scholarly journals Retaining older workers: the effect of phased retirement on delaying early retirement

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åsmund Hermansen

Introduction: Phased retirement involves reducing working time in the final years before retirement. The aim of phased retirement is to extend working careers and retain older workers who would otherwise opt for full early retirement. This article investigates the effect of offering phased retirement on early-retirement behaviour in Norway.Method: The data used in the analysis covers the period between 2000 and 2010 and comprises all employees between 61 and 62 years of age (N= 18 174) who were employed in any of the 442 companies that participated in a 2010 survey carried out by the Fafo Institute for Labour and Social Research and Respons Analyse AS, a Norwegian research firm. I use a difference-in-differences approach and logistic regression, which enables the measurement of changes in the individual relative risk of retiring full-time on the contractual pension (AFP, avtalefestet pensjon, contractual early-retirement pension,) before and after the introduction of phased retirement as a retention measure.Results: The results show that working in a company that offers reduced working hours for older workers does not have an effect on the relative risk of a 61- or 62-year-old withdrawing a full contractual pension in the next two years of their employment. This result is evident both before and after controlling for a range of known individual risk factors, as well as after controlling for company characteristics.Discussion: In the search for suitable measures for retaining older workers, offering phased retirement may still be part of the answer. Though my analysis does not support the idea that more flexible working hours is a decisive factor for those who choose to opt for full early retirement, a possible next step could be to investigate the impact of offering flexible working hours on the employment duration of those who do remain in employment.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Charlotte K. Marx ◽  
Mareike Reimann ◽  
Martin Diewald

Numerous studies have demonstrated the importance of work–life measures, which are designed to contribute to job quality and help reconcile employees’ work and personal lives. In our study, we asked whether such measures can also work as inducements to prevent employees from voluntarily leaving a firm. We considered flexible working hours and home-based teleworking as flexibility measures that are potentially attractive to all employees. To address the possible bias caused by sketchy implementation and their actual selective use, we chose to examine employees’ perceptions of the offer of these measures. We investigated the moderation of the effect by organizational culture and supervisor and coworker support. We controlled for several indicators of job quality, such as job satisfaction and perceived fairness, to isolate specific ways in which work–life measures contributed to voluntary employee exit, and checked for a selective attractiveness of work–life measures to parents and women as the main caregivers. Using a three-wave panel employer–employee survey, we estimated multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models for 5452 employees at 127 large German establishments. Our results confirmed that both types of flexibility measures were associated with a lower probability of voluntarily exit. This applied more to men than to women, and the probability was reduced by a demanding organizational culture. Both measures seemed not to be specifically designed to accommodate main caregivers but were attractive to the whole workforce.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 217-229
Author(s):  
Shalini Srivastava ◽  
Poornima Madan ◽  
Vartika Kapoor Dhawan

The motivation of the present study is to investigate the association between perceived glass ceiling and career satisfaction among Indian managers. The study examined the impact of glass ceilings at the career satisfaction level of employees mediated by organization identification and organizational trust. The sample for the present study embraces 237 middle level managers representing organizations in Delhi/NCR. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation and regression were used. Results illustrate that a significant and negative relationship is found between glass ceiling and career satisfaction which implies that if employees feel that glass ceiling exists in the organization, their career satisfaction will be less. The results validate that the impact of glass ceiling decreases after introducing the mediating effects of trust and organizational identification on career satisfaction. The subsistence of the glass ceiling in the organizations will indirectly be fortified due to inadequacies in networking, mentoring, flexible working hours and family friendly initiatives. Therefore, modifying the human resource policies and practices and altering the organizational culture and attitudes of executives shall help organizations preserve their extremely able women workforce.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 780-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuriy Bilan ◽  
Halyna Mishchuk ◽  
Iryna Roshchyk ◽  
Olena Joshi

