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The rise of home‐based teleworking and the ageing of the workforce constitute two major trends impacting the future of work. Managing these trends well requires a good understanding of how worker age and telework intersect and which mechanisms link age and telework outcomes. We integrated perspectives of boundary theory and the lifespan model of selection, optimization, and compensation and investigated in two studies the relationship between employee age and two telework outcomes (work–life balance and unfinished tasks) as mediated by boundary management tactics aimed at segmenting work and nonwork roles. Across Study 1 (a two‐wave study with 172 teleworkers) and Study 2 (a three‐wave study with 282 teleworkers), we found positive associations between age and use of segmenting boundary management tactics during telework. We further identified indirect effects of age on higher productivity in terms of fewer unfinished tasks (both studies) and better work–life balance (Study 2) through boundary management tactics use. Robustness checks indicated that age effects remain significant after controlling for a number of demographic characteristics, work and home demands, motivational factors, and self‐regulatory skills. Findings suggest that older workers effectively navigate the blurred work‐nonwork boundaries in home‐based telework using self‐regulatory behaviour that supports positive telework outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article theorises older ethnic minority women's work attitudes and labour market behaviour from an intersectional cumulative perspective within the extended working lives contexts. Empirical evidence has been drawn from interviews with South Asian British Muslim women aged between 50 and 66 living in Greater Manchester, UK. The findings show that the cohort's ageing process is asynchronous with the British work ageing outlook as their cultural understanding of working age, age roles and successful ageing defies the extended working lives philosophies, and cumulative factors including caring responsibilities, legacy inequalities, and health issues present additional challenges for extending their work lives. Their culture- and context-specific work ageing process remains absent in the UK's labour market discourse and policy landscape. The article theorises their idiosyncratic work ageing including non-conformist attitudes to extending work lives by proposing a 'divergent work ageing' model that can guide policymakers in creating inclusive labour market policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Firefighting is recognised as a physically demanding occupation involving exposure to hazardous environments and activities. An aging workforce combined with the age-related decline in physical fitness may result in increased future workers' compensation expenditure for fire service organisations. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research was to investigate the costs associated with musculoskeletal sprain and strain injury and the impacts of age and injury location on Workers' Compensation claims submitted by professional urban firefighters. METHODS: Claim rates, direct costs, and days lost were extracted from a professional Fire Service organisation's workers' compensation claim database for financial years between 2011 to 2018. RESULTS: The mean cost per claim increased with age, with a mean claim cost of the 60–70-year-old group over 10 times more than the 20–29-year-old group. The mean days lost per claim were also higher for claims submitted by firefighters aged over 50. CONCLUSIONS: Older firefighters miss more workdays when injured and are associated with increased claims costs, particularly those in the 60–70-year group. With an aging workforce, Fire Service organisations must implement appropriate management and prevention strategies to reduce the potential risks associated with an aging workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopts the multidimensional concept of workplace age-friendliness as reflecting the extent to which organizations maintain age-related organizational values, policies, practices, and climates that support the employability needs of older workers. Using responses from 1,893 employees working in 32 organizations from seven economic sectors in Israel who evaluated their organizations, we examine a novel conceptual model of the joint role of organizational ageism, inter-age contact, and organizational values in the formation of workplace age-friendliness. Multilevel multivariate analysis using a general linear mixed model demonstrated differential involvement of these variables in the formation of workplace age-friendliness: A significant negative association was found between organizational ageism and all dimensions of workplace age-friendliness, while inter-age contact was found to have a positive albeit a moderate association with part of its dimensions. Of the types of organizational cultures examined, a significant positive linkage was found between clan culture and all dimensions of workplace age-friendliness, whereas its associations with other cultural environments were less prominent or comprehensive. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings discussed here may serve policymakers and enrich both age-related organizational research and approaches with an evolving positive organizational perspective towards work in older age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores workplace safety dynamics amid demographic shifts, highlighting the increase in aged workers. It addresses their unique safety challenges, particularly with machinery. The article examines the physical and cognitive effects of ageing on safety and technological adaptation. Findings show aged workers' experience reduces risks but highlights challenges with new technologies and complacency. It suggests tailored training, ergonomic adjustments, and health strategies to support the ageing workforce.

