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As the global population ages there is an imperative to enhance labour participation of older workers in ways that support good physical and psychological health. However, there is limited guidance for organisations on how to do this effectively. This systematic review examined literature identified through four databases and a targeted web-search, yielding 39 PRISMA records (32 scholarly, seven grey literature) reporting workplace interventions aimed at improving the injury outcomes of older workers. The review revealed that organisational and composite interventions may be most effective, although an absence of robust research in this area and a scarcity of empirical evidence-based interventions known to improve injury outcomes for older workers was noted. Responding to these shortcomings, this article presents ‘A future research agenda for older worker health, safety and well-being interventions.’ This systems-based approach has a dual focus on organisational and composite interventions combined with robust research design. Practitioner summary: We conducted a systematic literature review of studies focussed on workplace interventions to improve the physical and psychological safety of older workers. Within the existing literature, evidence for effective interventions and guidance for organisations is weak. We present a future research agenda with a systems approach to address these gaps.

Per part del QUIT com a corresponsal d'Eurofound, la contribució a l'informe ha estat feta per l'Alejandro Godino., This report captures the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the quality of life of older citizens, including the impact on their well-being, finances, employment and social inclusion. It explores the effects on the use of care services and older people's reliance on other support. The report presents policy measures that have been implemented in EU Member States to support older people along all of the above-mentioned dimensions. These include measures to support independent living and schemes to support the labour market integration of older people or to prevent unemployment, all of which play a role in the quality of life of older citizens.

Organisations are challenged to extend working lives of older workers. However, there is little empirical evidence available on how organisations should do this. This study aims to fill this gap by testing the effect of Human Resource (HR) practices on perceived work ability and the preferred retirement age. Based on the Conversation of Resources theory, we expected that the use of HR practices has a positive effect on perceived work ability and preferred retirement age. We have conducted latent growth curve modelling to test our hypotheses amongst 12,444 employees aged 45 and older at four time points. The results indicate that developmental practices are positively related to work ability, whereas maintenance practices are negatively related to work ability and the preferred retirement age. Accommodative practices are negatively related to the intercepts of both outcomes but not to the slopes, whereas utilisation practices are not related to the outcomes at all.

The proportion of workers with chronic health conditions (CHCs) will increase over the years as pension reform is increasing the age of retirement in many European countries. This will increase the percentage of older adults with CHCs performing highly demanding work. This study sought to examine the association between common CHCs [cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, arthritis, respiratory and sleep disorders] and three domains of work stress in older Dutch workers. This study used data from the first wave of the NIDI Pension Panel Study for working adults aged 60–65 years (n = 6793). Logistic regression models examined the strength of association between CHCs and (1) general work stress, (2) emotional, and (3) physical demands. All five CHC were independently associated with one or more domains of stress. After including all CHCs in the model, CVD, sleep disorders, and arthritis were significantly associated with general stress. Respiratory disorders, sleep disorders, and arthritis were significantly associated with physical demands. Diabetes (1.25, 95% CI 1.01–1.53), sleep disorders (1.99, 95% CI 1.72–2.31), and arthritis (1.18, 95% CI 1.06–1.31) were significantly associated with emotional demands. Our findings demonstrate that work stress is associated with prevalent CHCs, and these conditions are differentially associated with several domains of work stress in adults approaching retirement. More research is needed to understand the causal relationship between CHCs and work stress. Such research may provide insights for effective workplace and public health interventions to ensure that older workers remain physically and mentally healthy, and productive through their working years.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify what work-related factors influence the continued participation of older workers in the workforce. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic quantitative literature review of the workforce participation literature identified 27 publications from 1995 to 2016 that examined the impact of work-related factors on older workers’ intention to continue working. Findings: Results show that work demands, learning and development opportunities, job autonomy, recognition and respect, mentoring opportunities, supportive organisational climate and social support were significant factors that predicted older workers’ workforce participation decisions. Interestingly, less evidence was found to support flexible work arrangements or salary as inducers of workforce participation. Results also show an overrepresentation of cross-sectional studies involving participants from western countries employed in healthcare and social assistance sectors. Practical implications: Organisations should adjust their policies and practices to accommodate the needs of older workers, focusing specifically on increasing factors that encourage participation and removing obstacles to participation. Social implications: Increasing the participation rates of older workers is a key goal for governments and organisations worldwide. This research identifies some specific factors that are likely to encourage continued participation. Originality/value: A systematic evaluation of the extant research draws new conclusions and insights as to what work factors are more likely to influence the participation decisions of older workers.

Luleå kommun står inför en stor generationsväxling kommande år, där efterfrågan på arbetskraft kommer vara större än utbudet. En allt äldre befolkning gör att de som arbetar måste försörja fler. Om äldre arbetskraft arbetar längre skulle det ge stora effekter på den framtida sysselsättningen och försörjningsbördan. Studiens syfte har därför varit att undersöka pensionspreferenserna hos äldre gymnasielärare inom Luleå kommun och identifiera de olika bakgrundsfaktorer som påverkar deras önskemål gällande ålder för ålderspensionering. Målsättningen med studien har varit att skapa en förståelse kring äldre arbetskraft som ska generera i ett underlag för Luleå kommuns arbete med äldre arbetskraft och möjligheten att förlänga arbetslivet. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra gymnasielärare och två rektorer har resultatet visat att majoriteten av lärarna är inställda att arbeta fram till 65 års ålder. De faktorer som påverkar pensionsbeslutet är hälsan i första hand men även påverkansmöjligheter och ekonomin. Lärarna är i stort positiva till att kunna förlänga arbetslivet men för att stanna kvar längre vill de få vara delaktiga och kunna påverka sin arbetssituation där arbetskraven anpassas efter arbetsförmåga. Lönepåslag eller möjlighet att gå ner i tid ökar även förutsättningen för att lärarna kan tänka sig att stanna kvar i arbetslivet längre.

The key question of this study is whether policies adopted elsewhere in Europe might be useful in helping to increase the labour force participation of women and of older workers in the Netherlands, and thus improve the financial basis for social security arrangements. We examined the effectiveness of national policy measures over and above that of the individual-level determinants that are traditionally examined in economic and sociological studies. The data on labour force participation are from the European Social Survey, and information on public policy arrangements comes from the MULTILINKS database. Regarding the labour force participation of women, findings show the importance of distinguishing financial measures and care services. Women generally work fewer hours per week in countries with generous financial support for families (tax benefits, child support), and more hours in countries with generous parental leaves. Regarding the participation of older workers, findings show the importance of distinguishing the minimum pension level (negative association with the likelihood of having a job) and pension as a proportion of earned wage (no association with having a job). A novelty of the present study is its ability to demonstrate the impact of national arrangements at the level of individual participation behaviour.

Summary. The key question of this study is whether policies adopted elsewhere in Europe might be useful in helping to increase the labour force participation of women and of older workers in the Netherlands, and thus improve the financial basis for social security arrangements. We examined the effectiveness of national policy measures over and above that of the individual-level determinants that are traditionally examined in economic and sociological studies. The data on labour force participation are from the European Social Survey, and information on public policy arrangements comes from the MULTILINKS database. Regarding the labour force participation of women, findings show the importance of distinguishing financial measures and care services. Women generally work fewer hours per week in countries with generous financial support for families (tax benefits, child support), and more hours in countries with generous parental leaves. Regarding the participation of older workers, findings show the importance of distinguishing the minimum pension level (negative association with the likelihood of having a job) and pension as a proportion of earned wage (no association with having a job). A novelty of the present study is its ability to demonstrate the impact of national arrangements at the level of individual participation behaviour.

An uncertain economic outlook and the certitude of an ageing population highlight the importance of productive activity across all age groups for Australia’s future. This paper reviews Australian and international research on productive ageing, which has typically focused on older age groups and specific activities, and presents national findings from Wave 10 (2010) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey on productive activities across the life course. Both paid, tax‑generating and unpaid, voluntary activities are examined, including paid work, volunteering, caregiving, childcare, and domestic work. The kinds of productive activity people engaged in varied across age groups for men and women, highlighting the potential competition between paid work and other activities, and the importance of health and education for engagement across all ages. While the Government has begun leading actions to enhance and recognise these contributions that bring economic and social benefits both to the individual and the broader community, our research reinforces the value of investment in human capital for productive engagement across the lifespan inclusive of early, middle and later life.

Are employers willing to employ more older individuals, in particular older women? Higher employment among the older segments of the population will only materialise if firms are willing to employ them. Although several economists have started considering the demand side of the labour market for older individuals, few have considered its gender dimension properly; despite evidence that lifting the overall senior employment rate in the EU requires significantly raising that of women older than 50. In this paper, we posit that labour demand and employability depend to a large extent on how the age/gender composition of the workforce affects firm’s profits. Using unique firm-level panel data we produce robust evidence on the causal effect of age/gender on productivity (value added per worker), total labour costs and gross profits. We take advantage of the panel structure of data and resort to first differences to deal with a potential time-invariant heterogeneity bias. Moreover, inspired by recent developments in the production function estimation literature, we also address the risk of simultaneity bias (endogeneity of firm’s age-gender mix choices in the short run) by combining first differences with i) the structural approach suggested by Ackerberg, Caves & Frazer (2006), ii) alongside more traditional IV-GMM methods (Blundell & Bond, 1998) where lagged values of labour inputs are used as instruments. Results suggest no negative impact of rising shares of older men on firm’s gross profits, but a large negative effect of larger shares of older women. Another interesting result is that the vast and highly feminized services industry does not seem to offer working conditions that mitigate older women’s productivity and employability disadvantage, on the contrary. This is not good news for older women’s employability and calls for policy interventions in the Belgian private economy aimed at combating women’s decline of productivity with age and/or better adapting labour

An ageing workforce is an issue faced by governments and employers in most western countries (OECD 2005). The generally accepted definition of an aged worker is someone aged 45 years and over (Brooke 2003). At the level of the organisation, a range of HR strategies are recommended to deal with an ageing workforce, including attracting younger workers and retaining ageing workers for longer. Recruiting younger workers changes the demographic structure of the workforce, and is not the focus of this paper. Here we identify potential strategies derived from the literature that could be adopted to retain an existing ageing workforce. We then examine a public sector organisation with an ageing workforce, to assess which strategies have been adopted and to begin to assess how effective these strategies are. We find that the case study organisation adopts many of the HR strategies suggested in the literature, but our preliminary findings suggest that these policies are unlikely to have a positive effect on the retention of ageing workers unless the employees are actively encouraged to use the policies.

Many industrialised nations have changing demographic profiles, as increased longevity and decreased birth rates lead to an ageing population. This presents significant challenges for workforces, as older employees retire and there are insufficient numbers of younger employees to take their place. This leads to skills shortages, and strong competition for those who are available. This paper considers these issues in the context of Queensland, the third largest state of Australia. The Queensland Government is addressing the issues for all industries in the state, primarily through a Skills Plan and an Experience Pays Awareness Strategy. As the largest employer in the state, the Queensland Government has commenced implementing the Experience Pays Awareness Strategy within its own workforce. The approach touches on many facets of HRM. The HRM policy framework and tools are examined for their potential to support increased participation of older employees. A range of issues are addressed for older workers, including their competence and health and safety issues. Issues for managers include addressing myths and subtle discrimination against older workers, as well as managing cross-generational workforce. Other strategies and methods are targeted at cultural factors, such as the expectations of older workers, and the myths and discrimination against older workers. Yet other strategies are aimed at organisational issues such retention of knowledge and succession planning.

