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Keeping people in employment until retirement age is a hot topic in the Netherlands, as it is across the rest of the European Union. A series of Dutch studies shows that workers in some sectors are more likely to be able and willing to work until retirement age and others less so, such as craft and manufacturing workers, construction workers and machine operators, transport workers and some in healthcare. People in supervisory roles are most likely to be happy to continue to work.

The nature of work is changing, not only in the Netherlands but throughout Europe. There is a growing demand for different types of products and services. These demands are influenced by technological developments and innovations, but also by globalization, which indicates the integration of national and regional economies. Under the influence of economic pressures, (international) competition between commercial organizations increased and extensive outsourcing of activities, mainly to low-wage countries, has led to a change in the type of business operations in which those ompanies engaged in. It is highly possible that this globalization has led to a flexibilization of the work process, with more part-time employment, temporary employment and independent contracting staff. Another effect may resulted in a changed labour market with an increased demand for staff in services and reduced employment opportunity in industry and agriculture. These changes occur against a background of a greying workforce in the Netherlands as well as in Europe. All in all we would expect a considerable change in the quality of work and health of workers. Studying these changes and their impact on the quality of work, health and productivity of both the worker and the organization is the core of the work at TNO Work & Employment. TNO Work & Employment - with about 150 employees – is a national center of knowledge on working life issues in the Netherlands. TNO as an organization – with about 4000 staff members- is the largest independent research and consultancy organization in the Netherlands, receiving structural, however partial, funding from the Dutch Government for innovative research and developments. In consultation with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, TNO Work & Employment seeks to develop new approaches to improve the quality of working life in a healthy, sustainable and productive organization. It supports the Dutch government as well as public organizations and the business community. Its major fields of research are the quality of work and health, social innovation and human capital, sustainable employment and sustainable productivity. TNO Work and Employment is a WHO Collaborating Center on Occupational Health, the Dutch representative in the Partnership for European Research in Occupational Safety and Health (PEROSH) and national correspondent for the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO; Eurofound), as well as member of the European Association of National productivity Centers (EANPC). This book is an update of the first edition of ‘Worklife in the Netherlands’, published in 2006, and reflects the major research areas of TNO Work & Employment. It presents recent work performed by researchers from TNO Work and Employment on topics that recently were or still are an issue for debate in the Dutch media, politics or a main topic in the national research agenda. The book starts out with a presentation of trends in the quality of work based on both Dutch and European data sets, providing a European benchmark for the Netherlands on quality of work. In a second chapter the focus is more on the development of health of the Dutch workforce, whereas the third chapter taps into the topic of sustainable employability. The fourth chapter presents the current status of the occupational health services in the Netherlands and future prospects on this topic are discussed. Chapter five pays attention to the quality of work and employment conditions of flex workers, a group of workers which appears to be growing particularly in the Netherlands. Chapter six focuses on the long history of government spending cuts and its consequences for the quality of work and productivity, and particularly addresses the developments in the public sector. The subject of the seventh chapter is ‘knowledge work’, which appears to be an emerging, although not often well defined topic. One who thinks this a purely academic debate is wrong, since this topic has emerged as a policy debate in countries of the EU and in the Netherlands, the Foreign National Employment Act was revised in 2009, making it easier for ‘knowledge workers from abroad’ to come and work in the Netherlands. The final chapter addresses workplace innovation in the Netherlands which is considered to be a prerequisite to achieve the EU 2020 objectives of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. With this update of ‘Worklife in the Netherlands’, I am confident that we present the reader a broad picture of interesting trends, research findings and conclusions as well as some forecasts related to the quality of work and employment in the Netherlands. I am proud the book is published and hope it will further stimulate international collaboration and discussion on the future of this important research area.

According to some theoretical approaches workplace innovation is the implementation of new and combined interventions in work organisation, HRM and supportive technologies, and a strategy that improves the performance of organisations and the quality of jobs. Using data from a large-scale survey among companies in the Netherlands, it is demonstrated that there indeed is a positive relationship between workplace innovation on the one hand, and quantitative and qualitative organisational performance and commitment of employees on the other. No relation was shown between workplace innovation and the risk of work stress as reported by the employer. A relatively large flexible buffer was positively related to performance, but not to employee commitment. The presence of IT to support the work processes did have a weak relation with performance but did not show to have any relation to employee commitment. The conclusion is that workplace innovation matters to performance and to people in organisations.

Keeping people in employment until retirement age is becoming increasingly important in the Netherlands, as it is in the rest of Europe. A model has been developed for ‘sustainable employability’, and a first measurement created using the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey 2010 and Netherlands Employer Working Survey 2010. Sustainable employability profiles can be identified for several sub-groups, and some conclusions are summarised in this Information Update.

A recent TNO study found that using social media at work encourages innovative, active work behaviour among Dutch employees but does not increase emotional exhaustion due to information overload. Researchers discovered that social media use favoured innovative work most if its use was not in the context of company-wide information and communication technology (ICT) such as workflow or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which standardise work practices.

