How do employers cope with an ageing workforce?: Views from employers and employees

The effects of career development practices on expected retirement age of injured older workers

BACKGROUND

Work injury can put older workers at higher risk of disability and early retirement. Rapid population ageing has raised questions about the ability of older workers to continue working, especially for those who have experienced work injury. Career development practices have been highlighted as a form of rehabilitation support to enable longer working lives of injured older workers.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to explore whether career development practices contribute to higher expected retirement age for injured older workers (aged 45 and above).

METHOD

A total of 274 older Australian workers employed at large organisations completed a survey about their health, retirement intentions, work injury, and engagement with career development practices. Hierarchical multiple regression and two-way analysis of variances were used to analyse the data.

RESULTS

Work injury contributed to significantly lower expected retirement age for older workers. Work training and development predicted a significant amount of variance in expected retirement age of injured older workers, and enabled them to work to later retirement ages. There was no statistically significant difference in injured older workers' expected retirement age for those who participated in career discussion with their managers and those who did not participate.

CONCLUSION

Lack of career development support can affect injured older workers' ability to participate in employment. The findings highlight the importance for rehabilitation and human resource professionals to have a proactive and educative role in providing career development support to injured older workers.

Framing the Retirement Planning Behavior Model towards Sustainable Wellbeing among Youth: The Moderating Effect of Public Profiles

This study examines the effect of financial literacy, saving attitudes, social influence, and goal clarity on the retirement planning construct. In addition, it investigates how the public demographic profile moderates these relationships. The questionnaire approach was utilized to collect data by adopting and customizing the measurement scale from previous studies. A systematic random sampling approach was employed on 323 prospective respondents. The outcomes of this study illustrate that all relationships are significantly and positively associated with retirement planning using structural equation modeling (SEM). Furthermore, all moderator variables (gender, age, status, income, and education) moderated the relationships. The government should construct a holistic retirement planning model that is based on demographic characteristics.

Employees' Longer Working Lives in Europe: Drivers and Barriers in Companies

This paper identifies, within companies’ sectors of activity, predictors of Human Resource (HR) policies to extend working life (EWL) in light of increasing policy efforts at the European level to extend working life. Three types of EWL practices are investigated: the prevention of early retirement (i.e., encouraging employees to continue working until the legal retirement age); delay of retirement (i.e., encouraging employees to continue working beyond the legal retirement age); and, recruitment of employees who are already retired (i.e., unretirement). A sample of 4624 European organizations that was stratified by size and sector is analyzed in six countries. The main drivers for companies’ EWL practices are the implementation of measures for older workers to improve their performance, their working conditions, and to reduce costs. In industry, the qualities and skills of older workers could be more valued than in other sectors, while the adoption of EWL practices might be less affected by external economic and labor market factors in the public sector. Dutch and Italian employers may be less prone than others to extend working lives. These results underline the importance of raising employers’ awareness and increase their actions to extend employees’ working lives by adopting age management initiatives, especially in SMEs, and in the services and public sectors.

Understanding old-age adaptation policies in Europe: the influence of profit, principles and pressures

To cope with an increased proportion of older workers, organisations develop old-age adaptation policies. Two strategies underlie these policies: phasing out and activating. Although the existence of these strategies is widely recognised, the reasons for their presence have rarely been explored. We identify three arguments that explain the extent to which these strategies are present: profit, principles and pressures. We hypothesise that the intensity of the phasing out strategy is higher when it is profitable and easy to replace older workers, when employer's age norms support the principle of treating older workers differently, and when external pressures are high. We also hypothesise that the intensity of the activating strategy is higher when it is profitable but hard to replace older workers, when the employer's age norms reject the principle of treating older workers differently, and when external pressures are high. We use pooled regression analysis to study imputed managerial data from 5,410 organisations in seven European countries. Results confirm the importance of external pressures for the adaptation of both strategies, and of principles for activating. Although policy feasibility is important for the adaption of both strategies, the other profit variables showed mixed results. Net benefits of older workers to the organisation are only important for phasing out, and substitutability only for activating. This paper discusses the wider implications of the study.

Between Accommodating and Activating: Framing Policy Reforms in Response to Workforce Aging across Europe

In the past decade, European governments have implemented activating policy reforms to maximize older workers' employment and employability, representing a paradigmatic change in approaches to work and retirement. This study isolates the factors that explain the relative success and failure of competitive frames that are either in favor of or against activating policies in European news coverage, by applying time-series analysis (ordinary least squares with panel-corrected standard errors) to monthly aggregated news coverage in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Spain over the timespan 2006-2013. The results show that pro-activating and counteractivating frames generally coincide in competitive framing environments. The pro-activating frame proliferated in times of high employment protection, whereas the counteractivating frame prevailed stronger in conservative compared with progressive newspapers, and gained momentum during the aftermath of the financial crisis and in times governments on the economic left were in power. The study advances knowledge of competitive issue framing by demonstrating how the economic, policy, and political context matters for the emergence and evolvement of competing frames. In addition, the findings contribute to the understanding of the factors that contribute to news representations that promote active aging in European news, which may foster support for policy reforms that sustain older workers' employability.

Labour force activity after 65: what explain recent trends in Denmark, Germany and Sweden?

In most OECD member countries labour force attachment, has increased in recent years not only in the age groups 60-64 years but also among people 65 years and older. Focus in this paper is on the trend in older workers' labour force participation in Denmark, Germany and Sweden since 2004. Main emphasis is given to people aged 65-69 years eligible for social security retirement programs from age 65. The gender aspect is included to accommodate different trends for women and men. To explain country differences in trends, the importance of changes in retirement policies of relevance for this age group and cohort relevant changes in education and health is examined and discussed. Further, country differences in the impact from education and health is examined. Results show that the largest increase in labour force participation among people aged 65-69 years has taken place in Sweden following by Germany, while the increase in Denmark is rather small. While the increase in Germany mainly seems to be a result of policy reforms, the increase in Sweden appear to be a result of a combination of policy changes and an increasing educational level. Financial incentives seem most important in Germany and only of minor importance in Denmark, where policy changes directed towards individuals above the age of 65 appear to have been too small so far to affect retirement behaviour significantly.

An ageing world and the challenges for a model of sustainable social change

Purpose

– Although the world is rapidly ageing, the alarming explosion of youth unemployment seems to have removed the workforce ageing issue as a priority from the policy agenda. The purpose of this paper is to test and investigate the main needs and willingness to work among the older population, as well as the main advantages for organizations employing older workers.

Design/methodology/approach

– The main research objectives were: first, to explore the effect of demographic and socio-economic predictors on an older person’s intention to work; and second, to focus on the main advantages that should induce organizations to retain older workers in their workplace. The paper is based on a survey and an interdisciplinary review of the literature.

Findings

– The study indicated that educational level led to improved active behaviours in the labour market. In other words, people who obtained a higher level of education showed a greater likelihood to desire a prolongation of working life, while lower educational attainment may have lessened the willingness and capacity of older people to remain in the workforce. The main benefits for organizations with older workers are highlighted.

Research limitations/implications

– The survey has a number of limitations: the sample is small and was completed with reference to a single country, making it difficult to generalize results beyond this country study; the questionnaire relied solely on a few areas, while it would be better to gather additional information; the survey only targeted retired people, while it would have been interesting to also collect answers from workers nearing retirement. The association between individuals’ educational levels and their intention to work in later life suggests that continued development of educational programmes for workers could favour greater retention in the workplace.

Practical implications

– As the ageing population is an increasing phenomenon, the participation of older people in the labour force and lifelong learning should become commonplace in the perspective of a more equitable society. The main challenge is to rethink retirement, by abolishing the mandatory retirement age and by providing more flexible work options.

Social implications

– Changes in national system and corporate strategies are required to meet the economic challenges of ageing populations.

Originality/value

– This study advances research on age management because it provided evidence that educational background plays a fundamental role in determining the willingness to return to work. In addition, the paper proposes a new integrated approach of sustainable social change.

Postretirement Career Planning

Many countries are exposed to challenges due to demographic change. Keeping employees in the workforce beyond retirement age could help counter these challenges. Thus, extending the knowledge on the process of postretirement career planning is important. Therefore, drawing on social cognitive career theory, we develop and test a model for postretirement career planning in this study. An online survey including measures of occupational self-efficacy, interest in occupation-related activities as well as postretirement career outcome expectations, intention, and planning activity was completed by 124 individuals working in different occupations in Germany. Participants were aged 49–65 years and 54% were male. Findings suggest that self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interest are important factors in postretirement career planning. Altogether the predictors accounted for 37% of variance in postretirement career intention and 9% of variance in planning activity. Based on our findings, we discuss options to foster postretirement career planning.