Enabling longer work life four case studies

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Enabling longer work life four case studies

• Jan Holmer
• Roland Kadefors
• Per-Olof Thång
• Department of Work Science
• University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden

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Swedish demography 1970-2030
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Total employment rate of older workers, 55-64
years
Sweden
Norway
Percent
70
Denmark
Finland
60
50
40
source Eurostat
4
The case studies

• Which obstacles do people over 50 years of age
  encounter when they endeavour to remain in or to
  re-enter the labour market?
• Which are the individual factors that enable
  people to work beyond retirement age?
• Which factors facilitate for people to stay
  longer in working life before retirement?
• Considering the ageing workforce and retirements
  to come how to bring about a relevant knowledge
  transfer between age groups?
• Reflections on the concept of Work

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The obstacles an interview study

• Material and methods
• 78 problem owners over the age of 50,
• representatives of social partners,
• officials representing the Swedish Social
  Insurance Agency, and the
• Swedish Public Employment Service.
• The interviews were based on a guide covering
  personal as well as contextual factors.

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The obstacles

• Competence related factors
• health related factors
• rules and regulations
• negative attitudes.

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Competence related factors

• A lack of updated technical abilities
• insufficient opportunities given by employers for
  competence updating
• many individuals were afraid of new technologies
  and were reluctant to take part in educational
  activities.

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Health related factors

• Problems in the musculoskeletal system (low back,
  shoulder/neck)
• high work pace
• irregular work hours, particularly shift work.
• Obstacles relate to effects of natural ageing,
  but also to ailments caused or aggravated by
  exposures in previous employments.

9
Rules and regulations

• Limited access to economical support for
  re-education
• higher costs for employers to hire elderly
  people
• insufficient co-operation between authorities.

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Negative attitudes

• Among officials in the authorities
• among employers
• among the jobseekers themselves.

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Percentage in different age groups who consider
themselves middle aged
- source SOM-institutet, Senior 2005
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Work and Work forms

• Work, we propose, is activities performed within
  social relations in a sphere of necessity.
• Work forms are different ways of socially
  organizing what people have to do to support
  themselves in a given society.

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Work and Work Forms

• When talking about work forms, we generally think
  of wage labour, but there is a whole set of work
  forms.
• Firstly wage labour can be divided in for
  instance a traditional form and a career-oriented
  form.
• Then there are self-employment, housework etc. We
  may also distinguish between formal work as wage
  labour, and informal work as voluntary work.

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Work and Work Forms

• In each work form we can find salient features as
  regards the social relations in wage labour for
  instance there is a typical relation between the
  employer and the employee.
• In each work form we may also expect different
  thought configurations as concerns work.
• For self-employed people the thought
  configuration about work may mean that
  twenty-four hours are given the characteristic of
  work. Work and leisure are not separated in any
  distinctive way.
• For a blue-collar worker, work mostly is a means
  to earn money and nothing else. Work and leisure
  are separate parts of life.

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Work beyond retirement age

• Which are the individual factors that enable
  people to work (obstacles and possibilities)
  beyond retirement age?
• The methods used are participant observations of
  and questionnaires to university professors.

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Work beyond retirement age results

• We found that the forces for this kind of work
  are inherent, embedded in the work itself (as we
  may find also in other occupations, for instance
  the career-oriented work form and also in
  self-employed people).
• For these kinds of occupations economic
  incentives seemed to be of little importance.
• The pleasure in knowing something and having a
  capacity to do something is important.

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Work beyond retirement age results

• But the commitment is also a result of work
  characteristics a work with exacting duties and
  good possibilities to manage and control and to
  follow up what has been contributed and achieved.
  
• These work characteristics are necessary, though
  not always sufficient, conditions to make persons
  in general manage to work in older ages (due to
  rules for retirement, for example).

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Knowledge transfer between age groups

• How to bring about a relevant knowledge transfer
  in an organisation considering the ageing
  workforce and retirements to come?
• Interviews were carried out with heads in some
  twenty organisations drawn from public and
  private sectors.

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Knowledge transfer between age groups
preliminary findings

• There is a tendency towards a changeover from
  formal education and training to informal and
  non-formal learning, and training in form of
  knowledge transfer close to the working place and
  work-integrated learning.
• This is done by for instance
• studying by walking around/learning by asking
• some colleagues gives instructions and
  explanations
• work in parallel (the post is filled in double)
• sponsorship (including continuous guidance)
• mentorship
• working in teams (often cross-professional)
• work place meetings...

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Knowledge transfer between age groups
preliminary findings

• In order to keep the competence in the
  organisation, some trades have created an
  incentive for the elderly employees to remain for
  a prolonged working period, meaning that the
  employee,
• is working 80,
• has 90 full pay, and
• retains 100 pension at official retirement.
• Then the employee has to participate in mentoring
  activities.

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Facilitating factors in blue collar work

• An Education Programme for Machine Operators in
  the Swedish Forest Industry during the late 1990s

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Background

• The employees were getting older.
• The turnover was too low.
• Too many employees had a short formal education.
• Too few young employees had a more qualified
  education.
• Rapid technological development.
• Further education was needed to make it possible
  to work until retirement.

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Purpose of the project

• Recruit older (50) machine operators with a
  short formal education.
• Teaching and learning should be computer
  supported.
• A supervisor (contact person) should be
  recruited.
• Some subjects were picked beforehand.
• The industries participating should cooperate
  within the programme.
• A local learning centre with computers and
  equipment should be established.

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Main subjects

• Mathematics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Swedish
• English
• Other

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Results at a company level

• Better educated manpower.
• Better motivated manpower.
• Support is essential for every single employee.

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Results at an individual level

• 60 completed the studies.
• Self reliance had been boosted.
• A few applied for university studies.
• Personal motives to participate were stronger
  than work related motives.
• Strengthened chances on the labour market.

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Conclusion (1)

• Recurrent education of older workers could be a
  vigorous instrument to motivate them to stay
  longer in working life.

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Conclusion (2)

• We believe that it is less personal
  characteristics compared to work forms, work
  characteristics and contextual factors (like
  rules and regulations) that make persons manage
  to work up to and beyond the official retirement
  age.

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Conclusion (3)

• There is a changeover from formal education and
  training to informal and non-formal learning and
  training in form of knowledge transfer close to
  the working place and work-integrated learning.

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Conclusion (4)

• If it is endeavored to increase work
  participation in the 55-64 years old, it is
  unlikely that economical incentives will suffice.
  The realities behind the statistics need to be
  addressed.
• We believe that this is not only a matter of
  national economics, but should be seen in the
  context of the place that work has, or may have,
  in the life of the citizens.