From October 17 – 20, everything will revolve around a safe, secure and healthy workplace
Statement by Joachim Schäfer, Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, on A+A 2017 in Düsseldorf, Germany (October 17 – 20, 2017)
Our working environment has changed in many different ways. The needs of the workforce have increased in complexity, requiring great flexibility and mobility. In particular, the focus is currently on the digitization of the working environment and the impact of those processes on working conditions. A representative study was recently conducted by the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB). According to the “DGB Good Work Index”), 82% of employees felt that their work was impacted by digitization processes and 60% even described this impact as high or very high. The respondents predominantly reported a greater strain, growing workloads and an increasing need for multitasking. A majority also said they were experiencing more monitoring and checking. But while nearly all workplaces are now digitized and customized, demographic change has also created new challenges and opportunities. Measures to maintain a person’s working capacity are therefore just as important as industrial safety and corporate security. They improve people’s lives by protecting them from health and safety hazards. At the same time, they increase a company’s productivity and thus also its competitiveness.