Flexible Working and an Ageing Workforce

1
Flexible Working and an Ageing Workforce

• Dr George W. Leeson
• Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director,
  Oxford Institute of Ageing, University of Oxford
• One Size Doesnt Fit All Conference, Employers
  Forum on Age Employers Forum on Belief,
  Westminster, London, February 26th 2009

2
Structure of the Presentation

• The Development of the Concept of Retirement
• Shifts in Patterns of Retirement
• Employers Attitudes and Actions
• Internalisation of Retirement as Funded Leisure
• 5. Key Ideas
• Data from the Global Ageing Survey (44,000 people
  aged 40-79 years in 24 countries, 3 waves)

3
1. The Development of the Concept of Retirement

• In the 1940s and 1950s Rest

4
1. The Development of the Concept of Retirement

• In the 1940s and 1950s Rest
• In the 1970s Reward

5
1. The Development of the Concept of Retirement

• In the 1940s and 1950s Rest
• In the 1970s Reward
• By the 1980s Right

6
1. The Development of the Concept of Retirement

• In the 1940s and 1950s Rest
• In the 1970s Reward
• By the 1980s Right
• The future Responsibility

7
2. Shifts in Patterns of Retirement

• Incentives for retirement
• Two key cohorts
• Current late life workers aged 50 years and
  over
• Future late life workers currently aged 20-50
  years
• Different needs and demands
• Different timescales

8
2. Shifts in Patterns of Retirement

• Incentives for retirement
• Two key socio-economic groups
• Professional, managerial workers - pulled out
  of the labour force by economic incentives and
  enhanced opportunities for leisure and
  consumption
• Skilled and unskilled occupations - pushed out
  of the labour force by untenable working
  conditions and employer attitudes

9
2. Shifts in Patterns of Retirement

• Changes in labour markets and working
  environments
• Obsolete employment late life workers located in
  dying industries/sectors
• Demand for new skills excludes late life workers
  as their training in early life is obsolete

10
3. Employers attitudes and actions

• Late life workers are less productive than early
  life workers
• Late life workers are less reliable than early
  life workers
• Late life workers are less flexible than early
  life workers
• Late life workers are less loyal than early life
  workers
• Late life workers are less motivated than early
  life workers
• Late life workers are less technologically
  oriented than early life workers
• Late life workers are slower learners than early
  life workers

11
3. Employers attitudes and actions
12
3. Employers attitudes and actions
13
3. Employers attitudes and actions
14
3. Employers attitudes and actions
15
4. Internalisation of retirement

• Current late life cohorts have internalized the
  notion of retirement, both the individual and
  his/her partner and/or wider family
• Compounded by the growing responsibilities that
  many of these cohorts have for kin care and
  support, especially for their parents

16
4. Internalisation of retirement
17
4. Internalisation of retirement
18
5. Key Ideas

• What is the role of employers in developing
  infrastructures conducive or otherwise to
  patterns of late life work?
• How can we tackle age discrimination and current
  attitudes to late life work?