The World Economic Forum (WEF) has stated that a fourfold rise in over 65s by 2050 is the ‘financial equivalent of climate change’. With this trend in mind, office design must start taking into consideration the needs of an ageing workforce, ensuring their health and wellbeing is supported.
With the life expectancy of people born today now being over 100 and retirement age heading towards 70, the WEF has warned that people could end up spending more years in the office in later life in order to provide financial security.
While office design is often focused on encouraging and enabling productivity, doing this and meeting the needs of a multigenerational workforce takes another level of thinking.
Some of the factors that affect an ageing workforce and should be considered in your office design are:
- Decreased circulation: people feel the cold more as they age, so how can temperature control be made to work for everyone?
- Weakening of eyesight and hearing: how can office technology, lighting and layouts adapt to people’s changing needs and abilities?
- Loss of bone density: what office furniture and seating will help prevent or minimise the ailments that can come with later life?
To discuss how office design can help you provide a professional working environment that suits staff of all ages, please get in touch.