Flexible working for older workers

Introduction

Working populations across the Global North are ageing rapidly, meaning that human resource practices that address the needs of older workers are increasingly important. Definitions of what constitutes an older worker vary, but most suggest that those aged 50 or older fall into this category (Atkinson & Sandiford, 2016), albeit women are often considered to be ‘older’ at a younger age than men (Loretto et al., 2005). Another important factor is chronological versus subjective age (Nagy et al., 2019). The former is fixed from date of birth, the latter reflects how old someone actually feels — which can vary widely depending on a number of factors, such as health or individual perceptions. Perceptions of subjective age and other issues, such financial status, marital status and career stage, mean that the over-50s form a very diverse group and practices designed to meet their needs should reflect this in order to be effective (Bal & Jansen, 2015).

In the UK, the number of workers aged 50 or over already exceeds 10 million, an increase of 30% in just a decade. These numbers will only continue to grow (Centre for Ageing Better (CfAB), 2018) and the number of people aged over 65 is set to increase by more than 40% by 2040 (CfAB, 2019). The state pension age has been increased and the default retirement age, which required a worker to retire at a specific age, abolished (Cridland, 2017), and skill gaps are predicted as the younger generation shrinks (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (C1PD), 2019a). These patterns are reflected across developed economies and extending working lives is a focus for policy-makers internationally, as part of a discourse of active ageing. Zaidi et al.’s (2016) Active Ageing Index (AAI), for example, compares how countries differ on enabling active and healthy ageing and has ‘supporting workers to remain in employment into older age’ as the first domain of active ageing. Their analysis of European countries demonstrates that Scandinavian countries, the UK, Netherlands and Ireland fare best, many southern Europe countries form a middle group and Greece, together with many Central European countries, brings up the rear. Their analysis also evidences that women fare worse than men in their experiences of remaining in the labour market beyond 50. The UK’s relative success in the AAI analysis may relate to long-standing policy initiatives, including Fuller [i.e. longer] Working Lives (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), 2017), and similar types of initiative can be seen in countries beyond Europe, e.g. Australia (see, for example, Perera et al., 2015).

Note, however, our use of the term ‘relative success’. For in the UK, despite initiatives such as Fuller Working Lives (DWP, 2017), more than a quarter of those aged over 50 and who are not eligible for the UK state pension until 65 or later are not in work (CfAB, 2018). Further, less than half of older workers are in employment by the date they are eligible for their state pension (Thomson, 2018). Of these, 1 million are not working but would like to be, the so-called ‘missing million’ (Business in the Community, 2014). Older women particularly are in or seeking work, even though their economic activity rates remain below those of men of a similar age (Zaidi et al., 2016). While the reasons for this are complex, older workers face age discrimination, and women face both age and sex discrimination (Riach et al., 2015). Health and caring responsibilities also combine for some to create difficulty in remaining in employment. Despite the best efforts of policy-makers, many organisations seem oblivious to the ageing demographic and the fact that the older workforce is a reality, failing to take any action to support their recruitment and retention (CfAB, 2018). A change in organisational culture that supports older workers in remaining in employment is urgently needed and, without this, workers, organisations and wider society will suffer (CfAB, 2019).

Flexible working is one of the five strategies recommended by CfAB (2018) that supports extended employment for older workers. Other research supports this as well. The Taylor Review of Good Work (2017), for example, identified older workers as a key group that benefits from flexible working, and this is echoed by Thomson (2018). Indeed, benefits from flexibility for this group may exceed those for younger workers (Pitt-Catsouphes & Matz-Costa, 2008) because they are such a diverse group (Bal & Jansen, 2015). Despite this, as we discuss in this chapter, the offer of flexible work to older workers is limited (CIPD, 2019a).

We start this chapter by first defining flexible working and then we discuss formal flexible working arrangements (FWAs) that meet the needs of older workers. We then discuss how these arrangements need not be formal and policy-driven but can be arrived at both via personalised arrangements and informally. We next consider the offer and take-up of flexible working before concluding with some practical recommendations for accommodating older workers’ needs for flexibility and for extending their working lives.