An Aging Workforce and Work Environment: A Hotel Case Study in China

The demographic trends of decreasing fertility rate and increasing life expectancy result in many older people remaining in the workforce. The biggest challenge for organizations is to establish a productive and safe working environment for their aging workers as their physical and cognitive capabilities decrease. The physical environment can influence workers' productivity, well-being, and safety. First, this study provides a literature review on how older workers' physical and cognitive conditions change. Second, a survey was conducted with older employees in a hotel located in Xi'an, China to understand the older employees' job satisfaction level, current diseases, possible reasons for their diseases or low productivity at work, and their preference on the future workspace. Lastly, this paper suggests several workplace strategies including ergonomic design in the workspace, flexible office layout, and improvement of indoor air quality to support the aging workforce with their working environment. Besides, the method can be used by other similar organizations to understand their aging employees' concerns and needs and to inform how to design the workplace for the aging employees.