Flexibility and Retention of Employees

The most recent issue of the Ivey Business Journal is out and has some great articles on "Work-Life Balance".  There's one entitled Accommodating Older Workers' Needs for Flexibility in Work Options by Kathleen Christensen and Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes.  As they note:

"For all the right reasons, older worker want keep working, whether they are retired or approaching retirement. They form a pool of loyal, talented workers. The challenge is for organizations to decide to hire such workers and design flexible work options that make working an appealing option."

I'm not sure about "all the right reasons" - the studies suggest that many older workers continue working because they can't afford to "retire, but the point is a good one. 

What are older workers looking for?  According to the article:

• Flexibility in the scheduling of full-time work hours, including flextime or compressed workweeks;
• Flexibility in the amount of time spent working, including part-time, part-year, or job-sharing and phasing into retirement on a reduced-hours basis; and
• Career flexibility with multiple points for entry, exit and re-entry, including formal leaves and sabbaticals.

According to the authors, while these options are usually offered to all employees they:

".... make particular sense for older workers because they allow valued, mature employees to remain active in the work force while still having the opportunity to tend to matters outside of work. Flexible options also make business sense in that they are consistently identified as one of the most effective ways to attract and retain older workers. In a recent Conference Board survey, one out of four older workers indicated that they continue to work because their company provided them with needed flexibility. And, nearly half said that more flexibility would prevent them from retiring."

But, according to the article, there are hurdles:

1. The rigid design and structure of full-time jobs that reflect the priorities and needs of younger workers who are willing to work with less flexible schedules;
2. Attitudes that stereotype and stigmatize older workers;
3. Inadequate opportunities for older workers to update their skills so that they match the demands of contemporary jobs; and
4. An overemphasis on "bottom line" thinking (including focusing on real and perceived costs of retaining and recruiting older workers) and limited attention on the "cost savings" (realized by keeping highly skilled employees who have knowledge about the firm and its practices, as well as by not having to absorb increased recruiting and training costs for new workers).

The Ivey Business Journal is a good read.