Older workers in labour market revitalisation

Abstract

Subject. The paradigm of successful professional ageing involves the prolongation of the ability of older workers to participate in work processes and provides arguments for supplementing age-related deficiencies through such functions as selection, compensation, and optimisation. These functions have proved their effectiveness in practice, but in a number of cases it is difficult to implement them. Difficulties arise both on the part of the employer and the employees. If employees, acting as supply in work relationships, do not feel confident about their abilities, employers (acting as demand) feed this lack of confidence with workplace ageism. The development of a concept for the labour market revitalisation by including older workers in the policy for the formation of labour force supply and demand and justifying step-by-step the possibility of prolongation of the working ability is a significant component of the implementation of the Russian strategy in the best interests of older citizens.Objectives. The article attempts to form the notion of labour market revitalisation through the justification of the possibility to preserve the residual work capacity of older employees and to study the factors affecting the prolongation of the active working period. The idea was to structure the employees by their age and identify the timespan of the appearance of “faults” in the body and then, according to the results, present different conditions that allow preventing cognitive ageing. The options included methods of overcoming health-related biomedical risks, minimisation of discrepancies between an individual's work ability and objective requirements for the work, as well as changes to their lifestyle.Methodology. To achieve our goal, we used general and empirical research methods. Analysis and synthesis were used as a method of obtaining new knowledge. The analysis allowed forming an idea of the elements of labour market revitalisation through the expansion of in the structure of employed older workers and identifying the conditions that make it possible. The analysis also helped to reveal the biochemical blood composition of patients of a clinical hospital. The determination of the main points of the analysis elements and the process of their aggregation allowed, using synthesis, formulating a single comprehensive view of the specified approach to labour market revitalisation. Using the method of groupings and classifications, we identified, first of all, six groups of patients for the determination of the timespan of the appearance of body “faults” that lead to premature ageing. Second, we identified three groups of factors affecting the prolongation of the active working period. The survey in this research was used to obtain and further systematise the respondents’ opinions on the realities of employing older colleagues. The method of graphic modelling allowed formulating the conclusions based on the visualisation of the results of the conducted survey. Results. The article presents the structured provisions justifying the possibility of revitalising the labour market by taking into account three groups of factors that will help to determine the threshold for the premature ageing of older workers and taking measures to prolong their active working period if these factors are considered by employers, the healthcare system, and employees themselves. The suggested idea promotes the conclusions of scientists claiming that the performance of workers representing a phenomenon known as “silver tsunami” in the academic world can be not only efficient but also successful. The introduction of provisions on the retention and preservation of older specialists into the personnel policy and organisational culture of economic entities will allow employers to perform staff nudging in order to eliminate ageism as well as create an inclusive environment and personnel ecosystem. Conclusions. The transformation of the labour market with an increased number of employed older workers creates a situation that is subject to interdisciplinary research. In our case, it includes organisational behaviour, personnel management, labour economics, biology, and medicine. The analysis methods used in the article allowed, first of all, understanding the idea of the expansion of staff diversity in the organisation due to older workers and the need to develop an inclusive policy taking into account this group of employees; second, they allowed justifying the possibility of preserving the residual working capacity of older workers through the study of three groups of factors affecting the prolongation of the active working period. The groups of factors include diseases, work, and lifestyle. Third, they allowed representing working capacity as a category that directly depends on the employee’s functional age determined by their health. With a timely establishment of the ageing threshold (the period of discrepancies between the calendar age and the functional age), we can identify the signals about the body’s abnormalities and the beginning of its deterioration. Fourth, they allowed considering the version of ageism, which stigmatises older workers as being incapable of work, to be controversial, and creating working conditions that allow supporting the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems of employees. Fifth, they allowed determining the reasons for the lack of work-life balance and the formation of the “enemy image” regarding the profession and workplace, as well as develop recommendations for the behaviour style at work, at home, and in social situations.