FACTAGE: Fairer Active Ageing for Europe
Lead Research Organisation:
National Institute of Economic and Social Research
Department Name: National Institute of Economic & Soc Res
Abstract
The research explores risks of inequality in later life and in employment of older workers using diverse perspectives, engaging the disciplines of sociology, social policy, economics, statistics and epidemiology. The work is divided into four substantive Work Packages (WPs).
The first Work Package is concerned with how longer working lives are associated with the changing labour markets that older workers face, and with older populations' general well-being. The second investigates the need for working longer in the nexus of the workplace, highlighting the role of work-life balance, and potential inequalities in skills and working conditions, and inter-generational exchanges. The third Work Package explores fundamental inequalities in (healthy) life expectancy.
In the final Work Package the findings from the other three Work Packages are brought together in order to propose policy scenarios which have the potential both to facilitate longer working lives and to positively contribute to intra- and inter-generational equity. Specific policy recommendations will be made based on varying evidence from different contexts of EU Member States.
The first Work Package is concerned with how longer working lives are associated with the changing labour markets that older workers face, and with older populations' general well-being. The second investigates the need for working longer in the nexus of the workplace, highlighting the role of work-life balance, and potential inequalities in skills and working conditions, and inter-generational exchanges. The third Work Package explores fundamental inequalities in (healthy) life expectancy.
In the final Work Package the findings from the other three Work Packages are brought together in order to propose policy scenarios which have the potential both to facilitate longer working lives and to positively contribute to intra- and inter-generational equity. Specific policy recommendations will be made based on varying evidence from different contexts of EU Member States.
Planned Impact
In order to maximise impact, interaction with key stakeholders is built in a continuous process which is fundamental to each work package. It is reflected specifically for example in a systematic review of stakeholders' response to existing knowledge on socio-economic ageing inequalities (Work Package 2). FACTAGE also foresees a discourse on assumptions on equitable social protection (Work Package 4) and innovative policy approaches (Work Package 5). A specific dissemination work package (Work Package 6) is designed to ensure that FACTAGE stimulates further research activities and engages stakeholders. The research seeks to develop innovative policy responses to inequalities in ageing in Europe, which will be beneficial to policymakers throughout the EU.
A website which will also act as a resource base for sources on the theme of 'fairer active ageing for Europe' will be set up from the very start of the project. This will seek to raise awareness of current and prospective inequalities and required action will need to be created at three different levels:
1. Academic research community: papers and reports will be disseminated through existing research networks, conference presentations, and organisation of special workshops though the course of the project.
2. National policy makers: consortium partners will identify and connect with the policymaking communities in their respective countries and relevant to specific topics in each work package (through e.g. specialised workshops). A major policy conference will also target specifically national policy makers and officials from a range of EU Member States.
3. European policy level: Several consortium members are involved in activities with the European Commission on a regular basis. The Centre for European Policy Studies (based in Brussels) will host a series of workshops/meetings around the FACTAGE activities inviting not just academic scholars outside the consortium but also other stakeholders at the European level.
All consortium members are high level academics in their own capacity, with extensive experience in drafting and presenting policy reports for a wide range of stakeholders. The diversity of partners makes the consortium ideally placed to address all three levels. It ensures channels of continuous outreach to and feedback from stakeholders. For example:
1. Statistics Austria has a direct line to National Statistical Institutes and Eurostat via existing networks. This ensures that discussions on data issues reach those able to address this. At the same time methodological research in WP4 is communicated directly to peers in the statistical community.
2. NIESR has a long running tradition of conducting and disseminating policy relevant research and a wide network of other researchers.
3. CEPS has excellent communication lines to the European Commission and other pan-European Stakeholders based in Brussels. CEPS is also managing the European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes (ENEPRI) network of leading European policy research institutes.
4. Individual FACTAGE researchers are involved in projects on ageing research financed by national and international bodies. A non-exhaustive list contains: MoPact (Mobilising the Potential of Active Ageing), The Active ageing Index, BEL-Ageing or the Network for the Analysis of EU-SILC (NETSILC2).
