Go straight to the HOW toolkit here

In Australian businesses, the most frequent and costly work-related harms are attributed to musculoskeletal disorders and psychological injuries.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that in 2014-15, 30% of Australians had at least one work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) and that the prevalence increases with age. Further, WMSD’s are responsible for 41% of early retirements of workers aged 45-65 years.

For older workers, psychological injury worsened by the impact of WMSD may lead to a loss of employment and early retirement. This increases the risk of functional decline, social isolation, and often decreases physical activity which further increases the risk of other comorbid chronic conditions (e.g. dementia, cardiovascular disease) and death.

Enter the Healthy Older Worker (HOW) Toolkit!

This toolkit is designed to facilitate the identification and assessment of the impact of an ageing workforce on WHS systems, and to guide the design of a healthy, safe and sustainable work for older workers, applicable across a wide range of workplaces.

Evidence based

Through partnership with Edith Cowan University and the University of New South Wales, we have undertaken an extensive systematic literature review and two different surveys to understand the types and causes of injuries in older workers.

Industry Tested

Once designed, we took the Toolkit out into the workforce to see if it could actually be used and improve the work experience of older workers.

One WHS manager used it to talk to older workers in the field,

"So we went out onto a production line. There was four of us. And we used the toolkit to ask some questions and to dive deeper into the things that, we sort of knew but not the detail behind…it... It turned out to be a bit of an eye opener ... looking at the questions from a different perspective."

Another was challenged by his assumptions,

"The person that we actually spoke to on this occasion is an older worker as well. But his perspective was he enjoyed the work he enjoyed the heavy part of it because he's a fit person…that was very different to what we thought."

Want to know more?

To work with the Centre, or stay up to date with our research, head to our Engage with us page.

Further reading

This research partnership was created out of The ageing demographic of the Australian workforce: prevention of work health and safety harm research expression of interest (EOI). Read more about this EOI here.

Interested in the research that went into the toolkit?

Technical reports are available by request due to scientific publication.