Technological Innovations in the Workplace: Help or Burden?

Background:

With the aging of the population comes the aging of the workforce. Due to increased costs of living and medical expenses, many older people have to work for a longer lifetime period before they can afford to retire. At the same time, technological innovations are changing the workplace. The objective of our study was to evaluate how older workers experience technology in the workplace and what factors drive a positive or negative experience.

Methods:

As part of the Construction-Wearables-Digitization-Study (ConWearDi), we conducted a survey in three construction companies to assess the experience with technology of young and older workers. In addition, we assessed subjectively perceived demands at work, cognitive functioning, and symptoms of depression and burnout.

Results:

On the conference, we present the comparison of the experience of technology at work between young and older workers. In addition, we show findings from structural equation models evaluating to what extent the experience of technology is dependent on the level of demand associated with its use, the level of cognitive functioning of the individual worker, and symptoms of depression or burnout.

Conclusion:

Our findings suggest that a positive experience of technology in the workplace is dependent on factors associated with usability. The benefit from technological innovations at work may be much greater, if new technologies would adapt their usability according to the physical and cognitive abilities of the workers.