A website which will also act as a resource base for sources on the theme of 'fairer active ageing for Europe' will be set up from the very start of the project. This will seek to raise awareness of current and prospective inequalities and required action will need to be created at three different levels:
1. Academic research community: papers and reports will be disseminated through existing research networks, conference presentations, and organisation of special workshops though the course of the project.
2. National policy makers: consortium partners will identify and connect with the policymaking communities in their respective countries and relevant to specific topics in each work package (through e.g. specialised workshops). A major policy conference will also target specifically national policy makers and officials from a range of EU Member States.
3. European policy level: Several consortium members are involved in activities with the European Commission on a regular basis. The Centre for European Policy Studies (based in Brussels) will host a series of workshops/meetings around the FACTAGE activities inviting not just academic scholars outside the consortium but also other stakeholders at the European level.
All consortium members are high level academics in their own capacity, with extensive experience in drafting and presenting policy reports for a wide range of stakeholders. The diversity of partners makes the consortium ideally placed to address all three levels. It ensures channels of continuous outreach to and feedback from stakeholders. For example:
1. Statistics Austria has a direct line to National Statistical Institutes and Eurostat via existing networks. This ensures that discussions on data issues reach those able to address this. At the same time methodological research in WP4 is communicated directly to peers in the statistical community.
2. NIESR has a long running tradition of conducting and disseminating policy relevant research and a wide network of other researchers.
3. CEPS has excellent communication lines to the European Commission and other pan-European Stakeholders based in Brussels. CEPS is also managing the European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes (ENEPRI) network of leading European policy research institutes.
4. Individual FACTAGE researchers are involved in projects on ageing research financed by national and international bodies. A non-exhaustive list contains: MoPact (Mobilising the Potential of Active Ageing), The Active ageing Index, BEL-Ageing or the Network for the Analysis of EU-SILC (NETSILC2).
Publications
Cebulla A
(2019)
Work-life imbalance in extended working lives: domestic divisions of labour and partners' perceptions of job pressures of non-retiring older workers
in Sozialer Fortschritt (German Review of Social Policy)
Description | The Fairer Active Ageing for Europe (FACTAGE) project, funded through the Joint Programming Initiative More Years Better Lives, involves a consortium of organisations working on a range of issues in relation to the extension of working lives and associated inequalities. Given space constraints, here we focus particularly on findings from the ESRC-funded element, although an important aspect of the project has been its international collaboration and cross-country focus. Our research has included exploration of the potential consequences of extended working lives for relationships in coupled households, with a particular focus on domestic divisions of labour. This has shown that: • Households with post-effective retirement age (ERA) workers (that is, individuals who are up to five years older than the ERA), display very similar unequal divisions of domestic labour as pre-ERA households (defined as individuals up to five years younger than the ERA). This finding applies based on both European survey data as well as analysis for the UK alone, and provides further evidence that working longer may perpetuate unequal divisions of domestic labour. • Through further analysis of European survey data, we consider impacts for work-life balance, and find partners of post-ERA workers were no less accepting of the effects that job pressures were having on family life than partners of pre-ERA workers. However, older workers' ability to organise their daily work mediates their partners' perceptions of the strain caused by the job, with this effect stronger for those working beyond the ERA. This suggests that post-ERA workers may use this flexibility to manage their working day in a way that is more conducive to balancing work and family life, compared with pre-ERA workers. Our research has also shed further light on the relationship between skill mismatch among older workers, job satisfaction and workplace performance. • Around one-fifth of older workers (aged 50 and over) in British workplaces reported that their own skills were much higher than those required to do their present job. However, the extent of (perceived) skill mismatch varies little by age. • Employees who perceive their skills are under or over-utilised ("mismatched") report lower job satisfaction than those who consider their skills to match those required by the job. However mismatched older workers were no less satisfied with their job than mismatched workers aged 22-49. • We consider the consequences of skill mismatch for employers; in workplaces where the majority of the workforce was aged 50 plus, having more workers whose skills are under-utilised is associated with the workplace reporting a better quality of service or product. Older workers may therefore offer something beyond what they themselves perceive to be valuable in terms of the skills required to do their own jobs. The international collaborative nature of the project meant we were also able to compare and contrast findings with research by project partner Statistics Austria, exploring an alternative definition of skill mismatch. This showed some variation in the relationship between age and skill utilisation by country, highlighting the importance of considering the country-specific context in order to better understand the drivers of skill utilisation. |
