include:
- Promote a change in attitudes towards age at the individual level, thus positively influencing attitudes towards the age at the workplace
- Promote changes in the treatment of older people in the workplace
- Reduce the cost of aging in working life
- Introduce fairer methods of reducing working time and reducing the workload of aging workers
- To retire to prepare workers gradually over the last years before retirement
- Improve the care system for aging workers
- Promote the right to lifelong learning for all
- Promote the development of working life as a common goal for all generations at the workplace
These recommendations are aimed at enhancing working capacity by improving workplace comfort, reconciling work and family life, including mental and physical health care for employees.
The types of measures vary not only according to the employer but also according to the life cycle stage in which the employee is located. The above recommendations are based on the concept of personalistic work respecting the individuality and the context of each worker.
It is also important to respect individual phases of working life for the creation and implementation of individual forms of support at the workplace. Illmarinen (2005) presents the following stages of working life:
- Moving from study to working life (between 18-25 years)
- Reconciliation of family and working life (25 to 35 years)
- Changes in work roles and employer (between 35 and 45 years)
- Changes in personal resources (over 45 years)
- Changes in family and close people (over 50)
- Changes in access to work and retirement (over 55)
- Leaving work and retirement (over 60)
Working life includes more transitions that can be perceived as opportunities as well as crises. Heikkkinen and Tuomi (In: Illmarinen, 2005) draw attention to the fact that we are influenced by the way we translate ourselves and how others see us.