Active@Work: Innovative Strategies and Alternative Working Arrangements to Promote Active Ageing

Active@Work addressed the sub-theme of management of demographic change. The main priority issue addressed was development and piloting of alternative working arrangements at enterprise level to improve the quality of work for ageing and older workers which includes maintaining the health and well-being of workers. It consists of different means such as rethinking the way work is organised, adapting work processes and making working arrangements more flexible. Active@Work aimed to increase the ability of enterprises to utilise alternative working arrangements as a mean to prevent the early retirement of their employees. The second objective of the proposed project is to intensify European level discussion, evaluation, co-operation and supportive activities concerning alternative work arrangements for aging labour force. To realize this a Transnational Dilogue Forum (TDF) was established.

Active@Work project was divided into three sub-projects which were implemented in three Europen countries, Finland, Germany and Italy, applying different approaches as they examine the various steps of the adoption and implementation process of the alternative working arrangements.

• Concepts of alternative working arrangements (Germany)
  Concepts of alternative working arrangements for older workers, based on and derived from the specific problem situations in three user organisations, were developed. These concepts were implemented on a pilot basis in these organisations and thoroughly evaluated throughout the entire piloting process.
• Innovative Strategies to Promote Active Ageing – Seniority Social Certification (Italy)
  The Italian subproject aimed to find a common set of indicators that companies can voluntarily use to estimate their performances in the promotion of active ageing and to define a guideline of Seniority Social Certification. The subproject consisted in a study and enquiry phase (discussion with national partners and stakeholders, the national and international review and the analysis of Lecco district industrial scenario), a project development phase (design of and testing a Seniority Social Certification protocol) and a final dissemination phase.
• Individualised Working Facilities for Ageing Employees (Finland)
  The main objective of the sub-project was to enable and support sustainable well-being and therefore motivation to work longer. The sub-project aimed at designing concepts of working arrangements, services and environments for differently-abled ageing employees. Design was based on user centred design and participatory design practises. Thus, the sub-project consisted of user studies, interpretation sessions, workshops, concept design and evaluation of design concepts.