A qualitative investigation into the intentions of older workers on remaining in the Irish workforce past retirement age and the use of flexible working arrangements as an incentive to facilitate that

Introduction: The current ageing workforce and skills shortage has led to an interest in retaining older workers. The limited research into the area of flexible working as an incentive for older workers to remain in the workforce meant that pursuing this line of study would build on the research previously carried out. This study looks at the definition of older worker and gives an overview of the current literature in the area of older workers and their intentions. The research into what motivates an older worker to consider remaining in the workforce was analysed and it was found that many of these motivating factors were commonly interlinked with each other. The motivational factors could both motivate an individual to remain or influence an individual to leave the workforce. Issues such as health, finance and work life balances are seen to be key influences around an individual’s decision. These issues brought into consideration the possibility of flexible working arrangements being an incentive for remaining in the workforce. The study then proceeded to look at research carried out on flexible working arrangements in particular temporal flexible working and job flexibility when the changing role allowed for the individual to change their working hours. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the intentions of older workers on remaining in the Irish workforce post retirement age and if the incentive of flexible working arrangements would impact their decision. Methodology: An argument is made for the use of qualitative research methods over quantitative by looking at the research philosophy followed by the researcher. Eight semi structured interviews were administered during the study. Open-ended questions were used to gain insight into the intentions of the older workers and their opinions on flexible working as an incentive to remain. All the participants were aged between 55 and 65. Findings: The thematic analysis of the data showed that the participants have a mixed interest in remaining in the Irish workforce post retirement age, but many of them were constrained by a retirement age in their contract of employment. Flexible working was seen as an incentive that would allow older employees at retirement age continue with employment as it allowed the individual more time to spend at outside interests while still allowing the individual access to an income stream by large portion of the sample. Limitations and implications: The main implication of this study is that older workers would like to remain in employment until they choose to retire and companies should reconsider their stance of contractual retirement ages. The study shows that of the sample within the older workers in the Irish workforce an interest in flexible working arrangements to incentivise remaining in the workforce past retirement age. A limitation of the study is the fact that this study is exploratory in nature and the findings are not generalizable to the public.