Work ability—Professor Juhani Ilmarinen
Ageing and the quality of working life came into the spotlight recently when Professor Juhani Ilmarinen visited Australia. Professor Ilmarinen is highly regarded in Finland and internationally for his research, development and pioneering in ageing and the quality of working life. He formerly worked as the Director of the Work & Life course at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
Comcare hosted Professor Ilmarinen at two events during his visit to Australia, the Work Ability Forum in Canberra on 15 February, and at a dinner for business leaders in Melbourne on 24 February.
The Work Ability Model and the Work Ability Index (WAI) were developed under Professor Ilmarinen and used extensively in Europe to identify key areas that can be influenced to reduce barriers to a life in work.
Professor Ilmarinen presented his model of ‘work ability from theory to practice’ and outlined how thirty years ago he was faced with the question ‘How long can we work?’ In a society with skill shortages and an aging workforce we now ask the question, ‘How can we tap into the talent that we already have in the workforce and remove the barriers to a life in work?’
In a thought provoking address, Professor Ilmarinen said the human ageing process has continued virtually unchanged for thousands of years. However, the demands of work are changing and barriers to continuing work emerge as a person gets older.
He believes rather than trying to change workers to adapt to work, we should redesign the work, and the processes around work, to allow people to remain at work for longer.
Professor Ilmarinen said although it is important to address the health and wellbeing of workers, it is vital to build the capability of workplace leaders to support older employees and those with health issues to influence values and the motivation of workers and leaders.
Under his model, promotion of work ability depends on four targets influenced by various factors:
- good work
- work arrangements
- flexibility
- leadership
- support and feedback - good health
- lifestyles
- hobbies
- OHS - positive attitudes
- appreciation
- trust
- commitment
- fair treatment - good competence
- on-the-job training
- learning methods
Professor Ilmarinen believes that leadership at line manager level is the key factor that influences work ability. He said it is important that managers and supervisors understand the positives to ageing. They must also be able to think positively around ways to create work and workplaces that remove barriers to allow people to continue productively in work as they get older.
Where to from here?
Comcare, led by the Work Health team, will explore the concepts and ideas around the work ability model. In line with Comcare’s strategic priority to ‘promote worker health, wellbeing and resilience’ we will identify ways these concepts can be incorporated into our own organisation and our jurisdictional partner’s organisations with the aim of improving the ability of the federal worker to participate in work.
Above: Professor Juhani Ilmarinen
Left to right: Paul O’Connor—Comcare, Professor Juhani Ilmarinen, Steve Somogyi—SRCC Commissioner