Nowadays, technology plays a central role in workplaces, enabling the speedy production of goods and services and facilitating communication and innovation processes. Its use is central to the policy aim for Europe to become "the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world" as set out in the Lisbon Strategy. With ongoing changes in the use of machines and computers, the nature of work is changing and so, too, are the demands and requirements placed on workers. This report examines the different categories of technology used in workplaces in order to gauge their influence on working conditions and health outcomes. The analysis is based on findings from the Fourth Working Conditions Survey carried out across 31 countries, including the 27 EU Member States. The findings reveal that it is not so much the technology itself but rather the associated working conditions that put workers' health and safety at risk.

The central research question of this paper is “What are the conditions for innovative behaviour of virtual team members?”. This is an important issue for companies given the impact of ICT on work. Virtual teams are assumed to be part of normal business life. This paper presents a preliminary model on three possibly relevant characteristics of virtual teams, and technological and organisational factors that moderate the relationship with innovation behaviour. Based on a survey among virtual team members (N=83 from 16 organisations with virtual teams) we present the results of a multilevel analysis. Main findings are that members spending more time in a virtual team score higher on innovative work behaviour. In virtual teams innovation behaviour can be stimulated byusing reciprocal IT tools (like document sharing), coordination by trust (not by output)and high job demands. Counter-intuitive is the result, that high task dependencies in virtual teams in highly complex surroundings are negatively associated with innovation.

In this article old versus new production concepts (NPCs) and employment relation instruments, are studied, separately and in combination, to find out which yield high employee performance and low job strain. Therefore, in 2005, TNO conducted coupled surveys among 149 supervisors and employees. In the past decades, in reaction to dysfunctions of Tayloristic and professional bureaucratic production concepts and employment relations, several new forms of employment relations and NPCs, appeared. Examples are the Socio-technical New Production Concept and customised employment relations. In this study both this NPC and customised performance targets demonstrate positive associations with employee performance. According to Socio-technical theory the design of employment relations is relatively unimportant, as human resources are mobilised primarily by the production concept. Our results for this NPC show the legitimacy of this assumption, because its high employee performance is irrespective of the employment relations. On the contrary, in the other NPCs and in professional bureaucracies, respectively employment relations characterised by an increased period needed for learning the job and customization of performance targets, can compensate for their lower employee performance. Furthermore, the results do not show increased job strain, due to new production concepts, or new employment relations.

Het op elkaar afstemmen van organisatie-eisen en medewerkerswensen is niet eenvoudig. De ingewikkeldheid aan de organisatiekant is voor een deel te verklaren door veranderingen in de functie van arbeid en arbeidsvraag. In de loop van de 20e eeuw is hierin een verschuiving te zien. Het was eerst voldoende als een arbeidskracht uitwisselbaar en vervangbaar was. Daarna was het noodzakelijk dat medewerkers breed en flexibel inzetbaar waren. Nu is in de kenniseconomie innovatie een belangrijke functie van arbeid. Organisaties die een groot beroep doen op innovatieve medewerkers worden geconfronteerd met bepaalde risico's. Zo kan de 'return on investment' in kwalificaties van specifieke of hoog opgeleide medewerkers onzeker worden door een onbeheersbare arbeidsmobiliteit. Maatwerk in de arbeidsrelatie door een dialoog tussen de partijen zou de risico's kunnen verkleinen. In deze bijdrage wordt een onderzoek besproken naar de vraag in hoeverre er al sprake is van dit type maatwerk in Nederland en wat de consequenties kunnen zijn voor de HR-functie. Het blijkt dat werknemers niet zo'n behoefte hebben aan veel keuzen. Ook ander onderzoek laat zien dat werknemers bij (te)veel keuzes een standaardpakket kiezen of alles bij het oude laten. De auteurs leiden hieruit af dat voor veel situaties een breed pakket met standaardarbeidsvoorwaarden waarbinnen beheersbare keuzes mogelijk zijn, zal volstaan. In de dialoog hiervoor kan de HR-professional een specifieke rol spelen.

The personal computer, computer networks and the Internet have brought the Union into the Information Age. These technological changes have inevitably led to changes in the work environment and the quality of working conditions. For the third time, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions has carried out a questionnaire-based survey on working conditions throughout the European Union, covering all Member States. Previous surveys were carried out in 1991 and in 1995. The latest survey was carried out in May 2000. The questionnaire addresses issues relating to the technological, physical, organisational and social work environments, as well as the impact of work on health. The Foundation has asked TNO Work and Employment to make a statistical analysis of the data relevant to work organisation, technology and working conditions. In addition, trends based on a comparison with previous Foundation surveys will be highlighted. Whenever relevant and possible, results and trends are compared to other data sources. The 'job demands-job control' is used and broadened for the new technological work situations.