The ability to attract and retain the talents is an important factor in the competitiveness of countries, as it is confirmed in our study. At the level of small and medium-sized enterprises, hiring and retaining skilled workers is one of the most difficult tasks of HR management, especially in transition economies with a high intensity of “leaching out” the skilled workers due to labour migration. Our research in Ukraine, which is a prime example of such countries, conducted via the cluster analysis allows us to conclude that the problems of hiring and retaining skilled workers have some connection with profitability: there is almost always a problem with filling vacancies with people of all educational levels in unprofitable enterprises, which is not typical of profitable businesses. The main problems with filling vacancies according to employers’ estimations are: 1) market factors – shortage of employees with the required skills; 2) internal problems of ensuring the attractiveness of jobs (material – pay, and intangible – career prospects, flexible working hours, legal employment); 3) internal factors of inefficient HR management, including recruiting; 4) psycho-physiological factors of job satisfaction. However, there are no close links between the factors of hiring effectiveness and retention of skilled workers with the economic success of the organization in the form of the growth of assets, revenues and stuff. This leads to the conclusion that the practices of human resources management in small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine are largely built chaotic, without analyzing the impact on the efficiency of the use of other resources and without providing links with the overall economic efficiency of enterprises.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Krug ◽  
Sebastian Bähr ◽  
Katharina Diener ◽  
Martin Abraham

This paper investigates the impact of fathers’ flexible working hours on their willingness to contribute to domestic work. We first hypothesize that fathers will contribute more if they have the possibility to work flexible hours. Second, fathers are assumed to contribute less if their female partners have the possibility to work flexible hours. We test our hypotheses using data from a vignette study, where fathers evaluate hypothetical job offers to their non-employed partner with regard to the contribution to domestic work they are willing to offer if their partner accepts the job. We find that fathers’ flexible hours increase their willingness to contribute to childcare but not to household work, partially supporting hypothesis one. Regarding hypothesis two, we find no effects of the female partner’s flexible working hours on fathers’ contribution to childcare or household work. We conclude our paper with some policy implications.


Author(s):  
Grit Müller ◽  
Anita Tisch ◽  
Anne Marit Wöhrmann

Excessive working hours have negative consequences for employees’ health. Looking deeper into this problem, this article examines how employers’ needs for more intense working or more flexible working hours affect their employees’ psychosomatic health. A German representative survey of 13,452 full-time employees found that long working hours, work intensity (deadline and performance pressure) and flexibility requirements (permanent availability, changes in working hours) were significantly related to psychosomatic health complaints. When considering future work design and practices, these findings show which unfavourable working conditions are to be avoided to maintain the psychosomatic health of employees.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åsmund Hermansen

Faced with a rapidly aging labor force, increasing the labor supply of older workers has become an important goal for European countries. Offering additional leave to older workers with the option of withdrawing a contractual pension (contractual early retirement pension AFP) has become a widespread retention measure in Norwegian companies. Thus far, no studies documenting the effects of individual retention measures on early retirement behavior have been published. The aim of this article is to examine whether offering additional leave impacts the relative risk of withdrawal of a contractual pension. The analysis uses a difference-in-differences approach and examines whether offering additional leave to counteract early retirement impacts the retirement decisions of 61- and 62-year-olds within the next two years of their employment, controlling for a range of different individual and company characteristics. This is achieved by comparing changes and differences in the individual relative risk of retiring early on the contractual pension (AFP scheme) in the period 2001–2010 among older workers in companies with and without the retention measure. The analysis shows an overall average increase in the relative risk of a 61- or 62-year-old worker retiring on the contractual pension between 2001 and 2010; however, among older workers employed in companies offering additional leave there has been a decrease in the relative risk. The effect of additional leave is evident both before and after controlling for the selected individual and company characteristics. Thus, the analysis shows that offering additional leave as a retention measure reduces the individual relative risk of withdrawing a contractual pension (AFP) in the next two years of employment among older workers between the age of 61 and 62 years.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliya Bushra

