Uncertain Futures: Managing Late Career Transitions and Extended Working Life

The various transitions from work to retirement have undergone radical transformation over the past few decades. From a period when individuals were encouraged and looked forward to retiring early we have entered an era when living longer is presented as an opportunity, or an obligation, to work longer and extend our working lives. A review of the research literature on the extension of working life has identified a variety of factors implicated in individual decision-taking. These include: health status, pension provision, caring responsibilities, opportunities for flexible work and other external and individual factors. Statistical models using these determinants have left much of the variance in employment between individuals unexplained, because of the difficulty of capturing the complexity of factors in each case. The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about the processes and factors which exert influence on working in later life with the aim of enhancing policy development and employer practice.

The ending of the default retirement age (DRA) opens up a radically different environment for the individual and the employer: both are entering periods of uncertainty in exploring work options for the future. The transition from work to retirement is no longer well-institutionalised but much more subject to a myriad of organisational and individual pressures which may be unpredictable; as such these transitions carry new risks both for employers and employees. This proposal from a multidisciplinary team will use a mixed methods approach to develop a richer picture of what is happening at the end of working life.

These issues will be addressed through a series of work packages:

WP1: International literature and policy review; to what extent are similar developments being studied and tracked in other parts of Europe, Australia and the USA.
WP2: Analysis of existing data sets (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), National Child Development Study (NCDS) and Health and Retirement Survey (HRS);
WP3: The collection of new data through organisational case studies; and
WP4: The synthesis of data and theoretical development: the data will be used to gain a clearer understanding of the interaction between individual and external determinants in shaping later life work transitions.

The research will enhance our understanding of the range of later life work transitions, i.e. gradual retirement, bridge jobs, returns to retirement ('unretirement') and will develop theoretical approaches to the new forms of risk and uncertainty in the middle and later stages of the life course.

The research consortia includes early, middle and later career academics from a variety of academic disciplines which provides the opportunity to benefit from the insights, approaches and methodological variety that multi-disciplinarity brings as well as from the inter-generational transfer of ideas. The team is also in a position to offer excellent development opportunities to two post-docs and two PhD students who it is hoped will go on to enrich the research community in the field of older workers and establish their own high quality research careers.

In addition to traditional academic outputs the dissemination will also include the development of more practical tools useful for research users. These will include guidance for groups including human resource managers on factors to consider in later life working and ergonomists and occupational health professionals on work capacity changes and workplace and work organisation changes that can be considered.

The programme has significance for a wide range of non-academic and academic research users. The role of the Research Advisory Board (RAB) is pivotal to the design, dissemination and impact of the research. Their involvement from the start is to ensure that key research user interests are built into the research design. The following have agreed to be part of the RAB:

Dr. Wilson Wong Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Richenda Solon DWP
Professor Richard Taylor Non-Executive Director of the Board of the Health and Safety Executive
Professor Kène Henkens Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute
Professor John Williamson Boston College, USA
Matthew Norton AgeUK
TUC tbc
Professor Cheryl Haslam Loughborough University

The RAB will meet once face to face at the beginning of the project and twice virtually during the research. Alongside the RAB, we propose to set up an Impact Working Group comprised of expert stakeholders from the public, private and voluntary sector, who either lead or advise on managing working life practices and policies within their organisations. The project will hold 'open seminars' on a regular basis throughout its work - these supported by existing networks (e.g. ILC, the Manchester Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Research on Ageing) linked with the research team.
A website and a blog will be established early in the programme of research and will serve as a platform for publishing the subsequent symposium activities. The website will be marketed through the researchers' established networks, for example the Gerontological Society of America's (GSA) Older Worker Interest Group; the British Sociological Association (BSA), Social Policy Association (SPA) British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA); the Ageing Research section of the European Sociological Association and the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors Special Interest Group on Ageing and Work, Society of Occupational Medicine.

Findings from the Work Packages will be disseminated through conference papers to conferences including: British Social Gerontology Conference; Gerontological Society of America; British Sociological Association, Social Policy Association; European Sociological Association; Work, Employment and Society Conference; European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology. In year 3 the PhD students will be mentored to give papers independently. The Post Docs will be encouraged to give papers in year 2. A one-day symposium will be held at the end of the project. This will build on the network of research users and academics and the contacts of the Advisory Board and will provide an opportunity to disseminate and share research results with a national, international and policy focused audience. In order to disseminate findings to employers and NGOs a paper will be offered to the annual CIPD conference and research updates will be distributed to The Age and Employment Network and to the Employers Forum on Age, EHRC and AgeUK. Publications for research users will be submitted to the relevant trade journals for example: People Management; HR Review, Saga Magazine. All of these activities will be promoted through the website, the blog and regular press releases and media coverage of the work at various stages.

In addition to traditional academic outputs: a book and at least 5 journal articles in international peer reviewed journals, likely to be Ageing and Society, Research on Aging, Work, Employment and Society, Journal of Social Policy and Occupational Medicine, it is expected that the research will make a significant impact in moving forward our theoretical and empirical understanding of the dynamics of later life working.

Key long-term policy impact pathways from the project will include the development, publication and launch of a policy report based on the findings of the research work streams, facilitated by ILC-UK