Work-role flexibility

As already noted, there is little current recognition of work-role flexibility as an FWA that supports older workers. We argue that it is an important form of flexibility for this group and we outline below some key practices, arguing that job crafting is vital to support this (Nagy et al., 2019).

Adjustment of role

Both our work (Atkinson & Sandiford, 2016) and that of Buyens et al. (2009) has demonstrated the importance of the adjustment of role, which involves adding, changing or removing tasks to/from the roles of older workers. One example from our study was an older car mechanic who no longer pushed cars into and out of the workshop, relying on team members to do that. He nevertheless brought huge knowledge and experience that was of substantial benefit to the team. Another worker no longer dealt with telephone calls as she found this difficult, but she was able to make a valuable contribution in face-to-face customer contact and data inputting. Recently, the concept of job crafting has come to prominence (Nagy et al., 2019), and we use that here as a mechanism to explain how and why older workers may seek to adapt the contents of their jobs.

Job crafting is a ‘form of proactive work behaviour that is defined as the self-initiated changes regarding one’s job which are aimed at optimizing the alignment of personal preferences, goals, and motives with one’s job’ (Tims et al., 2016, p. 45). Job crafting is often positioned as a way for workers to take on additional challenges, but it may also offer other ways of adapting the job to suit the needs of older workers (see e.g. Nagy et al., 2019). The key is the job/person fit, that is, the match between a worker’s characteristics (e.g. knowledge, skills, abilities, needs) and the job’s tasks (Kooij et al., 2017). Crafting (i.e. adjusting the tasks in the job) seeks to improve this fit and is important for older workers, as fit changes over time and as a result of their changing needs, preferences and abilities (Nagy et al., 2019). Tims et al. (2016) evidence the importance of improving the job-person fit inmaintaining motivation and so job crafting supports older workers in having positive workplace experiences. Indeed, Kooij et al. (2017) have argued that older workers have better insights into their strengths and needs, and they are more likely to seek to influence their fit with a role; they are also more likely to be successful in this as they tend to be more confident. As we noted at the outset, there can be a difference between chronological and subjective age (Nagy et al., 2019), and so older workers can be a very varied workforce group, with their careers less fixed to rigid timeframes than those of other groups (Van der Heijden, 2015). Job crafting then becomes a very useful tool to offer the flexibility individual workers need at particular points in their later working lives.

Job crafting can be challenging at a policy level, however, as its very responsiveness to individual needs makes it difficult to provide universally. Nevertheless, organisations need to find innovative approaches to role design (Thomson, 2018) and policy can be explicit in offering older workers the opportunity to have discussions about job crafting and in encouraging line managers to be responsive to this. The kinds of i-deals we discuss later also provide an effective mechanism to support job crafting.

Bridge employment

Bridge employment differs from adjustment of role discussed above in that it involves a complete change in role. When these job moves are not on a traditional linear career trajectory, they are often referred to as downshifting when in the same organisation, or as bridge employment when moving to a different organisation (Atkinson & Sandiford, 2016). Perera et al. (2015) explored the exit decisions of older workers and evidenced many of these types of job moves, and that exit decisions are more complex than remain or retire. Yet policies are needed to support workers in accessing this type of FWA. Downshifting is countercultural, as most organisations have embedded expectations that job moves will be upwards or, at the very least, sideways. Downward moves can thus be met with resistance, amid fears of overqualification or demotivation. Opportunities to move to less demanding roles should be made explicitly available via policy, and line managers and colleagues encouraged to see the benefits of this. There were a small number of examples of this in our research project and they were generally successful, a team supervisor moving to an administrative role for instance, but these were unusual and downward moves were often not well accommodated (Atkinson & Sandiford, 2016).

Similarly, policy should provide for recruitment of those who have worked at a more senior level elsewhere into a different organisation, that is, bridge employment, and again address barriers created by employer concerns about overqualification. It is often very difficult for older workers to access bridge employment, literally a bridge between a more demanding and a less demanding stage of their career and retirement. Nevertheless, our research

Flexible working for older workers 237 demonstrated that this could be successful. In one instance, the former area manager of a national car parking firm joined a small firm to run its two car parks; in another, a former RAC engineer worked as a mechanic (Atkinson & Sandiford, 2016). Both made substantial contributions to the organisation they joined. Organisational policy should be explicit in providing for bridge employment as an effective mechanism to extend the working lives of older workers.

Improving comfort/efficiency in the work environment

Buyens et al. (2009) propose improving comfort/efficiency but give little detail about what this might involve. It is likely to include FWAs that accommodate workers’ changing physical abilities. In our study, for example, work was rearranged so that an older worker who had had a hip replacement did not have to use the stairs for an agreed period of time (Atkinson & Sandiford, 2016). Other adjustments might include offering reading aids or chairs and other equipment that supports any physical requirements.

Spatial flexibility

Spatial flexibility refers to where hours are worked, and usually includes working remotely (sometimes at home) or working at varied office bases. Here the needs of older workers appear to be largely similar to those of other workforce groups, although the use of passports to support health needs, which we discussed above, can be used to authorise spatial flexibility. Use of technology can also support in adapting job roles to the needs of older workers and make it easier for them to work remotely (Thomson, 2018).