Afternoon Session #3: Practicing Inclusive Work Redesign with the ‘Better Work tool'

To register, please visit: https://payments.curtin.edu.au/FWI_CTWDC2024

In this interactive workshop we will demonstrate a tool that was recently developed by the Centre for Inclusive Organizations (CIAO - in collaboration with ‘De Baaningenieurs’) to facilitate inclusive work design. The tool is called ‘better work tool’, and facilitates participative work design. The tool stimulates discussions within teams and organizations regarding distribution of tasks, because with this tool staff can indicate and discuss whether there are alternatives for the current distribution of work within their team or department. This enables professionals to propose options for redesigning work. The tool is part of  CIAO’s Inclusive Work Redesign (IWR) method, which aims to develop an alternative reconfiguration of tasks within the organization that allows inclusion of people with some kind of disability, or other issue that prevents them to find work (i.e. having a distance to the labour market). Such a redistribution of work can create jobs with a larger variety of task requirements, which may facilitate including people with a ‘distance to the labour market’. This is also an option to recruit more staff in a tense labour market and thus it will allow professionals to focus on tasks that really matters to them (i.e. get rid of ‘illegitimate tasks’).

The ‘Better Work tool’ is an online tool that has been tested in various organizations, with the desired results. We will present some examples. The ’better work’ tool is currently in use by professionals from the Dutch Social Security Fund (UWV) when advising organizations to become more inclusive. The method can help organizations to solve various HRM related issues, such as difficulties to hire adequate staff, or to reduce work pressure and sickness absence in the organization.

We will demonstrate how the tool works in an interactive session with participants. First we will demonstrate the online tool in short, and subsequently participants will have the opportunity to work with the tool in which their own work can be used as a starting point.