Ageing and Work





As the population ages, and people are living longer, Governments are encouraging them to stay longer in paid work. Real retirement ages have been rising for some years. Many people choose to work longer (for a variety of reasons), while others stay because they need the money.

We founded the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce (CROW) in 2003, to study the implications of an ageing population for the workforce. We were interested in what motivates people to stay longer or to leave “early”; in how employers do or do not manage ageing in their workforces, and the impact of Government policy.

Relevant publications (most in conjunction with Matt Flynn and/or Lou Owen-Hussey)  include (most recent first):

Mid-Life Career Review: Final Report  (2015) – evaluation of the pilot project which provided mid-life reviews to some 2000 people in 2014.

Working Longer in the NHS Evidence Review: an evidence review  (2013) – commissioned by the NHS Confederation as part of the review of retirement policy in the NHS

Manufacturing in an Ageing Society  (2012) – a study of the implications of an ageing society for UK manufacturing, commissioned by the Government Foresight Office

Managing a healthy ageing workforce (2012) – a guide to good employment practice, commissioned jointly by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and the Trades Union Congress

Ageing Workforce : issues from EU Mutual Learning Workshop (2011) – personal note of issues emerging from a European workshop, where 13 national experts compared practice

A Sense of a Future: a study of training and work in later life (2010) – a major study of the relationship between training and work for the Nuffield Foundation. Includes a review of the literature and original research findings.

ReGrow evaluation report (2008) – evaluation of a project to pilot a “career review at 50” with older workers in small firms in the South East. This was the first project of this kind. The ideas were developed further in the Mid-life Career Review project in 2014.

Age and Motor Manufacturing in Europe (2007) – evaluation of a transnational European project Knowmove, which investigated how motor manufacturers in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Italy were adapting to an ageing workforce.

Employer responses to an ageing workforce: a qualitative study (2007) – a set of case studies commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions to complement the parallel quantitative studies (“Study of employers’ policies and practices in relation to retirement)

Older Workers in the South East (2006) – a summary of the work of CROW from 2003-2006, and its implications for regional policy

The Age Dimension of Employment Practices: employer case studies (2005) – a study commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry as part of the preparation for the introduction of age discrimination legislation

The Ageing Workforce: a Literature Review (2004) – reviewed the current state of knowledge in 2004

Changing Work in Later Life – the report of first major work of CROW, a UK survey of older people and work, includes a review of the literature as at 2004

In 2004 CROW published four short briefing papers on the older workforce which summarised key points from existing research for a policy/employer audience: