Definition of Ageing:

Ageing or aging is the process of becoming older.

Older age:

According to the United States government, through the Age Discrimination in Employment (ADEA), applies the
term “older worker” to employees over the age of 40.

Types of Aging:

Sterns and Doverspike (1989) distinguished three different approaches to conceptualize aging of workers:

1. Chronological age refers to one’s calendar age. In this approach the distinction between older and younger
workers is based on calendar age. As mentioned, the term “older worker” may refer to workers from the
age of 40 to those aged over 75.

2. Functional or performance-based age is based on a worker’s performance, and recognizes that there is a
great variation in individual abilities and functioning through different ages. As chronological age
increases, individuals go through various biological and psychological changes. These changes may be
reflected in the health, psychical capacity, cognitive abilities and performance of individuals.

3. Organizational age refers to the aging of individuals in jobs and organizations. The aging of individuals in
jobs and organizations is more commonly discussed in the literature about seniority and job or
organizational tenure. The effects of aging may often be confounded by the effects of tenure and vice versa.
Nonetheless, organizational age may also refer to career stage, skill obsolescence and age norms within the
company

These different approaches or conceptualizations of age are often interrelated. For example, age and organization or
job tenure are interrelated;

Major Issue regarding older employees:

According to an estimate daily 10,000 of baby boomers enter the age of 65 years. As more and more of the baby
boomers are entering the retirement age. These demographic changes will have profound impacts on employers as
they enter a 'sellers' market where there are fewer employees with the necessary skills than there are good jobs,"

The majority of organisations have not realised the ageing workforce implications, and have "continued to reduce
their older workforce and to disregard the advantages that these [older] people may bring". “Today’s human
resource managers still assume that the most desirable and least costly employees are young ones”.

As the famous saying goes“in youth we learn; in age we understand.” It shows the importance of old aged
employees for organizations.

The problem won’t be too few people; it will be too few skilled people. studies by SHRM and others have shown
that they are sadly lacking in many skills today’s employers require

Top Five Advantages of Older Workers Compared to Other Workers

• More work experience (i.e., more knowledge and/or skills) (77%)

• More mature/professional (71%)

• Stronger work ethic (70%)

• Able to serve as mentors to younger workers (63%)

• More reliable (59%)

Challenge For Organizations:

“The number of people ages 55-64 will increase to almost 40 million in 2014 and to 42 million in 2024.” —2011
U.S. Census

 Motives and abilities change as people age,so keeping the employees motivated is the biggest challenge for
the employers.
 To retain the talent and knowledge capital leaving the organisations in form of older workers
 To find policies and practices encouraging the older employees to remain motivated ,productive and
healthy contributors to organizational performance
 To deal with the issue of Employers concerning hiring older workers
 Managing employee ageing in shrm

HR philosophies about older workers

There are two widely accepted HR philosophies about older workers.

1. Depreciation model

This model assumes that older workers lose their value and should be encouraged to leave the organization.

2. Conservation model

This model assumes that older workers are renewable assets that continue to remain valuable if managed properly.

The proponents of depreciation model present disengagement theory as a supportive argument while the
conservation model supporters present activity theory as a proof.

Theories
Disengagement theory:

It was originally formulated by Elaine Cumming and Warren Earl Henry in their 1961 book Growing Old.

This theory claims that it is natural and acceptable for older adults to withdraw from society and personal
relationships as they age. So there abilities generally decrease as they age so it is totally justified to encourage their
retirements.

Activity Theory
The theory was developed by Robert J. Havighurst in 1961.Activity theory proposes that successful aging occurs
when older adults stay active and maintain social interactions.

So if older employees are managed properly they remain valuable assets to the organizations.

HR practices to accom-modate older workers

Organizations face the challenge of how to make sure that their aging workers remain motivated, productive and
healthy contributors to organizational performance.

There are three HR prac-tices that constructively address older workers’ needs:

 Training opportunities adapted to older workers’ needs,

HR practices for older workers/Strategic HRM for Older Workers

HR practices to deal with the issue of older workers can be among one of the following types.

1. Development HR practices

2. Maintenance HR practices

3. Utilization HR practices

4. Accommodative HR practices

1. Development HR practices

Development HR practices, such as training and development on the job, which may help workers to reach higher
levels of functioning .the major goal of HR strategy here is growth.

2. Maintenance HR practices

Maintenance HR practices, such as job security and fl exible work hours, which
may help workers to maintain current levels of functioning in the face of new
challenges (maintenance goal)
Maintenance HR practices, such as job security and fl exible work hours, which may help workers to maintain
current levels of functioning in the face of new challenges .The maor goal of such HR practices is to fulfill the
maintenance goal.

3. Utilization HR practices

Utilization HR practices, such as horizontal job movement, task enrichment, and participation in decision-making,
which may help workers to recover to previous levels of functioning after a loss by removing job demands that have
become unachievable for an employee from the job and by replacing them with other demands that utilize already
existing, but not yet necessarily applied, individual resources.The major purpose of such HR practices is recovery
(i.e.,recovery goal)

4. Accommodative HR practices
Accommodative HR practices, such as reduced workload and working part-time, which may help workers to
function adequately at lower levels when mainte-nance and recovery are no longer possible by protecting or sparing
them .The major goal here is regulation of loss goal.

