How to Combat Injury Risk in an Ageing Workforce
We’ve got an ageing workforce that are more prone to injury. It’s a common line, or some version of it, that I hear from safety leaders all the time. It’s…
We’ve got an ageing workforce that are more prone to injury.
It’s a common line, or some version of it, that I hear from safety leaders all the time. It’s generally voiced as a problem that can’t be solved, more something to manage than something to actually address.
But what if getting older doesn’t have to mean getting injured?
Here’s the part of that belief I challenge. It’s not wrong that an ageing workforce carries more injury risk. It does. What’s wrong is treating that risk as fixed, something to plan around rather than something you can reduce. I qualified as a physiotherapist thirty-five years ago and have spent twenty-five of those years working in injury prevention; long enough to build a clear picture of the key factors driving that risk.
These three things generally build up alongside age, and the great thing is that all 3 can be improved, deliberately, at any age.
First: mobility loss. The old adage “if you don’t use it, you lose it” applies here. As people age, they lose range of movement in key joints, hips and thoracic spine being the main culprits. When mobility goes, safe technique becomes physically impossible to execute. If the hip joints can’t move sufficiently, load transfers to the back and knees when bending and lifting. If the thoracic spine is restricted, the load goes to the neck and shoulders. You can attempt to teach someone to bend and lift effectively, but if their hips haven’t got the mobility, success is limited.
Second: ineffective technique. Moving effectively, whether you’re young or not so young, is a key part of preventing injury. Most people have been moving ineffectively for years, and that itself contributes to the loss of mobility. The traditional instruction to “keep your back straight, bend your knees” has led to poor movement patterns and restricted hip joint movement, which feeds straight back into the mobility loss described above. Age doesn’t need to mean lack of mobility. Look at traditional cultures across Asia, where it’s common to see elderly men and women squatting flat footed with the ease of a five year old. They haven’t lost that ability because they’re old, they’ve kept it because they’ve never stopped using it. Poor technique isn’t just a symptom of ageing, it’s a key contributor to the loss of mobility in the first place.
Third: a shrinking “margin of error.” As you age, your body becomes less forgiving. A 25 year old who lifts something slightly wrong often gets away with it. Recovers fast. Back at it the next day. A 55 year old doing the exact same thing doesn’t get the same buffer. The same small error costs more, and it takes longer to come back from.
Mobility loss, ineffective technique and a shrinking “margin of error”: all three working together. That’s the real driver of injury in an ageing workforce, not age itself.
There are older workers in your business right now who never get injured.
Same age. Same job. Same physical demand. They just move well.
We call that Physical Intelligence. And if they can do it, it can be taught.
The difference isn’t luck or genetics. It’s that they’ve maintained adequate mobility in the fundamental joints and they move with better patterns. Their hips hinge properly. Their thoracic spine has sufficient mobility. Their arms move effectively to avoid strain through the neck and shoulders, and they use their legs to lift, not their back. They didn’t learn this in a manual handling course. They learned it somewhere, maybe sport, maybe a trade mentor, maybe just trial and error over decades. Or maybe, like those traditional cultures, they just never unlearned it.
And because their bodies are less forgiving when something goes wrong, coaching older workers to move well is even more important, not less.
Adequate mobility isn’t about being flexible like a gymnast. It’s about having the bare minimum to move the body effectively and safely. That’s the foundation.
Pair that with proper technique: how you bend, how you lift, how you avoid twisting, and you address both sides of the equation. Mobility gives you the capacity to move safely. Technique shows you how. Together, they give older workers the margin they need when age has made their bodies less forgiving.
If you want to keep your older workers injury free, capable and productive, here’s where I’d start.
Step 1. Mobility
Run a programme that builds adequate mobility in the key areas required for effective movement. Two of the most critical are the hip joints and the thoracic spine.
Hip mobility is essential for effective bending and lifting, something we all do constantly, at work and away from it. Poor hip mobility is one of the leading contributors to low back pain.
The thoracic spine, the area between your shoulder blades, commonly stiffens as we age, made worse by a modern Western lifestyle built around sitting. That stiffness has knock-on effects. It reduces shoulder mobility and is a major contributor to shoulder injuries such as rotator cuff impingement. Because the thoracic spine can’t move properly, the body compensates elsewhere, and the neck and lower back often have to pick up the slack. Postural changes driven by that stiffness also inhibit key stabilising muscles, including the abdominals and glutes, both fundamental to protecting the lower back.
Step 2. Technique
Engage an effective, safe movement programme that teaches the fundamentals of safe movement based on the pain free worker, not the injured one. The focus needs to be on habit change, not just education. The great thing about this approach is that it’s the same programme for everyone. Younger workers can move just as poorly as your most experienced staff, so this isn’t an ageing workforce fix, it’s a foundation for your whole workforce.
And there’s a bonus. Training effective movement also improves hip joint mobility as a consequence, which in turn makes effective movement easier. It’s a reinforcing circle, better technique builds mobility, and better mobility makes technique possible.
Step 3. Embed
Make sure the programme is embedded and reinforced in the business, not delivered as a one off. A single education session is never going to bring lasting change.
To improve mobility, build in simple daily reinforcement, for example a three minute pre-start routine of easy mobility exercises that the whole team does together.
To improve movement, build a simple, repeatable coaching language that supervisors can use day to day. Not jargon. Not anatomy lessons. Simple cues tied to real tasks: toes follow nose to avoid twisting, shoulders in the power position, move at your hips. The workplace is too busy for lengthy instruction, and humans don’t learn that way either. Short, catchy language that everyone can remember and apply is what actually sticks.
Step 4. Beyond the job
Make the programme relevant to life, not just work. Older workers, and everyone else, care about more than the eight hours a day they spend at work. When they see the programme helps them outside work, engagement goes up and the habits stick. This isn’t just about fewer injury claims. It’s about quality of life.
You hear this objection a lot. “They won’t change. They’ve been doing it this way for 30 years.”
But not every older worker gets injured. They didn’t get there by accident. They learned it somewhere, even if informally. Physical Intelligence can be taught at any age if the training is practical, feels relevant, and they can feel the difference in their own body.
When people physically experience that a different way of moving feels better and easier, resistance drops fast. It’s not about convincing them with theory. It’s about letting them feel it.
I’ve seen it hundreds, if not thousands, of times over the last two and a half decades. No one wants to be in pain; they just haven’t been shown a solution that helps them.
You’re already losing them to injury, light duties and time off. The cost of that, in ACC levies, lost productivity and covering gaps, is higher than a few hours of targeted coaching.
And if the programme is built right, it embeds into daily work through small chunks of supervisor coaching, pre-start exercises and encouragement to stay committed to their own physical wellbeing. One training session of a few hours gives the business and the individual the ammunition to protect against injury for years to come.
An ageing workforce isn’t a liability. It’s an asset with industry knowledge and experience you can’t replace.
The real problem is mobility loss that makes safe technique impossible, ineffective technique that was never properly taught, and a shrinking “margin of error” that makes small movement mistakes costly.
Teach the foundation: adequate mobility in the fundamental joints. Coach the basics of safe movement properly. And your older workers can stay injury-free, capable and productive for years longer.
Your older workers have the ‘wily knowhow’ that takes years to build. It’s a shame to lose them to injury when it can be prevented. If you want to find out more about reducing injuries in the ageing worker, or any worker, email me at alison@provention.co.nz, and we can set up a time to discuss.