Supporting Healthy Ageing at Work

An image showing three images of an interface simulated to look like the screen of a large format smart phone like an iPhone or Android device. On the left is a "Reflect" screen of an interface, in green, which shows a chat between an individual and a system or person offering organisational support. In the middle a "Review" screen, in yellow, which shows a graph mapping factors including: Stress, Balance, Enviro, Mind, Body, Sleep. Beneath the graph are three options (a, b and c) regarding different states of feeling mentally, physically, how the person is valued. On the final right hand shot the interface is labelled "Actions" and is blue. The screen shows three buttons at the top: Resources, Personal Actions, Changes to Work. The main screen includes three types of changes that could be made to alter working environment, patterns, or responsibilities.

Outputs from this project

Kiersten Hay, Larissa Pschetz, Billy Dixon, Belinda Steffan, Jakov Jandric, Thanasis Tsanas, Kate Sang, and Wendy Loretto. 2024. “Working it Out”: Exploring How Digital Technologies Could Support Healthy Ageing at Work. In Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI ’24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 24, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1145/3679318.3685357

Supporting Healthy Ageing at Work (SHAW) was a 3-year, large scale interdisciplinary project funded by UKRI Social, Behavioural and Design Research Programme. The project aims and outcomes address an increasingly urgent need to find ways to support work in mid-to-later life in response to significant demographic shifts in the UK and globally.

One of key outcomes of the project is SHAW App, a bespoke web-based service which uses a combination of self-assessed questions drawn from validated scales and AI (LLM) technology to help individuals Reflect on and Review their health and work, and then take Action to get the support they need.

The App is designed to be applicable for a range of use contexts such as intense work periods, preventative health management, annual reviews and career reviews.

The Reflect and Review aspects of the App have been developed in a proof-of-concept prototype, and tested during the project. The development of the App continues beyond project SHAW, with more user testing with employees and employers, and the development of Action aspect.

The project has finished, but our work continues.

Collaborators: Wendy Loretto (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Business School), Belinda Steffan (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Business School), and Jakov Jandric (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Business School)

Website: https://www.shaw.business-school.ed.ac.uk/

Funder: InnovateUK

Project dates: 2021 – 2024