Working late
Early retirement is no longer the norm in the UK, with many people working until later in life or even past retirement age. Jo Lumani speaks to Professor Cheryl Haslam, from the Work and Health Research Centre in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, about the changes that need to be made because of this.
Britain’s population is getting older.
Life expectancy has increased dramatically in the UK over the last few decades and with people living longer, the population is also working later in life. It is estimated that there are now twice as many workers aged 50 and over than those aged 25 and under, with these demographic changes, as well as changes in pension policy and employment practices all encouraging people to work for longer.
Though early retirement was once the norm for many, the lure of a carriage clock and days of leisure are no longer as attractive to many as the option of working until later in life, with an increased number of people working until – or even past – their pensionable age.
Professor Cheryl Haslam, Director of Loughborough University’s Work and Health Research Centre (based in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences) is leading a research project which aims to develop interventions which support all workers – including the older workforce – in the areas of employment, occupational health and work environment.
Professor Haslam, along with her team, has received £1.3m from the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme to conduct the four-year programme of research, entitled Working Late: Strategies to enhance productive and healthy environments for the older workforce.
The NDA is a seven-year multi-disciplinary research initiative funded by the five research councils – the ESRC, EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC and AHRC.
“The NDA programme is the most ambitious research into ageing that we’ve seen in the UK,” said Professor Haslam.
The ageing working population presents challenges for government, for employers and for occupational health services. It also presents challenges for the employees themselves and how they manage work commitments against family commitments and other responsibilities.
“There is a need to develop strategies to manage an ageing workforce. This research aims to develop interventions to keep people healthy and productive and to promote a good quality of working life.”
The research team comprises staff from the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences; Ergonomics (Human Sciences); Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute (ESRI); the Business School and Civil Engineering. The research project is split into four integrated work packages: user engagement and dissemination, dynamics of later life working, maintaining and improving health across the life course and aiding health and productivity through design.
Work package 1, led by Professor Haslam and Lois Kerr and involving all collaborators, runs all the way through the four year research project and is about user engagement.
We’re holding regular focus groups with older workers, managers and organisational representatives so we can present our research plans,” said Professor Haslam. “User input is essential.”
Work package 2.1, led by Colette Nicolle, Martin Maguire and Lucy Rackliff in ESRI, is looking at the journey to work. As people age, this can become a significant issue for them.
Work package 2.2, led by Hilary McDermott, Laurie Cohen, Kevin Morgan, and Fehmidah Munir, is examining people’s experiences of moving in and out of employment. It will examine age discrimination legislation and how that has affected people’s ability to carry on working.
Professor Haslam, Stacy Clemes, Aadil Kazi, Kate Threapleton, Martin Lindley will be leading work package 3, which involves the development and evaluation of workplace interventions. These will be long-term interventions and the research team will follow up employees at six-monthly intervals and measure a wide range of outcomes – physical activity, body weight, body composition and general health right through to psychological factors such as job satisfaction and mental well being.
“We are hoping to show that by targeting health related behaviour, we can have a positive effect not only on employees’ health and well-being, but also on their productivity at work,” added Professor Haslam.
“We have launched a national competition for designers in collaboration with the Royal Society of Art, the brief is to develop innovative health education materials to help us engage people in these interventions.
“We want to make sustainable changes to people’s lifestyles and we will be following up people for two years. It’s about long-term change, not short-term solutions. We are also adopting a lifespan approach – we aren’t just focusing on workers over 50. We will be implementing and evaluating interventions with a view to improving health and the quality of working life across the life course.”
Work package 4, led by Diane Gyi, Roger Haslam and Alastair Gibb looks at the design of the workplace. This will include inclusive design and developing workstations, tools and technologies which take into account the needs of the older worker. The team will also develop a web-based resource ‘OWL’ which stands for ‘Organiser for Working Late’ which will capture the requirements of the older worker in a way in that can be easily conveyed to employers and designers.
Professor Haslam concludes: “This is an ambitious programme of research and we’re hoping that the outputs will contribute to improving access to work for older people, as well as improving productivity and quality of working life.”
Want to know more?
- Website: www.workinglate.org
- Contact: Professor Cheryl Haslam
- Email: C.O.Haslam@lboro.ac.uk
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