Aim: To explore support strategies for older nurses and midwives in Australian healthcare workplaces. Design: A qualitative descriptive study. Method: Participants were 50 older nurses and midwives and 20 healthcare managers recruited from a broad range of Australian healthcare settings. Data were collected using semi‐structured interviews from November 2018 to April 2021. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. Results: The limited number of identified sedentary roles and inequitable distribution of workload responsibilities were identified as constraints that impact the provision of workplace support for older nurses and midwives in healthcare settings. Three major themes were identified: Workplace support, Personal support and Doing more. A small number of participants reported support was available at work, but most said there was not. Of the reported strategies some were offered exclusively to a cohort that met an age criterion, while others were open to all staff regardless of age. Personal support strategies were employed outside of the workplace while others used strategies during working hours. Doing more related to suggestions about how organizations could do more to support older nurses and midwives at work. Conclusion: Support mechanisms like adjustments in workload, employment fraction, practice location, upskilling and wellness programs in workplaces are limited. To facilitate retention and support older nurses and midwives in the workforce, health workplaces should consider implementing support mechanisms that can be tailored to the individual needs of the nurse or midwife over the life course of their career. Impact: The findings of this study highlight the lack of support for many older nurses and midwives in Australian healthcare workplaces, emphasizing the need for further research into innovative practices on how to better support healthcare staff as they age. Reporting Method: This study adhered to the COREQ reporting method. Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A skilled workforce is essential for producing high quality construction work, efficiently and effectively. This paper is formulated to improve the understanding and knowledge surrounding the skill shortage currently being faced within the UK, and the significant impact it is having on quality management. It surrounds around each main area, and the impacts of recent years: Brexit, Covid-19 and ageing workforce. A mixed method approach was applied to collect data from the quantitative and qualitative sources. The quantitative survey data was collected through snowball sampling from the 130 construction professionals working the UK construction industry. Moreover, a case study has been conducted on a large-scale construction project located in the Northeast of England where the outcome of these issues can be seen in all aspects of the work. Training and development are the fundamental issues highlighted during the literature review and then subsequently expressed by participants of the surveys. In addition, the moderation analysis also provides the important role of training and development in reducing the negative impacts of COVID-19 and Brexit towards quality management. However, it was also revealed that the training and development are not useful for the aging workforce in combating the skilled shortage challenges towards quality management system in the construction industry. This research will allow the industry to understand the need for a skilled workforce and how it benefits the quality management elements of a construction project.

Industries are currently struggling with ageing workforce in modern production systems associated with Industry 4.0. The industrial socio-demographic problem is more and more present as the increasing of the ageing population results in the prolongation of the working life and the consecutively in the ageing of the workforce in industries. This paper aims to conduct a systematic literature review on the challenges and concerns of ageing operators, including the physical, cognitive, ergonomic, and well-being conditions of the ageing workforce in the Industry 4.0 environment. The ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed scientific databases were used to survey the studies and selected using PRISMA guidelines. This paper was structured and analysed by clusters: Ageing, Industry 4.0, Human Factors, and Ergonomics. These clusters were developed as research lines: Ageing as the socio-demographic challenge, Industry 4.0 as the technological development, Human Factors as the individual characteristics of the operator, and Ergonomics as the work environment. Thus, human--centric approaches and ideas are discussed with the insights and issues of Industry 4.0 technologies, Human Factors, and Ergonomics to achieve a sustainable system at the engineering and social level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This post-structural policy analysis examines Finnish government programmes through the lens of neoliberal governmentality and the concepts of the entrepreneurial self and active ageing. In the context of Finland, as a Nordic welfare state in transition to a competition-state model, this study examines how government programmes construct an ageing workforce, especially regarding older entrepreneurship. The results suggest that older people are not only constructed as a difficult-to-employ workforce but also as passive and vulnerable care recipients. Furthermore, as a construction, older entrepreneurship is absent from the studied documents, suggesting that the older entrepreneurship is a marginalized group that has been silenced. This article increases knowledge about this silencing in terms of governmentality and provides perspectives via which to develop a more inclusive entrepreneurship policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The workforce ageing phenomenon is recently affecting most of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, due to a general ageing of their populations and a higher average retirement age of the workforce. In this paper, the topic of ageing workforce management is addressed from a production research standpoint, with the aim of understanding how older workers can be supported and involved in a manufacturing system. First, the current state of the art related to the ageing workforce in production systems is presented. This is structured according to four main topics: (1) analysis and evaluation of ageing workers' functional capacities, (2) consideration of ageing workers' capacities in industrial system modelling and management, (3) analysis and exploitation of ageing workers' expertise, (4) acknowledgement, analysis, design and integration of supporting technologies. Next, the discussion on the impact of the ageing workforce on manufacturing systems' performances leads to the comparison of some technological advances that are related to the Industry 4.0 paradigms. Finally, a future research agenda on this topic is proposed, based on the same topics classification proposed for the literature analysis. Five different research areas are derived, suggesting future directions for appropriate research concerning the employ of older workers in production environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore healthcare managers' perceptions about older nurses' and midwives' and their contribution to the workplace. Design: A qualitative descriptive methodology. Method: Twenty healthcare managers working in Australia participated in semi‐structured interviews. Data were collected between April 2019 and April 2021. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analysed using thematic analysis. Results: All healthcare managers said older nurses and midwives contributed to the workplace through their experience and knowledge. Managers viewed them as a different type of worker and while there were some positive aspects to this, it was mostly negative. Although managers identified a broad age range for the older nurses or midwives, there was a common perception that if they were no longer able to perform their duties, they should leave the workforce. Conclusion: Healthcare managers' perceptions towards older nurses and midwives are mostly negative, and their understanding of older workers' contribution is contradictory and poor. These negative views co‐exist with the lack of agreement on who is the older worker, which explain the reluctance of healthcare organizations to invest in their older workforce. Future research is needed to better understand the unique contribution of older nurses and midwives in healthcare and how they can be supported at work. Impact The global ageing population will result in a rise in complex age‐related health issues and will require an experienced and knowledgeable workforce. Given the greater experience of older nurses and midwives they are an important part of the health workforce. Yet managers' perception of the contribution by older nurses and midwives were often negative. The findings of this study highlight the need for organizational change so that the contribution of older nurses and midwives is recognized and supported by managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic changes, increasing life expectancy, and increasing healthy life expectancy lead to an increasingly ageing workforce. This condition has a growing impact on the workforce in today's industries. However, old workers are not a burden for companies and industries. They are a fundamental part of the industrial ecosystem due to the consistency of their human factors, namely their large knowledge, experience, and decision-making ability. For this reason, the ageing workforce must be incorporated and engaged through the introduction of digital age technologies to improve their working conditions and extend their active life. This paper focuses on a novel design of assistive technologies based on the interconnection of motion capture (MoCap) and virtual reality (VR) systems as a driver for the improvement of the task performance of the ageing workforce. We intend to explore how this technological tool can help and enhance the work of the ageing workforce. For this, we study two different areas of application: the training, learning, and communication of the older workers and the ergonomic analysis and workplace design for the ageing operators. In the end, a pilot study is proposed to apply this technology in real work environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Synthesise and evaluate the existing scientific knowledge about health and morbidity among people in paid work when >64 years. Method: A systematic literature review was conducted. Studies presenting data on health and/or morbidity among people in paid work when aged >64 years, published in English in scientific journals from Jan 2014 through Dec 2020, were searched for. The 18,972 identified publications were assessed for relevance: 66 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and synthesised using narrative synthesis and the scientific quality was assessed by two independent researchers according to a pre-defined protocol. Both health-related and work-related outcomes were considered. Findings: The studies differed greatly in terms of included populations, definitions of paid work, outcome measures, methods, etc. Most studies were of limited or moderate quality. Most studies were conducted in OECD countries (92%), and more men than women were included. Of the 66 studies, 42 had results showing that those who were in paid work >64 years had better health than those who were not. However, 21 studies had non-significant results, and six studies indicated that those not in paid work had better health than those who were. Conclusions: Most (64%) of the studies indicated that people in paid work >64 years generally had better health and/or lower morbidity than those who were not, others did not find such associations. Due to the large heterogeneity of the studies and limited quality of many studies, only general conclusions and no scientific evidence regarding health and morbidity among people in paid work >64 could be established. The research area is still very undeveloped and many ‘blank spots' were identified.