Exploitation Route | Our findings are of relevance to policymakers. We have engaged with policy audiences both in the UK and at European level, including through multiple workshops and conferences. We hope that our findings will continue to help inform debate and potentially future decision-making in relation to policies surrounding the extension of working lives, particularly with regard to any potential inequalities these may generate. Our findings also add to the academic literature on inequalities in extended working lives (including a special issue of the German Review of Social Policy/Sozialer Fortschritt focused on the FACTAGE project). This has included highlighting areas where further research would be valuable. For example, this could include developing new and up-to-date sources of information to increase understanding of older employees' experiences of work. The findings are also relevant for employers and employer organisations, and indeed, for older workers themselves, and for organisations that provide support to older individuals. In the light of an ageing workforce it is critical to continue to build the evidence base on the consequences for both individuals and employers. These findings are likely to be of interest to employers in sectors across the economy, but perhaps particularly those in which older workers are more prevalent. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Education Healthcare Government Democracy and Justice Retail Other |
URL | http://www.factage.eu |
Description | Throughout the project we have engaged with policymakers through regular workshops and conferences. Given that this project was a collaboration with partners across Europe, much of this engagement has focused on European stakeholders, but organisations in the UK have also been active partners in our dissemination activities. We benefited from some key events early in the project (February/March 2017) including: an ESRC stakeholder event; a Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) networking event (both in London); and our own workshop held in Brussels. These events brought together researchers working on a variety of projects on the theme of ageing, with policy makers and representatives from third sector organisations. In particular, at the Brussels workshop we had active participation with representatives from the European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, social affairs and inclusion (DG Employment) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These discussions helped frame our research in the context of other ongoing research projects as well as gaining informed feedback from engaged policy makers and practitioners. Our first substantial presentation of early research findings took place in Brussels in April 2017 and again attracted European policymakers. Here we started to develop a productive working relationship with the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). Eurofound aims to support the policymaking activities of EU institutions, governments, employers, trade unions and civil society organisations. It provides information, advice and expertise to support the shaping and implementing social and employment policies, as well as promoting social dialogue on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis. We organised a conference with Eurofound in January 2018 focused on policies for an ageing workforce, with contributions from researchers working on other projects funded by the same JPI round as FACTAGE. The conference included two expert panels concentrating on policy implications of the research with contributions from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Labour Organization (ILO), The European Commission (EC), BusinessEurope and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). These diverse stakeholders are committed to improving policymaking by governments, employers and workers representatives and have helped to raised awareness of our research. A report on the conference was subsequently published by one of our FACTAGE partners: the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Engagement with the UK policy world occurred through participation in the annual conference of the Work, Pensions and Labour Economics Study Group (WPEG) in Sheffield. The aim of the group is to foster a high standard of dialogue between academics and civil servants and to foster, promote and disseminate research in labour economics, pensions, and related research areas. The annual conference, which is financially supported by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), brings together researchers and policy makers, primarily in central government, for two days of discussion. We were able to develop links with the DWP such that they became active participants in our next workshop in London focused on gender inequalities. Some of the work presented at this workshop is now published in a special issue of the German Review of Social Policy. We concluded the project with two major conferences in Berlin and Brussels in 2019; the former jointly organised with the Society for Social Progress, the German Pension Insurance and the Research Institute of the German Pension Insurance. Participants again included academics as well as representatives from the OECD, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. We also wrote an article for Conversation that used our research to highlight issues in relation to extending working lives in Australia. This had more than 137,000 reads (as of 2 March 2021) and was featured on the homepage of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website. Further media engagement included an interview and write up in The New Daily, radio interviews with ABC Radio Sydney, ABC Radio Central West NSW and FIVEaa. Direct policy engagement came through meetings with Council on the Ageing (South Australia) and the Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment (South Australia) to discuss implication of our research for the South Australian public sector. Policymakers and organisations promoting research in support of policy have been involved in the project throughout, however we feel that more work is needed to engage directly with employers. In January 2020, we presented some of the findings from our research at the CIPD Applied Research Conference, which aims to bring together researchers and HR practitioners. The interest and subsequent engagement from Australia highlights that European research can unexpectedly attract global interest from both practitioners and policymakers. |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice |
