The Challenges of Managing the Aging Workforce by Ciutiene and Railaite - Article Example

Article Review Student Name Tutor Course Date Article Review Introduction The title of this article is “The challenges associated with managing an aging workforce.” The first impression noted in this article is that increasing life expectancy and other related demographic changes pose great impact on the labor market and it’s demographic. Therefore, the authors-Ciutiene and Railaite aimed at providing a critical analysis of older workers’ position within the labor market by considering how the organizations can effectively apply the concept of active ageing and routinely review of age management features to improve the competence and performance of their aging workforces. This article is of interest because it clearly shows how increasing life expectancy as well as other related demographic changes is affecting the labor market. Therefore, it is quite obvious that organizations should focus more on improving their workplace characteristics with particular emphasis on developing effective job design and ergonomics. The article is more significant in the demographic and socioeconomic context because the authors recognize that the world’s population is increasingly changing and as a result, various aspects of public lives such as, economy, social security and healthcare are affected. One of the key problems noted by the authors is population ageing, a condition in which increased numbers of older persons as well as reduced birthrate have been cited as key factors leading to new challenges and creating new opportunities in the labor market. Due to various reforms in the education system, for instance, it has been noted that the duration of persons being within the labor market is highly affected. Furthermore, variations in pension systems give encourage a number of people to go for early retirement, and thus leaving their jobs earlier. This affects the labor market because the number of employees needed in certain organizations is decreasing. In order to cover up this gap, therefore, this article suggests that human resources should effectively and efficiently use the potentials or competences of older employees in their organizations (Ciutiene & Railaite 2014). In this article, it is apparent that population aging to a larger extent affects changes within the labor market and as a result, organizations face challenges in their workforce that human resource management should be ready to address or cope with them. In order to achieve this, organizations are required to adopt and implement suitable human resource measures as a way of managing their aging workforce with the purpose of promoting smooth performance. Summary From this article, the key points that can be noted include; Organizations face a number of demographic and socioeconomic challenges in their attempt to manage aging workforce. It is also quite clear that the labor market is highly affected by the changes in demographic structure as well as increasing life expectancy. Therefore, it is important to note that population ageing is a key problem throughout the world. By examining the education sector, the authors emphasize that the associated changes made in the education system determine the duration of persons’ staying in the labor market. For example, they noted that certain pension systems favor people to take on early retirement, a situation that minimizes the number of employees within the labor market. In this case, the objective of the authors was to show that the potential of elderly employees can help to solve the situation of decreasing number of employees needed in an organization or generally in the labor market. Basically, the authors aimed at analyzing the current position of older workers within the labor market and showing the critical role that they can play if effective management of an aging workforce is taken into consideration particularly at organizational level. It is worth noting that successful improvement of workplace characteristics requires organizations to put into practice the concept of active aging as well as age management features. Therefore, the authors’ purpose or intentions throughout the text was to argue for the idea that population aging is increasingly affecting the changes within the labor market. Due to the changes in the workforce, the authors put more emphasis on the need for human resource management adopt and implemented appropriate measures that can enable them to address the associated organizational challenges. As a result, such organizations will develop the capability of effectively managing their aging workforce as well as ensuring sustainable performance. The article was structured or organized on the concept of active aging and effective management of aging features. In the text, the authors support the European Union’s (2012, p.37) idea that “persons who need to work for an extended period of time, they are required to be in their good physical as well as mental health. In addition, such employees should be given flexible working arrangements, access lifelong learning and retirement schemes as well as be in healthy workplaces.” Based on the analysis of the research conducted by other scholars, Ciutiene and Railaite (2014) examine that older generations are perceived as healthier and well educated than previous. They are preferred for being more active and the ability to serve in their workplaces for a longer period of time. In a different view, the authors’ statistical analysis shows that young and older workers are subjected to different treatment within their workplaces based on their age variations. In particular, older workers are associated with negative assumptions that limit them to equally access employment and training opportunities like the younger workers. From the authors’ analysis, it can be noted that other scholars argue against the negative stereotypes, instead they emphasize based on the employers’ view that older workers are seen as more reliable and loyal individuals who are committed to executing their duties. Thus, older workers tend to stay in their job positions for a longer period of time than younger generations. It is notable from the authors’ analysis that the common assumption made about the knowledge and skills of workers being less effective relative to decline in their ages is wrong. Therefore, the authors’ intention was to disregard the misguided assumption against older workers and encourage scholars in field to instead focus on the capability of employers’ behavior as well as the appropriate human resource practices that can recognize the competence of older workers or critical role played by ageing workforces. Critique From the empirical research conducted by Ciutiene and Railaite (2014) and their theoretical analysis regarding effective management of ageing workforce characteristics, the text provide a clear view on the need for organizations to focus more on workplace characteristics enhancement particularly on matters concerning job design and ergonomics. Employers are required to quickly capture and overcome the workforce challenges of replacing the intellectual capital. Therefore, it means that employers, who ignore to recognize or take the necessary measures to address the global issue of the ageing workforce, could in the future find it difficult to cope with