Ageing Workforce Program

Julie Nielsen

Executive Director, Health and Safety

WorkSafe Victoria

WorkSafe Victoria’s Executive Director of Health and Safety Julie Nielsen will share insights on the OHS regulator’s perspective on health, safety and wellbeing and an ageing Victorian workforce, with a focus on mental injury and the practical steps employers can take to reduce risks and create healthier workplaces.

Prof Kathleen Riach

Professor of Management

Monash University

Over 1 million women in the Australian labour force are currently experience menopausal transition, yet it still remains a silenced, stigmatised issue that organizations fail to consider. Drawing on internationally recognised evidenced based research, Professor Riach highlights some of the potential physiological, psychological and psychological symptoms associated with menopause that can have significant implications for health and wellness at work. Specifically, this presentation will

• Highlight how workplace cultures and practices may exacerbate symptoms
• Underscore best practice surrounding menopause transition support and its relationship to broader later life health and wellbeing strategies
• Provide advice on how to develop a menopaus-itive strategy in your organization

Brendan Charles

Partner

Sparke Helmore Lawyers

For employers who have a genuine and reasonable concerns about an employee’s ability to do their job because of their age, including performing it safely, Brendan will outline a process that may be followed to enable an employer to manage the process to determine an employee’s fitness for work and their ongoing employment. The process is designed to navigate the various legal obligations and risks that may apply. Relevant cases of interest will also be discussed.

Dr Sarah Cotton

Co-Founder/Director

Transitioning Well

An increase in the ageing workforce brings both challenges and opportunities for employers. Paradoxically, while many businesses appear to recognise the importance of managing this transition in age demographics, few appear to have done anything strategic in response. Dr. Sarah Cotton will facilitate a practical discussion around the shifting culture and considerations of an ageing workforce including:

• The significant of the transition and importance of taking a proactive approach;
• Best practice strategies across the three pillars: Recruitment; Retention and Retirement;
• Overall leadership considerations, including identified mature age workplace practices and dementia friendly workplaces; and
• A range of resources to support the transition.

“The ageing workforce has been identified as one of the six megatrends in WHS and workers’ compensation over the next 20 years” (CSIRO, 2018).

Professor Philip Taylor

Associate Dean Research

Federation University Australia

Megan Hansson

Learning & Development Consultant

EML

With Australia’s workforce ageing and approaching retirement, employers need to implement strategies to retain, recruit and support mature workers.

This presentation is designed to provide an overview of Australia’s current and future workforce demographics as well as describing the challenges and practical strategies for managing the ageing workforce

Terry Wong

General Manager

Move 4 Life

The impact of mental health disorders in the workplace is well documented. What is less discussed is the interplay between musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and mental health issues.

New research has found that almost 30% of people who have suffered a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) were receiving treatment for depression 12-months later.

Work-related MSDs have been shown to contribute to loss of work time, pain, disturbed sleep, reduced physical activity and increased levels of disability. All of these factors have also been shown to potentially contribute to poor mental health outcomes.

During this session, participants will discover:

• The latest research on the co-morbidity of musculoskeletal injuries and mental health disorders
• How moving better can help you live better – the impact of reducing sprains & strains on mental health
• Real-life examples within the workplace

Campbell McGlynn

EGM People and Culture

IRT Group

Case Study: IRT Group

IRT Group are a large aged care provider with 2600 employees. The diverse and complex nature of the services delivered by IRT to our current and future clients present real challenges and obstacles in ensuring the physical safety of all our employees. Campbell and his team have implemented a range of strategies that have dramatically improved safety performance over the past three years. The Move 4 Life program was at the heart of these initiatives. The Move 4 Life SYSTEM is a comprehensive health, wellness and safety change program that dramatically reduce the risk, incidence and severity of sprain & strain injuries in any manual handling environment and build physical resilience in an ageing or sedentary workforce.

Andy Lewis

Director & Principal Consultant

WHS Australia

“We are getting older and working longer,” Lewis highlights. In this talk, Lewis takes a look at today’s statistics and highlights the basic things he believes organisations do poorly when it comes to our chronologically gifted workers.

In the year 2000, it was forecast that by 2020 around 40% of the developed world’s workforce would be aged 55 years or over. The numbers just keep getting higher and higher. By 2025, our best guesstimate is that 20% of Australia’s workers will be over the age of 65, compared to 6% of workers who were over the age of 65 in the year 2000. It’s clear that business and Risk Managers need to start paying attention to the more mature.

Lewis looks at the normal ageing process and highlights some strategies that we can all employ, not only aid the workforce over the age of 50, but in theory, all workers within a business.

“It’s amazing how some businesses think that we need to re-invent the wheel when we look at older workers. We seem to now be scared to recognise age and maturity and the skills and experience that this demographic has,” Lewis says. “The fact that the Department of Labour in the USA identified that workers aged over the age of 64 are at three times greater risk of falling than their younger counterparts is fascinating. Yet technology could play a key disruptor in some industries to minimise this kind of risk.”

The “Whole of Life” concept for risk is something that can make a significant difference for those looking to build a resilience model as we approach 2020. “The earlier we educate children about risk the more aware they become, and this is one way to facilitate generational change,” explains Lewis. Lewis references a recent ILO study which shows how this new way of thinking will benefit our next generation of workers as they approach their retirement age…….no matter what that is.

Lewis offers up what he believes are the “solutions for success”, as well as opinions on how to engage and enhance the working environment, not only for our more mature colleagues, but from a whole business perspective.