Older workers and extended working life – Managers’ experiences and age management

1Introduction

Skills shortages, coupled with demographic changes that are leading to a larger proportion of older adults in the population, have raised the issue of extending working lives in several countries [1]. This is addressed in global and national policies, but as Wainwright et al. [2] found there could be gaps between policies and practices in organizations. Alongside the good intentions contained in governmental policies, there seems to be moderate interest within organisations to make special arrangements for older workers in other national contexts as well. This calls for knowledge and practices that can guide employers in retaining qualified staff and enable and motivate them to perform throughout a prolonged working life.

Age management is suggested as one way to conceptualize organizational practices related to age in various ways. Broadly, the concept refers to the management and retainment of employees who are approaching retirement age, although it has been shown to benefit all age groups [3]. The ambition of age management is to consider the different strengths of a diverse work force [4]. Age-friendliness in workplaces is another way to conceptualize policies and practices that support ageing workers [5]. Flexible working arrangements (FWAs) are a model for retaining older workers, but the value of this as a retention tool does not vary significantly with age [6].

It is furthermore well documented that managers’ attitudes play an important role in whether, and how, age management practices are implemented. Managers’ attitudes to and perceptions of older workers range from the positive [2, 7–9] to negative attitudes and perceptions towards older workers, seeing them as inflexible, IT incompetent and having difficulty learning new things [2]. It is likely that positive and negative attitudes coexist in organizations [10] and the age of a manager influences the attitude towards older and younger workers, as managers tend to judge workers of a similar age to themselves more positively [11, 12]. Managers who have experience of managing older workers are more likely to be open to involvement. Considering the influence that managers have on employee retirement decisions, this calls for training to help managers understand their own role in supporting older employees’ careers [12].

A hindering factor for an extended working life is age discrimination, both the legal dimension concerning behaviours that are prohibited by law, and the social dimension which refers to those actions that occur in the interpersonal sphere [13, 14]. There are a number of practices to deal with age discrimination in working life, such as recruitment processes, training and mentoring opportunities, education for managers and employees in the workplace, flexible employment opportunities, job autonomy, recognition and respect, supportive organizational climate and social support [15, 16]. Still, managers and older workers often ignore the issue of age and ageing in the workplace, and maybe because of this, age has not yet been addressed effectively in working life [1].

Interestingly, HR practices have been found to be weak predictors of older people participating in working life [17]. This could stem from older workers perceiving age-aware HR practices as negative, since they may be associated with negative stereotypes associated with older workers and signal that they belong to a stigmatized group in society. Supportive attitudes from employers and colleagues could play a more prominent role in changing older workers’ decisions to stay in working life.

In 2020 the Swedish Government started a gradual raising of the retirement age [18], from 65 to 66, and from 67 to 68. Since there are both social and economic incitements for a longer work life, together with improved health measured in decreased mortality and self-reported health, more people could work longer if the right prerequisites are in place. From a previous review [] we know that individuals working after pensionable age are often in good health and interested in making money, and that there are positive associations between education level and participation in both work and education later in life [20]. These studies show that it is possible to extend working life and in the national context at hand, there is an ongoing increase of retirement age which could make the topic more urgent. Managers’ attitudes and norms are central, since they are doorkeepers to the human and financial resources that contribute to the development and retention of older employees [21–23].

2Aim

The aim of this study was to explore and describe managers’ experiences of older workers and age management in connection with the increase of the retirement age in Sweden.

3Material and method

The design of this study is descriptive. Semi-structured interviews [24] were conducted with fourteen managers and the data was analysed with qualitative content analysis [25].

4Findings

The structure of the findings follows the seven main categories with subcategories: Older Workers in the Organization, Retirement Ages in the Organization, Transition Initiatives, Competence Transfer, Competence Development, Increased Retirement Age, Knowledge Gaps. Selected quotes illustrate the informants’ comments. It should be noted that the numbers within parenthesis stand for interviews 1–13, not the informants (14).

5Discussion

Against the background that many countries face an ageing population, and that government are looking at changes in retirement age, this study have explored statements from managers and HR managers in Sweden to deepen the knowledge about what is being done in organizations to adapt to these changes.

