Are My Employees Able to and Do They Want to Work? The Baseline Investigation in a Follow up Study Regarding Managers’ Attitudes and Measures to Increase Employees’ Employability in an Extended Working Life

Background: The demographic change affects the retirement age, which has been postponed in many countries. Therefore, the number of senior employees is increasing in the world. However, managers’ attitudes towards their employees’ employability affect the employees’ possibilities regarding whether they can and want to work.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate managers’ attitudes towards their employees’ employability and what factors and measures that affect whether employees can and want to work in an extended working life.

Method: The study population in this study consists of 249 municipality managers in Sweden, from a baseline investigation in a follow up study following the swAge-questionnaire. The data was analysed through the method of logistic regression.

Results: 79% of the managers stated that their employees ‘can’ work and 58% that their employees ‘want to’ work until 65 years or older. Managers believed their employees’ health, physical work environment, skills and competence were associated to if they would be able to work until 65 years or older. Lack of support in the social work environment and lack of possibilities to arrange relocations if needed were associated to whether managers believed their employees want to work.

Conclusions: The results indicate that the postponement the retirement age must be followed by measures in the employees’ work situation in order to decrease demands, increase rotation or change work tasks if needed, as well as increased possibilities to recuperate through reduced workload, reduced work pace and reduced working hours. The results will hopefully contribute to the understanding of needed organisational measures in the process of extending working life.