"Flexible Work Options and Older Workers"
Kathleen Christensen, Ph.D.
The Sloan Center for Flexible Work Options and Older Workers at Boston
College, July 2005
This 2005 issue brief recommends flexibility as a way to address the impending loss of Baby Boomers in the workforce. According to the report, creating a flexible workplace that accommodates older workers is a valuable option for retaining senior employees.
Currently, older workers (those 50 and over) only account for 10 percent of all turnover. That number will increase, however, when baby boomers begin retiring. The report recommends reduced hours, part-time work, phased retirement and job sharing as ways of enticing older workers to remain in the workforce. Although workplaces surveyed are open to the option of reduced hours for older workers or phased retirement, only 14 percent of workplaces formally do so.