This study addresses a lack of knowledge of how US multinational organizations are preparing for an ageing workforce. The study took the form of a qualitative multiple-case study, comprising in depth semi-structured interviews of senior managers in target companies selected through purposive sampling. The study used institutional theory and dynamic capabilities theory as theoretical frameworks. The findings of the study imply that there are still no rigorous processes in place to support the contribution of older workers to the success of the organization, that legislative compliance is a key current focus, and that considerations of intersectionality between age and other aspects of diversity are emerging. These findings suggest recommendations for practice that are related to the transparency of age-related data, implementation of considered recruitment and retention strategies for older workers, and the direct involvement of older workers in technological product and service development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic changes, increasing life expectancy, and increasing healthy life expectancy lead to an increasingly ageing workforce. This condition has a growing impact on the workforce in today’s industries. However, old workers are not a burden for companies and industries. They are a fundamental part of the industrial ecosystem due to the consistency of their human factors, namely their large knowledge, experience, and decision-making ability. For this reason, the ageing workforce must be incorporated and engaged through the introduction of digital age technologies to improve their working conditions and extend their active life. This paper focuses on a novel design of assistive technologies based on the interconnection of motion capture (MoCap) and virtual reality (VR) systems as a driver for the improvement of the task performance of the ageing workforce. We intend to explore how this technological tool can help and enhance the work of the ageing workforce. For this, we study two different areas of application: the training, learning, and communication of the older workers and the ergonomic analysis and workplace design for the ageing operators. In the end, a pilot study is proposed to apply this technology in real work environments.

This study applies Feldman and Beehr's three-step model to examine retirement as a decision-making process leading from retirement thoughts to retirement plans and from retirement plans to actual retirement. The results show that retirement thoughts have a clear independent effect on retirement plans as measured by intended retirement age. Furthermore, retirement plans have an isolated effect on retirement patterns. Intended retirement age is the strongest predictor of actual retirement age. Retirement intentions can be thought to represent the effect of unobservable characteristics on retirement, such as preference and motivation. Retirement plans materialise with quite high accuracy. Several key factors are associated with intended and actual retirement age in a similar manner. Unemployment and higher income are connected with earlier planned and actual retirement. Health has a pronounced effect: better health is conducive to later retirement while weaker health (sickness absences) is conducive to earlier retirement. This applies both to retirement intentions and actual retirement and to the difference between the two. The most important way for organisations to extend working lives is to look after the health of older employees. Giving older workers an increased sense of control and lowering job demands helps to prevent premature retirement. Supporting older workers' continued employment is significant for the retention of older workers, while layoffs targeting older workers shorten working lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does advanced age give employees an advantage in face of negative work experiences through their higher emotion-regulation competence? Across days, the occurrence of negative work events is associated with fluctuations in attention, motivation, and well-being. This study examined whether these within-person associations are reduced at advanced employee age, indicating higher resilience. The study further investigated the role of emotion-regulation goal activation and strategy use in these associations. Across two work weeks, 123 employees aged 22 to 63 years provided 1,092 daily reports on affective work events, emotion regulation, attentional focus, persistence, and end-of-day affect. On days with negative-events, participants reported higher activation of emotion-regulation goals, lower attentional focus, and higher negative affect at the end of the workday. Effects were intensified on days with highly negative events. Yet, within-person associations of high-intensity events with emotion-regulation goals, attention, and end-of-day negative affect were reduced at higher age. Further analyses that accounted for age differences in emotion-regulation goals suggested that these play a role in age-related reductions in the event-related disturbance of attentional focus and well-being. There was no evidence of age-differential strategy use on eventful days. Findings are in line with proposed mechanisms underlying older employees' resilience to daily stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore the experiences of being an older nurse or midwife employed in the healthcare workplace. Design: A qualitative descriptive study. Method: Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with nurses and midwives who self‐identified as older workers. All Australian states were represented and given recruitment was undertaken nationally, most interviews were conducted via telephone. Data were collected between November 2018 and October 2019. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and then thematically analysed. Results: A total of 50 nurses and midwives were recruited, aged between 46 and 74 years. Three themes were identified. Ageing body: Being an older worker meant increased fatigue and physical changes affecting their ability to function at full capacity. Youth focus: For many, being an older worker was about being viewed as a poor‐quality worker, with limited access to education and promotional opportunities because of their age. Wise worker: For a small number of older nurses and midwives, it was about being valued and respected for their knowledge, experience and skills. Conclusion: Participants self‐identifying as older nurses or midwives represented a wide age range. Spanning across the age spectrum, many experienced fatigue, physical changes or loss of value to the workplace which often impacted on their working lives. The findings contributed to an understanding about what it is to be an older nurse or midwife in terms of how their contribution is regarded and valued by others in the workplace. Impact: This study highlighted there is a need for support of older nurses and midwives in managing age‐related fatigue and physical changes. It also suggests consideration of a wise‐worker model as a means to recognize the important contribution that older workers can offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thailand's agriculture is facing an ageing workforce, which could negatively influence agricultural production. Yet, there is still limited evidence regarding the perception of the ageing agricultural labour force in the country and a lack of insights into farmers' strategies to improve agricultural output. To fill this gap, we analysed primary data from questionnaire-based surveys of 365 households in Prachinburi Province, Thailand. The results show that household poverty, farm experience, retirement, health concerns, and farm accidents are positively associated with the farmers' perception on the ageing workforce, whereas education level, having an ageing farmer in the family, farm size, mentoring and access to new technology have a negative influence on the perception of the ageing workforce. Given the anticipated implications of the population ageing in Thailand, the government should consider establishing policy options to encourage younger entrants into the agricultural sector and prioritising policies related to intergenerational support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The older a driver is, the higher the ratio of having a minor accident. • For each year of age, the incidence of speeding increases by 2 %. • The older a worker is, the lower the ratio of replacement requests. • Age was not related to the incidence of accidents. The influence of age on driving is of great concern worldwide. Also, older people who are involved in traffic are more vulnerable than younger people, thus in the event of a traffic accident, they are at greater risk of dying. The purpose of this article is to explore the association between age and driving performance of professional bus drivers. A negative binomial regression model and the incidence rate ratio was used to explore the association between variables. The population studied consisted of the company records from 2005 to 2021, with 515 professional bus drivers. We found that the age of professional bus drivers was related to a statistically significant 4 % decrease in self-report of replacement requests. Also, we found that the incidence rate ratio of speeding in professional bus drivers aged 45–59 years and 60–77 years was 1.41 and 1.8 times the incidence of bus drivers aged 28–44 years. Bus drivers' age was related to a statistically significant 2 % increase in the incidence of minor accidents. Finally, results show a 1 % decrease in incidence of accidents for every one year of age in the group of professional drivers. However, that association was not statistically significant. Older drivers are more likely to engage in minor accidents and speeding-related violations than younger drivers. Additionally, an infrequent use of the fatigue management tool by older drivers was confirmed during the analyzed period. Thus, we concluded that education and training are needed to decrease the observed trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviews the extent to which Universal Design of digitalized work tools is not only a useful, but a necessary principle to support inclusion in an ageing workforce. But Universal Design must be understood and implemented in a broader sense than "classic" adaptation. It includes areas like services, digitalization training and user interface between mainstream and assistive technologies. It makes requirements to an enterprise's management system and training policy, besides mainstream human resources policies. The paper goes through these requirements and concludes with the need to improve our understanding of the principle of Universal Design for it to be an efficient tool for inclusive workplaces: not only the digital work tools have to be accessible, but it must be combined with management policy, training and support.