New York workplace safety professionals have to communicate with workers of all ages and have their messages about workplace safety understood. While it is important that the experts not rely on stereotypes to deliver effective messages, it is important that they take into account certain age-related trends.
There are the effects that aging has on an individual’s physical ability and health that have to considered. Because many workers are remaining on the job well into their 70s, safety professionals have to develop policies that can reduce the chances that an injury will occur to older workers because they are not as healthy or physically fit as they used to be.
A worker’s familiarity with digital technology is another a factor safety professionals should keep in mind. Younger workers tend to be more at ease with the technology, primarily because it was a part of their lives as they grew up and is an aspect of their everyday lives beyond work. According to a Pew Research Center survey that was conducted in 2013, 55 percent of people in the United States had a smartphone, but just 18 percent of people 65 years of age or older owned such a device. However, the same survey determined that 71 percent of older adults who accessed the internet did so every day, indicating that older individuals tend to use technologies extensively once they try them.
People who sustain injuries on the job are usually eligible to file a claim for workers’ compensation benefits. The acceptance of these benefits preclude the filing of a separate lawsuit against the employer, although in some cases a lawsuit can be filed if a non-employer third party such as the manufacturer of a defective machine part was the cause of the accident.