The aim of this study is to test the impact of women’s job satisfaction on their turnover intentions, specifically for those employed in the education sector. Using a sample drawn from two different universities in Lahore, Pakistan, we measure their levels of job satisfaction by evaluating their general working conditions, pay and potential for promotion, professional relationships, use of skills and abilities, and activities assigned. We find that flexible working hours, workplace location, performance appraisal, and skills utilization have a highly positive significance on turnover intentions, while professional autonomy, job security, and promotion have an inverse impact on job satisfaction and turnover intentions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 341-353
Author(s):  
Kresna Chandra Putra ◽  
Tedo Aris Pratama ◽  
Rionaldo Aureri Linggautama ◽  
Sekar Wulan Prasetyaningtyas

During the situation like Coronavirus COVID -19 pandemic that happened in 2020, forcing various banking companies to make adjustments and changes to their work system. The flexible working system is one of the most widely used, which has an impact on workers especially during this pandemic conditions. The impact of the change in work system in banking sector is interesting to study, especially since the banking industry in Indonesia still mostly uses conventional work systems. . This study aims to measure the impact of flexible working hours (FWH), remote working (RW), and work life balance (WLB) on employee job satisfaction in the banking industry during the pandemic. In this study, data were collected using quantitative, non-probability, purposive sampling methods via online questionnaires, which were distributed to employees in the banking sector during the pandemic period in Jabodetabek area. With total of 160 respondents who were used to perform analysis using the PLS-SEM method which was carried out with the SMART-PLS software. This study found that in pandemic conditions, achieving WLB conditions will have a positive impact on job satisfaction. The implementation of the RW system itself has a positive impact in helping to achieve the WLB conditions that are felt by banking workers in the Jabodetabek area, in contrast to the FWH system which does not have a similar effect on WLB. In addition, this study also provides an academic basis for the use of flexible working hour and remote working systems to increase job satisfaction, especially in the banking industry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anushiya Vanajan ◽  
Ute Bültmann ◽  
Kène Henkens

Abstract Background and Objectives Given their increasing prevalence with age, chronic health conditions (CHCs) are substantially affecting older workers and organizations. An important question is whether and how flexible work arrangements and organizational climates may help to reduce the work limitations experienced by older workers. Grounded on the Job Demand–Resource model, we hypothesize that access to flexible work arrangements (working-time flexibility, workplace flexibility, phased retirement) and supportive organizational climates (healthy ageing climate, psychological safety climate) are vital job resources that are associated with fewer health-related work limitations among older workers experiencing CHCs. Research Design and Methods Multilevel data were collected among 5,419 older workers (60–65 years) in 624 organizations in the Netherlands. Perceived health-related work limitations of older workers diagnosed with arthritis (N = 2,330), cardiovascular disease (N = 720), and sleep disorders (N = 816) were analyzed. Results Multilevel ordered logistic regression analyses revealed that perceived access to flexible working hours and a psychologically safe organizational climate was associated with fewer health-related work limitations among older workers with CHCs. Discussion and Implications Facilitating longer working lives is a key policy challenge within organizations, in particular if older workers are constraint by CHCs. This study shows that offering flexible working hours and ensuring a psychologically safe climate, where older workers with health issues are inclined to share their work needs and preferences, are likely to contribute to healthy ageing in the workplace.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4719
Author(s):  
Hiske den Boer ◽  
Tinka van Vuuren ◽  
Jeroen de Jong

Due to an aging workforce and an increasing structural labor shortage across Western economies, it is important to design jobs for older workers that support their continued employability. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate how job type (operational, professional and managerial jobs) influences work characteristics older workers need to continue working. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 21 older (55+) Dutch employees working in the health and education sector. A full thematic analysis of interview transcripts was performed, and work characteristics were identified, coded, categorized and compared to discover patterns of similarities and differences between job types. The results show that job types have a number of work characteristics in common: operational job types share autonomy with managers and client interaction with professionals, and professionals and managers share mentorship. Unique work characteristics for operational roles are supervisor support and comfortable workspace. Professionals especially want to use their expertise and flexible working hours, and managers are different because they value personal development and contact with colleagues. In conclusion, the results show that certain work characteristics have a different impact on the design of future jobs for older workers, depending on the type of job of the employee.


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