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The under-utilization of the labour of disabled and older people is a problem across the European Union (EU) but is most pronounced in Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states, where labour shortages are greatest. This presents a puzzle that is explored with reference to a project with social partners from Estonia, Hungary and Poland, the objective of which was to stimulate debate and actions around the role of industrial relations actors in facilitating work accommodations for disabled and older people. After establishing the extent of the demographic labour crisis in these countries, the policy tools being employed to address it are scrutinized and found wanting. A variety of factors are identified as having contributed to debate in this area: historical legacy, social policy path-dependency, social partner identity and agency, a 'dead letter' approach to EU policies, and the limited role of civil society organizations. We examine the potential of the concept of sustainable work, more commonly found in Northern Europe, to influence alternative approaches to the employment of disabled and older people in countries where state, labour and employment relations differ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses a lack of knowledge of how US multinational organizations are preparing for an ageing workforce. The study took the form of a qualitative multiple-case study, comprising in depth semi-structured interviews of senior managers in target companies selected through purposive sampling. The study used institutional theory and dynamic capabilities theory as theoretical frameworks. The findings of the study imply that there are still no rigorous processes in place to support the contribution of older workers to the success of the organization, that legislative compliance is a key current focus, and that considerations of intersectionality between age and other aspects of diversity are emerging. These findings suggest recommendations for practice that are related to the transparency of age-related data, implementation of considered recruitment and retention strategies for older workers, and the direct involvement of older workers in technological product and service development.

While there is a growing tendency among present day retirees to engage in bridge jobs before their final exit from the labour force, limited academic attention is directed towards understanding the expectations and experiences of bridge employees. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted 26 semi‐structured interviews with bridge employees. After collecting and analysing the data, we found the lens of socio‐emotional selectivity theory helpful in better understanding the experiences and expectations of bridge employees. Bridge employees generally expressed preference for intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. In addition, bridge employees tended to favour part‐time work. However, even though bridge employees were satisfied with their work, benefits, and social interactions, some of them faced social disapproval for re‐entering workforce. To our knowledge, this paper is among the first exploratory qualitative studies in the human resource management field to investigate the expectations and experiences of bridge employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Scholars agree that due to an ageing workforce which is observable in many societies around the globe, organisations will face an employee base that is getting older and more age-diverse (Kunze et al., 2011). This development can be beneficial for organisations when its potential gets harnessed; however, it leaves us also with some concerns. Research studies found rather unpromising results for an ageing workforce in the organisation. This article sheds light on the perception of older employees from the perspective of their younger co-workers, where little is known about. Research Design & Methods: It uses a qualitative study design through in-depth interviewing and metaphorical talk. In total, 27 interviews have been collected in Germany and Poland. Findings: Respondents point out that their senior colleague possesses crucial human and social capital for the organisation. They further reveal obstacles which partially explain, why results from previous studies may vary. Contribution & Value Added: The perception of younger employees offers valuable inside for employers and entrepreneurs alike. Employers have been found to have a somewhat negative attitudes towards the employability of senior-aged workers. Younger employees revealed that senior-aged workers are perceived to have a vital role in knowledge transfer by their younger colleagues.