With an ageing population, one of the key issues in Australia is the learning needs of older people, including older workers. In particular, with looming skills shortages, organisations need to consider ways of engaging older adults in learning, either for transition to new skills or for re-engagement after retirement. This paper explores the learning experience of a group of people over the age of 45 years and examines their learning challenges as they strived to master a complex skill. Using semi-structured interviews, the research explored the learning processes and activities they nominated as critical to their growth. These processes included negative construction, passive learning, modelling, direct guidance by experts, individual practice and experimental learning. The paper concludes with implications for human resource development practices in organisations.

Full Text, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Griffith Business School, Australia's population and workforce are ageing. The reason for an ageing population is the post World War II baby boom, followed by low birth rates in subsequent generations. Combined with healthier lifestyles, advances in medical science and the subsequent increase in longevity, this means that there are more older people than ever before and this trend will continue for several more decades. However, workforce demographics are also affected by ageing, and Australian organisations will need to employ more older workers in the near future to meet predicted shortfalls of skilled workers. Although there have been studies examining the current low employment rates of older workers, the identification of negative stereotypes associated with older workers, and related problems and challenges (such as age discrimination), no study of the working intentions of older Australian workers has been reported. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the meaning of working for older workers to better understand whether and why older Australian workers might want to continue working. In particular, this thesis explores what it is about working that makes some people want to continue beyond the traditional age of retirement, while others wish to cease work as soon as they are able. There are clear implications for individuals, organisations and public policy emanating from the extension to working lives. The research aims and objectives were best met within a phenomenological approach, and the data collection consisted of four studies. The setting for the research was a single organisation; an Australian university. Three of these studies were qualitatively-driven, within an interpretivist paradigm: (i) in-depth interviews with older employees (aged 50 years or older) to determine their meanings of working; (ii) interviews with managers to determine whether there were any organisational factors encouraging older workers to retire early; and (iii) interviews with retirees

Australia's population and workforce are ageing. The reason for an ageing population is the post World War II baby boom, followed by low birth rates in subsequent generations. Combined with healthier lifestyles, advances in medical science and the subsequent increase in longevity, this means that there are more older people than ever before and this trend will continue for several more decades. However, workforce demographics are also affected by ageing, and Australian organisations will need to employ more older workers in the near future to meet predicted shortfalls of skilled workers. Although there have been studies examining the current low employment rates of older workers, the identification of negative stereotypes associated with older workers, and related problems and challenges (such as age discrimination), no study of the working intentions of older Australian workers has been reported. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the meaning of working for older workers to better understand whether and why older Australian workers might want to continue working. In particular, this thesis explores what it is about working that makes some people want to continue beyond the traditional age of retirement, while others wish to cease work as soon as they are able. There are clear implications for individuals, organisations and public policy emanating from the extension to working lives. The research aims and objectives were best met within a phenomenological approach, and the data collection consisted of four studies. The setting for the research was a single organisation; an Australian university. Three of these studies were qualitatively-driven, within an interpretivist paradigm: (i) in-depth interviews with older employees (aged 50 years or older) to determine their meanings of working; (ii) interviews with managers to determine whether there were any organisational factors encouraging older workers to retire early; and (iii) interviews with retirees, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Griffith Business School, Full Text

On 16 July 2003 the Australian Government’s Treasurer, the Honourable Peter Costello, addressed the Sydney Institute on his vision for a tolerant Australian society. Drawing from Putnam’s research Costello argued that tolerance will flow from an active voluntary sector. However, Costello’s proposed model for a “tolerant” society fails to acknowledge that all behaviour is strategic and that voluntary association based on disinterested action is not possible. Ultimately, Treasurer Costello’s notion of tolerant society fuelled by an active voluntary sector may not lead to his desired end. Indeed, the promotion of voluntary association may contribute to the ongoing exclusion of citizens with low social capital. Amid the dynamism of the modern era some citizens such as ageing workers, slow or ineffective learners and women may be especially at risk. Accordingly, rather than advocating a policy approach that seeks to build inclusiveness through an active voluntary sector this paper recommends a policy approach that explores ways in which to strengthen learning and the wider involvement of individuals through both formal and informal means.