Firstly, we had an interest in how managers addressed the issue of age in organizations. When asked about who was regarded as an “older worker in the organization”, the informants in this study established that age was rarely discussed in the organizations, and they preferred to talk about work life experience rather than age. This could be interpreted to express oneself in a politically correct way, as we have laws in Sweden prohibiting age discrimination, but it could also be interpreted as if managers ignore the issue of ageing in the workplace. They do, however, in line with Egdell et al. [1] recognize the needs for skills as well as the policy discussion about a raised retirement age. The fact that informants ignore the issue of ageing in the workplace, as our study indicates, can be one explanation for why age has not yet been addressed in policies or practices [1]. The informants in the present study did, however, initiate discussions about retirement with employees, but initiatives that concert the transition to retirement were usually managed by HR. However, they described the communication as being performed quite mechanically in the year before the official retirement age. They gave examples of practices were people received emails with information about retirement, rather than face-to-face discussions about options for the future. This is in line with van Dalen et al. [8] who established that employers tend to use exit policies and promote early retirement, rather than encourage career development and training for older employees. Still, regarding the discussion about changed demographics and raised retirement ages, this is noteworthy since HR practices were found by several researchers, as Dello Russo et al. [30]; Innocenti, et al. [31]; Karpinska et al. [32]; Kooij et al. [33]; Korff, et al. [34]; and Polat et al. [35], to have a strong influence on older workers in terms of, for example, performance, job satisfaction and motivation.

Secondly, we have tried to identify what is being done to enable an extended working life. The informants in this study identified a lack of routines and systems for competence transfer between older and younger workers, even if some had developed practices for mentorship and training. Nevertheless, they recognized the benefits of systems för planning and management of the last part of a person’s career. Connected to this, they did not use competence development as a tool for supporting a prolonged working life. Furthermore, they confessed that competence development was unevenly distributed among employees, with younger employees, and employees in management and expert positions receiving the most competence development. This despite the facts that Liu et al. [36] and Naghavi et al. [37] found competence development, in terms of education and training, as an established way to support, develop and retain older workers. There was, however, no mention of models such as “age-friendly workplaces” put forward by Eppler-Hattab et al. [5] or “flexible working arrangements” described by Stirpe et al. [6]. Instead, the current study finds a lack of efforts to develop and retain older workers.

Finally, in addition to notions about age and systems to support an extended working life, we also asked the informants specifically about the current policy changes. In the last two main categories, Increased retirement age and Knowledge gaps, the answers indicated different attitudes towards age and older workers. The comments went from being oblivious and seeing managing of older workers as an HR issue, to being very positive and seeing advantages in the higher retirement age as it would raise the bar for who was considered old. There was clearly an ambivalence among the informants in how to relate to the issue of age, and as Zientara [2] and Fuertes et al. [10] put forward it is not uncommon to find both negative and positive attitudes coexisting in working life. Neglecting to address age as an issue in the organization could possibly indicate some form of age discrimination: age is getting “the silent treatment”. Silent age discrimination is difficult since it could harbour a variety of attitudes behind the silence: age as a non-topic, age as a taboo, age as something negative, insecurities about dealing with age issues, but also respect for individual integrity and treating everybody in the same way. Skučienė and Moskvina [9] showed, that positive attitudes are not necessarily connected to practice for prolonging working life, even if managers’ attitudes were found by Furunes et al. [21], Kunze et al. [22] and Oude et al. [23] to help in understanding how access to human and financial resources were provided within the organization. In line with previous research, this study finds that although many informants talk about the benefits of older workers, they do not have practices to support the development of older workers. This means that the ambition of age management put forward by Ilmarinen to consider the different strengths of a diverse workforce [4], is still not on the agenda for the organizations in this study.

6Conclusions

This study shows that among the interviewed managers, there is an ambivalence in addressing the issue of age and older workers. In the interviews, the informants prefer to talk about competence and experience rather than age. Singling out employees solely based on age as a variable could create an even stronger stigma around age. Still, it seems the informants in this study did not have elaborated and explicit strategies for competence transfer or development of older workers. The government’s bill to raise the retirement age has not entailed specific activities, measures, or steps. The knowledge gap in their organizations includes laws and regulations around retirement, work capacity assessments, healthy workplaces, aging as a phenomenon and the challenges of older people. By highlighting the state of knowledge and what readiness there is to retain older workers in the investigated organizations, our study shows what needs to be improved for the government’s intentions with an extended working life to be achieved. The rise in the retirement age has only added a few years to working life, without transformational effects in the short term. We do, however, believe that in the long term, a working life stretching over a longer time will call for new ways to manage competence, careers, and human resources.

7Strengths and limitations

The strengths and limitations of this study are discussed in relation to the four aspects of trustworthiness in line with Lincoln and Guba [28] under the heading Trustworthiness in the Method section.

Ethical approval

Not applicable since this study is not about a vulnerable group of persons or handle any sensitive data.

Informed consent

All participants gave their informed consent, please see Ethical considerations 3.5.

Conflict of interest

This study does not report any conflicts of interest.