HR policy plays important role in preventing early exit of elderly employees with health problems

Promoting social cohesion in the workplace and increasing self-esteem and perseverance at work reduces the chance that employees with health problems will drop out early. The same applies to a greater variation in work activities and to minimizing repetitive movements at work. Employees with health problems who provide informal care are also more inclined to drop out early. Further research should show whether they could benefit from flexible working hours and support from the employer.

This is evident from Netspar research into predictors of early retirement among older employees (55+) with health limitations, which were selected from the representative sample from 2013 of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Individual factors such as education, lifestyle, social environment and work-related factors such as income, working conditions and working hours were investigated. Three years after the initial investigation, 22.9% of the over-55’s had stopped working. The provision of informal care, a larger social network, lower education and lower self-esteem proved to be important factors for stopping earlier.

Read more? Read the paper Personal and work-related predictors of early retirement from paid work among older employees with health limitations by Nils Plomp, Sascha de Breij and Dorly Deeg (VUAM).