Society is facing an unprecedented challenge: both employers and employees are required to plan for, and engage in, an extended working life. However, little work focuses either on employers' or employees' responsiveness to the phasing out of the compulsory retirement age, and no known project considers both perspectives. Although the majority of workers aged 55+ are employed in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) little attention has been paid to this sector. This project will explore the perspectives of employers in relation to their preparedness for an older workforce, the perspectives of employees towards working longer (including the barriers), and attempt to measure the gap.
The project is a collaboration with the Universities of Liverpool and Newcastle, and the company Age Inclusive who specialise in helping SMEs understand and respond to the needs of an ageing workforce.
The project is funded by the N8 Industry Innovation Fund, a source of short-term pump-priming money intended to facilitate the development of funding applications for large scale projects in the future.