Research Brief

Extending the productive working life of older workers: the role of human resource management

This brief explores how human resource management (HRM) practices can help extend the productive working life of older workers, addressing both social justice and economic efficiency. It highlights the need for age-inclusive, supportive, and flexible HRM strategies to counter age-related stereotypes, improve working conditions, and retain valuable knowledge within organizations.

Key points

  • The ability of older workers to maintain a productive working life is likely to increase productivity and improve social justice in society.
  • Ageing of population and workforce is a critical challenge that should be addressed by policymakers, social partners and organizations.
  • This challenge could be addressed by an “active ageing” approach, which could be viewed as the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance the quality of work life as people age.
  • An active ageing approach should challenge age stereotypes about older workers, such as their resistance to change, lower ability to learn, shorter tenure, more costly to hire and poor performers.
  • At the workplace level, active ageing could be associated with age-supportive human resource management (HRM) practices that are beneficial to older workers. There are various categories of HRM practices, each focusing on distinct functions and the needs of individual workers. These include accommodative practices, utilization practices, maintenance practices and developmental practices.
  • Older workers should have access to training and learning opportunities that should help them address technological challenges, including knowledge sharing between older and younger workers in both directions.
  • Assistive technology can be adopted by organizations to support older workers in reducing the physical demands of the job and possibly extend productive working life.
  • An inclusive approach towards older workers, and a system of supportive HRM practices will help entice older workers to stay on the job and contribute to the organization.

Additional details

Author(s)

  • Fang Lee Cooke
  • Nikolai Rogovsky

References