1. Recharging or Retiring the Older Worker
Recharging or Retiring the Older Worker? Strategies of European Employers
Kène Henkens, NIDI, The Hague, University of Amsterdam
With Harry van Dalen (NIDI) and Mo Wang (University of Florida)
NEUJOBS, Thursday 10 April 2014, Bonn

2. Age composition of the population (EU 25), 1950-2050

3. GOVERNMENTS at national and eu level
Ageing and dejuvenation require higher participation to combat decline potential labour force and make welfare state sustainable
Increasing life expectancy driving force behind extension working life and increase pension age

4. Extension of working lives….

6. Supply and demand side factors
Most research is focussed on the supply side of the labour market: Workers’ behaviours and attitudes Few studies look at the demand side of the labour market: Employers’ behaviours and attitudes

7. Overall Aim of the ASPA project
To gain insight into effects of employers’ behaviour on the use of older workers

8. ASPA multinational setup

9. research questions aspa project
How active are employers in stimulating labour force participation of older workers? What are the impediments for active ageing? What type of solutions do employers see to deal with current labour market challenges?

10. ASPA Employers survey, 2009 Organizations with 10 employees or more
Stratified sample size and sector
6,000 employers in eight countries
Identical questionnaire in all countries

11. Expected increase in retirement age (%)
Source: ASPA Employers Survey (2009).

12. Central research question
Which types of age-based HR strategies do employers actually use? And do different types of organizations (old, knowledge intensive, etc.) employ different strategies?

13. Personnel Economics
Lazear’s theory of implicit contracts

14. Dilemmas
Macro: seniority wages sensitive to age structure of staff Micro: seniority wages imply mandatory retirement rules

15. Human resource strategies
Exit, early retirement
Accomodation
Development, investment

16. method Structural equation modelling with latent variables:
Exit routes
Early retirement
Part-time retirement
Accomodation
Reduction of working time
Decreasing workload
Ergonomic measures
Age limit for irregular work or shifts

17. ….continued Development measures Training plans for older workers
Promoting internal job mobility
Continuous career development

18. Descriptives Exit routes Early retirement (31%)
Part-time retirement (26%)
Accomodation
Reduction of working time (24%)
Decreasing workload (20%)
Ergonomic measures (33%)
Age limit for irregular work (11%)
Development measures
Training plans for older workers (19%)
Promoting internal job mobility (28%)
Continuous career development (32%)

19. Human resource strategies

20. Explanatory variables
Proportion of older workers
Organization size
Importance of seniority-based compensation
Influence of unions in HR policies
Knowledge intensity organization
Training requirements

21. Results: explaining hr strategies
Exit
Accommodation
Development
% Older workers
+++ ++ +
Size organization
Seniority compens.
Unions influence
Training requirements
Knowledge intensity

22. Conclusions Micro-macro paradox
Employers use both exit and retention strategies
Aging firms more set on exit routes than younger firms
Large country differences
Public sector more age conscious than private sector

23. Thank you for your attention!
Kène Henkens

24. Reserve slides

25. Recruitment and retention

26. European employers' perception of wages rising with tenure (%)
Source: ASPA Employers Survey (2009).

27. Employers' expectations with respect to the labour cost-productivity gap with an ageing staff (%)
Source: ASPA Employers Survey (2009).

28. Organisational Policies
Source: ASPA Employers Survey (2009).

29. How to respond to a crisis?
Source: ASPA Employers Survey (2009).