A Sustainable Working Life

The workplace can be an important arena for creating a sustainable working life while maintaining health. Today, it is often an untapped resource. This includes occupations with high physical strain where educational requirements are low, as well as occupations where employees experience lower social support, high demands, and low control.

Sustainable well-being at work means balancing the demands of the job with the individual's functional capacity. Using the workplace as an arena to foster sustainable occupational health requires interventions that enable individuals to be able to, cope with, and desire to work throughout their entire career. However, this must be accompanied by measures in the work environment to organize and design jobs in a way that reduces workplace risks.

Successful project initiative with Uppsala University

At Hults Bruk in Åby, blacksmiths have been casting and hammering steel for 300 years—a heavy and monotonous job that has worn out many people. But now, that is about to change.

In collaboration with researchers from Uppsala University, the staff now have the opportunity to exercise during working hours to prevent repetitive strain injuries. A training facility has been set up in the workshop building where employees can train for strength and endurance according to individually developed programs. 30 minutes a day, four days a week.

The project is part of a larger research program called “A Sustainable Work Life,“ led by Kristina Eliasson, a researcher at the Department of Medical Sciences at Uppsala University.

Site Manager Thomas Strid sees the project of exercising during working hours as an investment for the future.

Thomas Strid, Site Manger at Hults Bruk (Image: SVT)

“We've embraced these principles and organized a job rotation that includes physical training during working hours. Our goal is to increase the variety in work demands, alternating between heavier and lighter tasks. By incorporating physical training into the job rotation, we are investing in health-promoting practices,“shares Thomas.

Watch the a SVT reportage at Hults Bruk to learn more about the project here (in Swedish)

Source: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/ost/yxsmeder-pa-hults-bruk-ska-trana-pa-arbetstid-for-att-inte-slitas-ut