Meeting the needs and benefiting from the experience of Baby Boomers

The proportion of the working population over traditional retirement age is set to increase significantly. Increasingly, people say they intend to continue working into their late sixties and beyond: some because they want the benefits of social engagement and/or the opportunity to achieve, and others because they will have no choice due to financial pressures.

Older adults may prefer flexible working patterns, ranging from phased retirement to part-time working and job-share arrangements. They may want more training, re-training or a change in job-roles (Robson, et al., 2006). But the commitment and contribution of older workers can remain high, making it well worthwhile for employers to make the changes required.

Of course, it is not only the employer who can benefit from keeping experienced older adults at work. There can be clear benefits of staying in work for the individual.

Work can enhance psychological well-being and physical activity has been shown to be positively associated with self-esteem.

For some older employees, adaptations may be required in certain aspects of their work.Physical work may need to be reduced and an emphasis placed on non-physical activity.

Most importantly, the drivers of and blocks to Quality of Working Life for older adults in different work settings need to be properly identified and understood so that the workplace can be properly adapted to meet the needs of the older worker and employers can continue to benefit from the expertise and commitment of experienced employees.

Robson, S. Hansson, R., Abalos, A. and Booth, M. (2006). Successful ageing: Criteria for ageing well in the workplace. Journal of Career Development, 33, 156.

Only half of organisational development works - but which half?

Just as it has been claimed that only 50% of advertising works, but we don’t know which 50%, it is difficult to get proper evidence to support specific interventions to enhance quality of working life. There is good evidence to support the idea that employee well-being can be improved by changes in organisational practices, but the research can be difficult to interpret in practice.

Finnish researchers have shown that work ability, organisational commitment and the mental well-being of employees show improvement if opportunities for development and influence, and promotion of well-being are increased (Tuomi et al., 2004).They also found that organisational commitment and the mental well-being of employees show improvement if supervisory support is improved.

Thus, targeted interventions would seem to be worth considering, but it appears that if the interventions are too unfocused or the assessments too general, the risk is that nothing will happen, or you won’t be able to recognise change if it does happen.

Tuomi, K., Vanhala, S., Nykyri, E. and Janhonen, M. (2004), Organizational practices, work demands and the well-being of employees: a follow-up study in the metal industry and retail trade. Occupational Medicine, 54, 115–121.