These HR practices are the most widely implemented HR practices for older workers (e.g., Remery et al., 2003 ;
Taylor & Walker, 1998 ), but might be more in line with a depreciation philosophy than a conservation philosophy.

Approaches to manage the older employees:

Following are the approaches that can be used to properly manage the HR workers.

Well-designed work: Flexibility not only boosts motivation, but it also prompts more intelligent and efficient ways
of working. Flexibility over working hours appears to be effective in increasing productivity and decreasing sickness
absence.

Skilled line managers:

“…you can have all the HR practice and age management under the sun but if your managers don’t know how to
use them, then they’re pointless."

Christopher Brooks, Age UK

older workers are ‘more likely than other age groups to problemsolve alone and to be left to their own devices.

Managing conflict effectively: There should be systems in place to reduce the likelihood of problems arising and to
deal with problems at every stage.

Clarity about rights and responsibilities: A working environment where everyone understands their rights and
responsibilities.

Fairness: Employees who feel valued and treated fairlyare more motivated and pro active problem solvers.

High trust: Trust-based relationships are the foundation for information-sharing, innovation and problem-solving .
But trust also has to be earned.

“If an employee trusts their employer, which they might, it’s because they know him for a long time, they know very
well how the organisation functions and because they have been relatively well treated in the past. It’s not a policy
but a personal issue.”

Phillip Seidel, Age Platform

Age and performance

All skills and aptitudes deteriorate at some point and so, in this general sense, performance in the workplace is age-
related. But this does not happen in an easily predictable way and, for most jobs, age-related loss of ability is less
significant than differences attributable to other factors such as education and general health. Although increasing
age brings some deterioration of generic abilities, whether physical or mental, specific work-related abilities tend to
be more resilient. Feldman (2008) extended the focus from ‘core’ competencies to look at ten ‘dimensions of job
performance’, including ‘creativity’, time-keeping and attendance. They find that these factors more than
compensate for physical and cognitive decline. There may be additional factors associated with older workers, such
as experience, tacit knowledge or patience, which can increase performance in the specific job role. A core focus of
age management (Ilmarinen, 2012) is thus to treat workers as individuals, with strengths and weaknesses that may
be unrelated to age.

the assumption that individual motivation at work is age-related (Ng and Feldman, 2012)is not true.. For example,
managers may underestimate employees’ aspirations and their willingness to engage in training and development.
With an increasing retirement age, the reasons for remaining in work may be more ‘stick’ (i.e. financial) than
‘carrot’ for many people, and this has an impact on motivation (Weyman et al. 2013).

Cleveland and McFarlane Shore (1992) have found that the employee’s chronological age, the employee’s
subjective age (self-perception), the employee’s social age (others’ perception), and the employee’s relative age
(compared with the employee’s work group), differentially predicted job JMP 23,4 366 involvement, job
satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Employees who perceived themselves to be older than most of the
people in their work group, for example, exhibited more job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational
commitment.

Managing ‘retirement’ and after strategy :

Whilst, for many employees, retirement will continue to be something to be welcomed, and will represent a clear
end of working life, for many others this is no longer an either/or choice. With greater opportunities for individually
tailored working arrangements, as well as the option of drawing a pension whilst continuing work, employers now
need to consider how to deal with a crucial section of the workforce that is effectively ‘semi-retired’. Many workers
no longer face a clear demarcation between working life and retirement. Alcover et al. (2014) distinguish between
‘cliff edge’ and ‘phased’ retirement. Cliff edge retirement is the traditional arrangement: from full workload one day
to no work the next (Vickerstaff, 2006). This sort of rapid exit is often unhealthy for the individual employee
(Loretto and White, 2006), but it also creates problems for employers, in particular in relation to the loss of
experience and skills. ‘Phased’ retirement might involve part-time work for the same employer, or ‘bridge’
employment with another (or via self-employment). ‘Partial retirement’ is “ending a ‘career’ and beginning a new
job, possibly on reduced hours” (Alcover et al, 2014).

Conclusion:

According to Kanfer and Ackerman (2004), as workers age, preference for activities that support positive affect,
one’s self-concept (see also Gecas, 1982; Korman, 1970; Leonard et al., 1999; Maurer, 2001) and identity increases.
This suggests that older people will be more motivated in jobs that offer opportunities for positive events or a
strengthened sense of identity, but will have a lowered motivation when it comes to performing new tasks.
Moreover, the utility of effort can be expected to decline with age because expending effort is more likely to be
associated with emotional exhaustion, stress, and negative affect. Overall, since a self-perception of being “old”
(past self-image) has a negative effect on motivation to act and perform, on motivation to perform new tasks, and on
the utility of effort, a self-perception of aging is likely to have a negative impact on motivation to continue to work.