Jaap Oude Mulders

Older workers are increasingly being encouraged to work beyond normal retirement age (NRA). Given that employers generally control opportunities for employees to work beyond NRA, better understanding their motivations, attitudes, and experiences in (re)hiring employees to work beyond NRA is vital. To date, however, research investigating employment beyond NRA has primarily focused on the perspective and experiences of employees. In this study, we analyzed data from a 2017 survey of 1,214 Dutch employers to examine whether workplace social norms, employers’ concerns related to workforce aging, and structural organizational characteristics were related to whether or not they employed working retirees. We found that workplace norms about working beyond NRA, concerns about career opportunities for younger workers, and structural characteristics such as organizational size, sector, and proportion of female and older workers in the organization were significantly associated with whether or not organizations employed workers beyond NRA. In the second, exploratory, phase of our analysis, we investigated attitudes and approaches toward workers beyond NRA among those who had previously employed such workers. Most employers agree that they mainly (re)hire workers with unique knowledge or experience to work beyond NRA and that employees usually take the initiative in prolonging employment. Employers’ opinions on whether employees working beyond NRA should accept a pay cut or block the progress of other employees are more mixed. Insights gained from the current research can help guide future research and policy to support longer working lives, from both employee and employer perspectives, even beyond normal retirement age.

Increasing statutory retirement ages around the world are forcing employees to prolong their working lives. We study the different ways in which mid‐ and late‐career workers respond to such changes. We distinguish between negative emotions about working longer, cognitive engagement with prolonged employment, and proactive behavior to facilitate longer working lives. We analyze data from 1,351 employees aged 40‐66 from the Netherlands. We estimate a structural equation model to identify in which ways experiences of age discrimination, accessibility of accommodative HR facilities, and social norms in the workers’ social networks are related to the three different types of responses. Results show that when employees do not experience age discrimination, when their employer offers easily accessible accommodative HR facilities, and the social norms support prolonged employment, employees have fewer negative emotional reactions and are more likely to behaviorally respond to facilitate longer working lives. When these contexts are misaligned, the reverse is generally found. We also find socioeconomic differences in the ways employees respond to the prospect of prolonged employment. This study shows the importance of supportive contexts at different levels—societally, in organizations, and in individuals’ own lives—for policy changes such as increasing statutory retirement ages to be effective. Different responses between different socioeconomic groups may lead to growing long‐term inequality.

Longitudinal perspectives on how organizations react to workforce aging are missing in the literature. In this study, we fill this gap and ask how organizations deal with older workers, how their approaches change over time, and in which sectors of the economy and types of organizations the changes were most profound. Data come from two large-scale employer surveys: 2009 (n = 1,077) and 2017 (n = 1,358), representative for the Netherlands. We use a three-step group-comparison latent class analysis combined with a multinomial logistic model. We found four clusters of organizations based on their practices regarding older workers—those trying to activate and develop their employees (active), focusing solely on exit measures (exit), implementing a combination of development, accommodating and exit measures (all), and practicing no age management (none). We find a major shift in employers’ approaches to aging workforces between 2009 and 2017, with strong decreases in those that offered no age management (47%–30%) and those focusing on exit measures (21%–6%), and an increase in active organizations (19%–52%). Active age management is no longer concentrated in large and developing organizations, but has become a standard human resources tool economy-wide. Overall, there is a long-term trend away from exit measures toward the application of proactive age management measures. More involvement of employers in retaining older adults in the workplace may signal a growing awareness of the changing demographic reality.

Ages of labor market exit have increased steadily since the late 1990s in OECD countries, but with continuing population aging, there are calls for further stimulation of labor force participation at older ages. Social scientists have extensively studied causes of variation in retirement timing between individuals and across countries, but have paid less attention to causes of variation over time. This study systematically reviews evidence of causes of increases in ages of labor market exit over the past 30 years in OECD countries. Two goals are pursued: first, to provide an overview of the retirement domains that have been subject to investigation; second to compare studies with respect to the magnitude of change in retirement behavior that they attributed to different causes, in different contexts. Nineteen studies were reviewed. Available evidence articulates itself around four domains: inter-cohort changes in labor force participation of women (3 studies), educational attainment (3 studies) and lifetime wealth (1 study), and changes to social security systems (16 studies). Determinants in all domains explain a significant amount of past increases in ages of labor market exit, though figures attributable to similar determinants vary between studies and across countries. Evidence suggests that further postponement of labor market exit may depend on further increases to normal retirement ages and more limited access to early retirement programs, but also on further increases in educational attainment and the continued integration of women in the labor market. However, a large share of the past increases in ages of labor market exit remains unexplained; therefore, other factors such as those related to work and organizational characteristics deserve further research.