Impact Types | Societal Economic Policy & public services |
Description | Attendance at ESRC stakeholder event (March 2017) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Lucy Stokes and David Wilkinson attended the stakeholder event on "Fuller Working Lives: Policy and analytical insights from Research Council funded projects". This was an event organised by the ESRC to bring together researchers working on a variety of projects on the theme of ageing, enabling us to learn from other related research and also providing opportunities to interact with policy makers and other third sector organisations. This led to useful discussions regarding the research, ideas for future work to address, and generated many useful contacts both amongst researchers and those working in policy. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Attendance at JPI networking event (March 2017) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | David Wilkinson attended a networking event organised by the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI). This provided an opportunity for different projects funded under the JPI to meet, exchange ideas and discuss opportunities for future collaboration and dissemination. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Blog post/article in The Conversation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Article in the Conversation by team member Andreas Cebulla, which included discussion of some of the research findings from FACTAGE. This attracted considerable interest in Australia (and elsewhere) and led to Andreas being invited to media interviews and also to meetings with policymakers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://theconversation.com/theres-a-yawning-gap-in-the-plan-to-keep-older-australians-working-11901... |
Description | Gender Inequalities in Extending Working Lives |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A one day workshop organised as part of the FACTAGE project (organised by the NIESR team members), comprising presentations from the project partners as well as from invited speakers working on other related topics, as well as a policy presentation by the Department for Work and Pensions. The intended purpose of the workshop was to disseminate findings from the project so far, raise awareness of the research, and to obtain feedback for the final stages of the project. Some of the work presented at the workshop is now being featured in a special issue of the German Review of Social Policy. The event also helped to further build relationships with the Department for Work and Pensions which will be valuable for further disseminating the research and that we hope will also help to facilitate discussions that may ultimately lead to policy impact. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.niesr.ac.uk/events/gender-inequalities-extending-working-lives |
Description | Policies for an ageing workforce: Work-life balance, working conditions and equal opportunities (conference, January 2018) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | We contributed to the organisation of the conference "Policies for an ageing workforce: Work-life balance, working conditions and equal opportunities". This was co-organised by CEPS, Eurofound, NIESR and the FACTAGE project and took place on the 24th January 2018 at CEPS in Brussels. The aim of the conference was to bring together findings from research being conducted both as part of the FACTAGE project as well as a number of other research studies. The conference also included two expert panels focusing particularly on policy implications. The conference raised awareness of the various research studies, enabled discussion of opportunities for future collaborations and research, and there was considerable discussion of policy implications. A highlights publication is in the process of being produced to summarise the key messages from the conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.ceps.eu/events/policies-ageing-workforce-work-life-balance-working-conditions-and-equal-... |
Description | Presentation at CEPS Ageing and Productivity Workshop, 28 February 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presentation of research on older workers and workplace performance, given as part of an event on "Ageing and productivity: what economic impact?", organised by the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (the co-ordinator of the FACTAGE project). Attendees included other academics and researchers working on related issues, as well as policymakers. The purpose was to disseminate and share findings from recent research on this topic, and also to help inform future debates and areas for further investigation. The event prompted useful discussion about both the research and the subject area more broadly. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.ceps.eu/events/productivity-ageing-societies-%E2%80%93-what-impact-economy |
Description | Presentation on "'Til work do us part? Domestic relationships in extended working life households" - NIESR workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation given by Nathan Hudson-Sharp at NIESR workshop on Gender Inequalities in Extending Working Lives, organised as part of the FACTAGE project (see separate entry). The main intended purpose of the presentation was to present findings so far and obtain feedback from a range of stakeholders, both academic and policy-based, to inform the next stages of the work. The talk led to useful discussion about the work and informed the next stages of the research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.niesr.ac.uk/events/gender-inequalities-extending-working-lives |
