Older workers and extended working life - Managers' experiences and age management.
Anita Björklund Carlstedt, Cecilia Bjursell, Rosita Nyman and 1 others
PMID 38820043WHAT IT FOUND
Managers said they rarely discussed age, preferred talking about experience, and left retirement planning to human resources.
They lacked systems to transfer skills from older workers, and saw raised retirement age as a human resources issue rather than a workplace discussion.
Key findings
01Managers reported that they did not discuss age in recruitment and preferred describing older workers by experience rather than age.
02Organizations often lacked systems and routines for transferring competence from older workers, and managers said this led to loss of experience when people retired.
03The increase in retirement age produced little workplace discussion; managers awaited directives and said they needed more knowledge about work ability assessment, laws, and retaining older workers.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study interviewed fourteen managers, so it is a small sample. Managers were recruited through the authors' personal contacts, so their views may not represent all employers. The analysis was done by the first author alone, although other authors listened to recorded interviews. Interviews took place before the pandemic, so they may not reflect later workplace changes. It reports managers' experiences, not older workers' experiences or measured retention outcomes.
Declared interests
The paper states that there are no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this paper as evidence that age management or a raised retirement age improves retention. It describes what managers said about their practices and knowledge gaps, not outcomes.