Inclusive workplaces and older employees: an analysis of companies' investment in retaining senior workers

Abstract

The inception of the so-called Tripartite Agreement on a More Inclusive Working Life (the IW Agreement) in 2001 marks a shift in Norwegian welfare and labour market policy. This has resulted in employers now being targeted by government initiatives supposed to prevent the exclusion of older employees. The initiatives are purely voluntary and rely on companies' willingness to adopt and support them. The main goal of this article is to identify and explain differences in the propensity of private sector companies to adopt an active policy in line with this strategy. Data used are based on a survey conducted in 2005 of a representative sample of 713 Norwegian companies. The findings show that positive attitudes towards older workers held by the management, a focus on human resource management and a feeling of moral obligation to combat early retirement increase the probability that the companies adopt an active ageing policy. However, economic considerations and labour shortage also influence their policies, especially their willingness to retain older workers of age 62 and above.

Keywords:

• human resources management
• inclusive working life
• labour market policy
• private sector
• retaining older workers
• senior workers

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Axel West Pedersen, Tarja Tikkanen and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1. The AFP scheme was changed during the bargaining round in 2008. The new scheme was implemented on 1st of January 2011.

2. The classification is based on the official Norwegian Classification of industries, STYRK.

3. There are several measures for model fit in logistic regression. No consensus has, however, emerged on single best measure. They should, therefore, as Pampel (2000) claims, only be used as rough guides.