Abstract The difficulty of job and high requirements of role and responsibility entail organizations to retain and empower ageing experts because they are valuable for business. Empowerment of the ageing experts is important to improve work efficiency and effectiveness of the elderly experts as it gives self-confidence and motivation to them to keep their jobs and create values for the organization. However, there is a limited of study in this topic and less number of scientific papers that proposed a framework for the empowerment of the ageing experts. The present study attempts to address this limitation by proposing a framework for empowering ageing experts in the public sector. The present study uses a qualitative approach, which involves in-depth semi-structured interview with ten experts for data collection. The involved experts consist of senior human resource managers and elderly experts from public sectors. The results show that the framework needs to include three main points including the factors that underpin the empowerment of ageing experts (prerequisites, capacities, and barriers), operational strategies for empowering ageing experts (structural and psychological solutions), and consequences of empowerment of ageing experts. The proposed framework would be beneficial for the human resource experts in providing important aspects to consider in empowering the ageing experts. Introduction Human capital is one of the most important operational resources that leads to an increase in the level of social welfare in any society. Since the efforts of each generation including expertise, experience, and effectiveness are currently the basis for the development of the next generation and provides a platform for the emergence of the phenomena of future generations, the concept of dynamism can be inferred from it. Therefore, the cycle of a dynamic process is focusing on minds of the effective role of the past generation, or, in other words, the ageing people. A number of scholars believe that as well as the extent of employment, growth, development, maturity for organizations, and especially societies, the stages of decline and reaching the end of work life must be effectively implemented (Mitsakis, 2014). In addition to the fact that ageing workforce can be transformed into organizational capital, the importance of elderly workforce to human resource management researchers is evident by looking at the relative proportions of elderly people. According to the Department of Social and Economic Affairs of the UN Secretariat, the number of people over the age of 60 in the world in 2017 is estimated at 962 million (11 % of the total world population), while in 1980 only 382 million people (8.6 % of the total world population). It is also estimated that it will increase to two billion and one hundred million people by 2050, 22% of the total world population at that time. By 2030, people over the age of 60 are expected to increase with the number of children under the age of 10 (1.41 billion vs. 1.35 billion people). Estimates show that by 2050, the number of elderly people over 60 will also be higher than adolescents and young people aged 10 to 24 (2.1 billion against 2 billion). Therefore, an idea of empowering the ageing professional workforce cannot be ignored. In academic point of view, there are plenty numbers of study that emphasize empowerment concept. For instance, Said-Allsopp and Tallontire (2015) observed the women empowerment, Cattaneo et al. (2016) studied about the empowerment process in the organization, and Allen et al. (2016) analyzed empowerment of the workforce. However, there is a limited number of scientific papers that analyze an empowerment of the ageing professional workers. Therefore, the present study attempts to bridge this knowledge gap by proposing a framework for the empowerment of ageing workers, who are knowledgeable and skillful for the organization. Case study This study uses in-depth semi-structured interview that involved ten experts. A snowball sampling method is used in this study as the elderly experts in the area of empowerment of ageing workforce and their availability are not well defined. On this basis, the interview was conducted with ten experts consist of senior human resource managers and elderly experts from public sectors in Iran until the data is saturated, in which there is no newer information can be obtained from the interview. The conversation of the interviews is recorded, then transcribed for the analysis purposes. Materials and Methods The collected data are analyzed using a theme analysis method. This analysis involves a continuous sweep between the data set and the coding set and analyzing the data that is being generated. The information gathering tool is an in-depth semi-structured interview with ten human resource managers and elderly specialists with a minimum degree of education, senior executives and experts who have at least 48 years of experience and at least 28 years of work experience in terms of organizational competence. Data analysis and Results The present study uses an interview, which is simultaneously conducted and the codification process continued until the theoretical adequacy is completed and the limit of interviewing was determined by this criterion. As a result, a total of 307 key points with indicator codes have been extracted over ten interviews. As a next step, these key points are conceptualized in the form of abstract concepts. Subsequently, the basic themes and themes