Description | Presentation on "Education and Training in the UK: Inequalities over the life course", Ageing, Health and Wellbeing conference, June 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presentation given by David Wilkinson at conference organised by CEPS on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, as part of the FACTAGE project. This enabled us to share findings with both other researchers as well as non-academic audiences resulting in useful discussion to further develop the work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-events/ageing-health-and-well-being/ |
Description | Presentation on "Flexible working, job pressures and extending working lives", CIPD Applied Research Conference, January 2020 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation on flexible working, job pressures and extended working lives, drawing on research conducted as part of FACTAGE, and participating in a panel discussion. This conference aims at bringing together researchers with HR practitioners to focus on the practical insights of research and it represented a very useful opportunity to present our findings to a practitioner audience and gain insights into how this could be taken forward. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://events.cipd.co.uk/events/arc/ |
Description | Presentation on "Work-life imbalance in extended working lives", Socio-Economic Dimensions in Extended Working Lives conference, Berlin, April 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A presentation on our research on work-life imbalance in extended working lives at a conference on Socio-Economic Dimensions in Extended Working Lives in Berlin. This conference was organised in relation to the special issue of the German Review of Social Policy (Sozialer Fortschritt) produced as part of the FACTAGE project, but also included presentations from other speakers. It was organised as a collaboration between the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, Forschungsnetzwerk Alterssicherung (FNA), the FACTAGE project and Society for Social Progress. The presentation led to useful discussions and questions that helped share ideas and inform plans for future work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Presentation on 'Til work do us part? - extending working lives and domestic relationships (Brussels, Jan 2018) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | This presentation, "Til work do us part? - extending working lives and domestic relationships', summarised one part of work undertaken as part of the project. This was given at a one-day conference organised as part of the project and hosted at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. The purpose was to share provisional findings, to inform the policy debate, raise awareness of work being conducted within the project and also to obtain feedback for developing the research further. The talk led to useful discussion, both formally and informally afterwards, providing useful feedback for the next stages of our research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.ceps.eu/events/policies-ageing-workforce-work-life-balance-working-conditions-and-equal-... |
Description | Presentation on Skill mismatch among older workers and workplace performance in Britain - WPEG Annual Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation given by David Wilkinson at the annual conference of the Work, Pensions and Labour Economics Study Group (WPEG) at the University of Sheffield. Main audience was academics and other researchers along with some policy makers. The intended purpose was to share findings from the work so far, and to receive feedback to inform future development of the work as the project progresses. In addition to obtaining useful feedback on the work this also led to contact with the Department for Work and Pensions who then later agreed to participate in a project event later in the year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/economics/events/wpeg/conference/2018-programme |
Description | Presentation on Skill mismatch and workplace performance in Britain (April 2017) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presentation on "Skill mismatch and workplace performance in Britain", given by David Wilkinson at the conference "Is a longer working life for everyone? Exploring emerging inequalities among older workers", organised as part of the FACTAGE project and hosted at CEPS in Brussels, on the 26th April 2017. The presentation aimed to raise awareness of the work being conducted as part of the FACTAGE project and to obtain feedback for the next stages in research. This led to useful feedback for the further development of the research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.ceps.eu/events/longer-working-life-everyone-exploring-emerging-inequalities-among-older-... |
Description | Presentation on Skill mismatch and workplace performance in Britain (June 2017) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Presentation on "Skill mismatch and workplace performance in Britain", given by David Wilkinson at the workshop on "Skill mismatch: measurement issues and consequences for innovative and inclusive societies", Torino, June 29-30, 2017. This provided an opportunity to present initial findings on one strand of work being conducted as part of the FACTAGE project and the resulting discussion helped to inform ideas for developing the research further. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.sisp.it/in-evidenza/workshop-on-skill-mismatch-measurement-issues-and-consequences-for-i... |
Description | Presentation on Work-life or 'work versus life' in older age (April 2017) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Presentation on Work-life or 'work versus life' in older age, given by Andreas Cebulla at the conference , "Is a longer working life for everyone? Exploring emerging inequalities among older workers". The conference was organised as part of the FACTAGE project and took place at CEPS, Belgium, on the 26th April 2017. The aim was to raise awareness of the FACTAGE project and to present preliminary findings from the research. This led to useful suggestions to inform the next stages of the research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.ceps.eu/events/longer-working-life-everyone-exploring-emerging-inequalities-among-older-... |