Equal-Works

The aim of Worklife Adaptability Partnership (WAP) Scotland was to provide businesses and individuals solutions to many of the barriers facing them in today's modern workplace. This was achieved by using innovative forms of training and employment solutions incorporating state of the art information communication technologies.

Background

The Worklife Adaptability Partnership (WAP) was a group of 15 partners committed to, and involved in, projects that engaged both employers and employees in challenging traditional workplace practices: projects that encouraged innovation, thereby promoting equality in the workplace.

Objectives

The main objectives of the DP were:

• To research previous and ongoing EU funded activity to provide a focus on which to build project design activity specific for this theme.
  
  
• To support the adaptability of firms particularly in creating schemes or toolkits to help employers look at new work/life balance practices for their employees.
  
  
• Work – life balance policies have been driven by many factors including:
  
  
  • A tight labour market caused by low employment rates and skills shortages.
    
    
  • An increased demand for services to be delivered outside the traditional working day.
  
  
• The need for businesses to reduce costs caused by absenteeism, work-related stress and loss of experienced staff after maternity leave, and to maximise return on investment in recruitment and training by retaining staff.
  
  
• To ensure geographical coverage, thus helping to address discrimination/inequality in rural and urban areas and across a variety of target groups.
  
  
• To encourage an innovative approach within firms and employees in the use of ICT and new technologies.
  
  
• To increase individual adaptability and empowerment of the workforce, particularly in workers aged 50 and over, by developing new ways of working.