of the organizing research are created through explanation and communication between them. The duration of each interview was between one and two hours and it is recorded and written for analysis purposes. The first step in the process of encoding interviews is open passcode, in which the primary code is extracted from the bottom of the hint. These codes are categorized into the categories of concepts that are more general and abstract. Although the concept is closely related to each other, the more general groups are classified as subcategories, which ultimately create the main categories of the topic. The research concepts are based on 148 primary codes that refer to 307 codes by considering repetitive codes. These initial code numbers are selected to 170 concepts, which include 66 unique concepts. Similarly, each of the basic themes is itself composed of one or more concepts that those concepts actually represent the "characteristics", "conditions" or "status" of existing or desired of the subject in relation to the empowerment of the elderly. Accordingly, all 307 initial codes noted in this study referred to 104 basic subjects, with the exception of the similar cases, 21 basic research themes were obtained, which ultimately formed the six themes including pre-requisites (do's and don'ts) fields and capacities, barriers, structural solutions, psychological solutions, and consequences. Conclusion The findings of this study show that the factors behind the empowerment of ageing experts include three themes organizing prerequisites (fields), capacities (gaps), and barriers (not and not necessarily), in which the prerequisites affect the capacities and barriers. This means that the existing capacities and barriers can affect one another and the underlying factors for the empowerment of ageing experts eventually return to the outcome of this organizing theme. If the existing fields and capacities can overcome the barriers, they will meet the prerequisites for the empowerment of the ageing experts. This results would affect the effectiveness of empowerment process of ageing experts. However, if the weight of the barriers is higher, the empowerment process would be slow or limited. For example, the experts mentioned that there is a number of barriers that can restrain the empowerment of aging experts in the public sector comprising government policy and company regulation. Therefore, the top managers should focus on these barriers as they will slow and limit the empowerment process. Other important factors to consider in the empowerment process is strengthen financial resources and advanced training for ageing workers. In addition, the operational strategies for empowerment of ageing experts in this study are presented in two categories of hardware solutions and psychological solutions, which are combined with four routine empowerment approaches under the headings of management (leadership), psychological, applied, and structural. The weight of these strategies cannot be prioritized to one another. Their parallel and simultaneous implementation is necessary. The results of this study gives a significant contribution to academics and practices. For academics, this study will open a new field of empowerment of the professional ageing workforce, which is a knowledge gap identified in the literature review. In addition, this study proposed a conceptual framework that offers various factors to consider in empowering ageing experts. In practices, the proposed model will give a holistic view of empowering the professional ageing workforce. The understanding these approaches, the management of an organization can effectively empower the professional ageing workforce

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most critical trends influencing the labour market in in the EU countries and specifically in Slovakia in next decades, is accelerating trend of workforce aging. One of the possible solutions to these trends creating significant risks for the national economies, is application of the Age management at the national, company and individual level, in order to ensure work ability of the aging workforce. Even-though the Slovak population is one of the youngest in EU, it is one of the fastest aging population in EU at the same time. Thus, early and thorough application of the Age Management can prevent serious economic and social problems of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining feminist political economy and life-course perspectives, this mixed-methods study critically examines the extent to which extended working life policies take account of women's experiences of paid and unpaid work. I explore how decisions to extend working life are shaped by gendered social structures and norms across the life course among women in the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, a UK early baby-boom birth cohort. Among this cohort of women currently transitioning into retirement, analysis of longitudinal survey data identifies a range of mid- and later-life factors that impact on the likelihood of women working beyond state-pension age. In-depth life-course interviews identify further complex and interacting gendered life-course experiences, not captured in the survey data, which act to necessitate, encourage, enable or constrain extended working. I conclude that, if women are to extend their working lives, 'joined-up' policies are required, addressing gendered inequalities across the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]