Home

  • Home
    • » e-Newsletters

Take care of the needs of your aging work force

Radiology Administrator's Compliance and Reimbursement Insider, June 1, 2008

American productivity will likely depend on the efforts of workers aged 50 or older, according to a new policy brief released by the Boston College Center on Aging & Work.

This is particularly true in the healthcare industry, says Kenneth Mitchell, PhD, vice president of health and productivity development at Unum, an employee benefits and disability insurance company in Columbus, OH.

Despite the fact that the baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age, many boomers expect to remain in the workplace, says Mitchell, who led the study “Health and Productivity in the Aging American Work Force: Realities and Opportunities.”

“By 2014, the 55-plus age group will possibly constitute 21% of the work force,” says Terry Jo Gile, MT(ASCP), MA, Ed, The Safety Lady®, a healthcare safety expert in North Fort Myers, FL. They will remain in the work force in order to retain their incomes, their health benefits in addition to Medicare, and their contact with close colleagues.

With the high number of boomers in the retirement age bracket and fewer new hires available to take their place, it’s important to keep current, experienced staff members happy. Plan to keep senior staff members engaged and productive. Such engagement leads to higher job satisfaction, says Mitchell. The experience your senior workers bring to your facility can be invaluable, Gile adds.

Tips to accommodate older workers

Below are some general ways to keep boomer staff members on board:

➤ Examine risk factors for employees. Your imaging facility should identify and reduce risk factors, says Mitchell. Look at absenteeism in your facility and the reasons for it. While examining patterns of lost time in the Unum disability database, Mitchell found that 75% of employees on long-term disability were older than 40. Musculoskeletal ailments and cancer claims represented the most common reasons for absenteeism for workers in that age group, Mitchell says.

➤ Set policies that invite and reward worksite
flexibility. Once you have a sense of risk factors and lost-time patterns, develop policies and practices that keep the worksite flexible, Mitchell says. Strategies such as flexible extended leave policies and transitional work help keep employees productive during a medical predicament. This flexibility will allow your facility to adjust to employees’ common day-to-day impairments as well as catastrophic health issues.

Be sure to address job satisfaction for all workers, as workers who have low job satisfaction are more likely to stay off work. For example, some imaging companies with multiple facility locations allow staff members to transfer during the winter months to facilities located in warmer climates in order to accommodate their needs, says Mitchell.

➤ Reward employees for accepting responsibility for personal well-being. A healthy work force reduces lost time and healthcare costs, says Mitchell. You may be able to increase your staff members’ well-being by simply encouraging healthier lifestyle choices. Consider offering discounts for fitness programs, smoking cessation courses, on-site screening programs, or other
items.

➤ Offer support services for the care of family
members. Boomers often find themselves caring for three generations of family—parents, children, and sometimes even grandchildren. Employers need to understand the importance of the work-life balance, says Mitchell. For example, some hospitals have child care and elder care facilities.

➤ Promote generational equity. Reduced productivity due to ailments concerns more than just the over-60 age bracket, says Mitchell. Foster open communication among workers on sensitive issues such as salary and contributions to the workplace regardless of age. Workplaces have been seeing greater amounts of age-related discrimination complaints in the past five years, says Mitchell.

➤ Monitor programs. You should monitor all of your programs to ensure that they are working for your employees, says Mitchell. Ask staff members to complete regular reviews of the systems you put in place. This can be done in survey form or via confid-ential hotlines.

Editor’s note: For more information, visit Boston College’s Center for Aging and Work Web site at www.agingandwork.bc.edu.

Insider sources

Terry Jo Gile, MT(ASCP), MA, Ed, The Safety Lady®, 4085 Hancock Bridge Parkway, Suite 111–129, North Fort Myers, FL 33903, 877/894-7004; tjgile@worldnet.att.net.

Kenneth Mitchell, PhD, vice president, health and productivity development, Unum, Return to Work Programs, 445 Hutchinson Avenue, Suite 240, Columbus, OH 43235, 800/282-4656; kmitchell@unum.com.

Most Popular