The social and healthcare sector is one of the strongest employment sectors in the region. Organisations such as care facilities, workshops for the disabled, childcare facilities and mobile care services are not only particularly relevant for the region's residents; other sectors such as industry also benefit from the services provided by the social and healthcare sector. However, this sector has been struggling with a significant shortage of skilled labour for some time now and the health burdens on employees are increasing. In order to attract skilled workers and retain them in the long term, social and healthcare organisations need to make their workplaces more innovative and healthier. This includes making working time models more flexible, exploiting the opportunities offered by digitalisation and strengthening employees' skills.
Better working conditions:KompIGA aims to strengthen the regional social and healthcare sector
This is where the new "Competence Centre for Innovative and Healthy Work in the Social and Healthcare Sector in the Alb-Bodensee-Iller Region (KompIGA)" comes in, which was launched on 1 April 2024 under the coordination of Reutlingen University. As a "Regional Competence Centre for Labour Research", KompIGA is being funded by the BMBF for five years with 8.5 million euros. In addition to HNU and the coordinator Reutlingen University, the St. Elisabeth Foundation, Die Zieglerschen, the welfare organisation for Baden-Württemberg, Lebenshilfe Donau-Iller, Diakonie Deutschland (Baden), Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences and Kempten University of Applied Sciences are also involved in the competence centre.
"With the digitalisation of healthcare, KompIGA is directly linked to an HNU research focus," explains Prof. Dr Johannes Schobel, research professor in the field of digital medicine and care at HNU. "Together with our partners, we want to develop reference implementations and jointly transfer them into practice. The plan is to record violence towards employees in an application scenario, document it in a structured manner and take relevant measures. Findings will always be shared with all partners so that solutions can also be utilised by other interested parties." HNU will receive around 950,000 euros in funding for this project over the coming years.
Contact person
Prof. Dr. Johannes Schobel