Purpose: Social norms about the timing of retirement and stereotypes about qualities of younger and older workers are pervasive, but it is unclear how they relate to employers’ ageist preferences. The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of employers’ retirement age norms and age-related stereotypes on their preferences for younger or older workers in three types of employment practices: hiring a new employee; offering training; and offering a permanent contract.Design/methodology/approach: Survey data from 960 Dutch employers from 2017 are analysed to study employers’ preferences for younger or older workers. Effects of organisations’ and managers’ characteristics, retirement age norms and stereotypes are estimated with multinomial logistic regression analyses.Findings: Many employers have a strong preference for younger workers, especially when hiring a new employee, while preferences for older workers are highly uncommon. Higher retirement age norms of employers are related to a lower preference for younger workers in all employment decisions. When employers are more positive about older workers’ soft qualities (such as reliability and social skills), but not about their hard qualities (such as their physical capacity and willingness to learn), they rate older workers relatively more favourable for hiring and offering training, but not for providing a permanent contract.Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to estimate the effects of retirement age norms and age-related stereotypes on ageist preferences for a diverse set of employment practices.

Governments increasingly focus on extending working lives by raising public pension ages and in some cases by linking pension ages to changes in the life expectancy. This study offers novel insights into how employers perceive such reforms and their consequences for their organization. A survey among employers (N = 1,208) has been carried out in 2017 to examine their reactions to a recent pension reform in the Netherlands. Statistical analyses are performed to examine employers’ support for the current policy of linking the public pension age to changes in average life expectancy, as well as the support for 2 alternative policies that are often considered in public policy debates: a flexible public pension age; and a lower public pension age for workers in physically demanding jobs. Results show that particularly employers in construction and industry are extremely concerned about the physical capability of employees to keep on working until the public pension age. These concerns are the driving forces behind the lack of support for linking public pension ages to changes in average life expectancy (22% support) and the overwhelming support for a lower public pension age for physically demanding jobs (82%). The introduction of a flexible pension age (78% support) is not firmly related to employers’ concerns about capability or employability of older workers.

The Dutch government abolished mandatory retirement for national-level civil servants in 2008, but not for employees in other sectors. This study analyzes whether national-level civil servants have different attitudes and plans about working beyond normal retirement age than employees in other sectors. Results show no clear differences between the groups. A national ban on mandatory retirement would presumably not lead to many more older workers continuing to work beyond normal retirement, but would need to be integrated in a much broader policy reform that also addresses employment protection legislation and seniority-based wages.

The aging of the workforce and the trend toward longer working lives has substantial implications, not only for employees, but also for employers. The aim of this study is to quantitatively investigate the extent to which employers have implemented human resource (HR) practices in adjustment to longer working lives. We distinguish between information practices, health practices, and person-job fit practices. Data from 1,296 Dutch employers, collected in 2017, are used to study the ways in which employers have adjusted their HR practices. We estimate a structural equation model to identify predictors of implementing adjustment measures. Employers have largely started to adjust their HR practices to make longer working lives more attainable. Especially larger organizations are highly active in using HR practices to enhance the long-term employment perspectives for their employees. Employers who are concerned about the mental fitness of their workforce in relation to longer working lives are especially likely to invest in information and health adjustment practices. Organizations with a high proportion of older workers are mostly focused on providing information. The HR practices that are implemented by employers to facilitate longer working lives are different from those traditionally associated with an older workforce, implying a fundamental shift in employers' focus. Instead of promoting the exit of older workers and accommodating older workers specifically, employers are now moving toward providing information, promoting healthy habits, and improving long-term person-job fit, also targeting early- and mid-career workers.