the serious shortages of workforces (Inder & Bryson 2007). It is necessary to mention that organizations will be required to adopt new mechanisms of retaining the existing employees as well as utilize the skills and knowledge of their older workers. The article also clearly defines age management as the practice of careful integration of age related factors into day to day management of organizations. However, it is crucial from the authors’ view that effective age management should include appropriate work arrangements as well as critical appraisal of individual work tasks. In so doing, Ciutiene and Railaite (2014) point out that everybody regardless of the age, would feel as being empowered in attaining both own and corporate goals. Studies indicate that if older workers can be encouraged to delay their retirement, then it means that workforces will maintain the needed age-based diversity that has never been experienced. However, such an attempt involves careful management skills to be understood through the adoption of specific strategies developed to ensure that all workers can participate to the fullest of their capacity. In this regard, therefore, it has been argued in support that age management is purposely designed to achieve such as enable organizations to effectively and efficiently adjust to their ageing workforces, prolong working life, improve the potentiality and productivity of their ageing workforces as well as create equal opportunities among workers of various ages (Barnett 2008). Ciutiene and Railaite (2014) conducted an empirical research to examine the challenges associated with managing an ageing workforce in a department of university. The authors appropriately designed a questionnaire of survey to interview 90 respondents in the age groups ranging from 24 to 70 years based on various theoretical findings to analyze five key age management dimensions which are obviously significant at the organizational level. The five age management aspects that the authors specifically focused on included; the management of job recruitment and the exit processes, availability of flexible workplace as well as the related ergonomics and job design, training, development as well as promotion of older employees. Therefore, the analysis of the empirical results clearly shows that attitude to situations related to age create a big difference between the younger and older age groups. According to Buttigieg et.al (2015) argues in support that the ageing workforce should be regarded as one of the key aspects of diversity management and the strategic approach HRM. In order to develop and maintain the needed skills and knowledge base of an organization, it is crucial for the organization to retain the older workers. This can be achieved through phased retirement and re-employment approaches either to achieve inter-generational knowledge retention or promote transfer. This implies that age is one element of workforce diversity, whereby the challenge posed on managing a wide range of employees with different experiential as well as attitudinal variations is still a neglected management aspect at the organizational level. The main weakness of the text is that authors restricted their arguments on the concept of active aging and effective management of aging features as the only key factors of motivation to advocate for the use of ageing competences to eliminate the decreasing number of employees in the labor market. However, it would have been relevant if other motivational factors such as attractive compensation or improved salaries and remuneration schemes for ageing workforces are also considered as measures to recognize the competences of older workers. In the text, the authors seem to narrow their arguments by supporting the European Union’s idea that persons who need to work for an extended period of time, they are required to be in their good physical as well as mental health. It is notable that the text only emphasizes that such employees should be given flexible working arrangements, access lifelong learning and retirement schemes as well as be in healthy workplaces but nowhere has the importance of improved remuneration been mention (Ciutiene and Railaite 2014). CIPD (2008) shows that total reward plays an integral role in achieving effective management of an ageing workforce. The CIPD has worked in collaboration with the Cranfield University to encourage organizations to understand how employers are improving their role of managing older workers through the total reward approach (Parry & Harris 2011). Research shows that besides the non-financial rewards such as, the suitable working environment, financial rewards is also one of the key areas of engagement with older workers’ competencies. From the legal point of view, it is not acceptable for an organization to offer age-related rewards. Therefore, the reward and human resource management to work collaboratively in developing an inclusive total reward that favors all employees regardless of how old such individuals are but access them easily based on what appeals to their respective circumstances (CIPD 2008). In this case, it can be relevantly argued that reward is also a key factor that HR practitioners should pay attention on their attempt to respond to increased demographic challenges caused for their organizations due to an ageing workforce. Conclusions Based on the above discussions, it can be concluded that employers, who will ignore to recognize or take the necessary measures to address the global issue of the ageing workforce, could in the future find it difficult to cope with the serious shortages of workforces. It is necessary to mention that organizations will be required to adopt new mechanisms of retaining the existing employees as well as utilize the skills and knowledge of their older workers. There is need for more research about significance of organizations paying more attention on workplace characteristics enhancement particularly on matters concerning job design and ergonomics. Employers are required to quickly capture and overcome the workforce challenges of replacing the intellectual capital. It is worthwhile to note that population aging causes changes within the labor market. As a result, organizations face challenges in their workforce which requires human resource management to address or cope with them. In order to achieve this, therefore, organizations are expected to adopt and implement suitable HR measures in managing their ageing workforce with the purpose of promoting smooth performance. List of references Barnett, K, 2008, “The Impact of an Ageing Workforce on the South Australian Workers’ Compensation Scheme,” Chapter 4: The good practice within the workplace age management, The University of Adelaide, Australia. Buttigieg, D, De Cieri, H, Costa, C & Pettit, T, 2015, “How to develop a strategic approach for managing an ageing workforce,” ACREW, Victoria Australia. Ciutiene, R & Railaite, R., 2014, Challenges of managing an ageing workforce, 19th International Scientific Conference; Economics and Management, ICEM, 23-25. European Union, 2012, “Active ageing and solidarity between generations,” A statistical description of the European Union Eurostat (2012). Retrieved from, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development-CIPD, 2008, “Managing an Ageing Workforce,” The role of total reward, Research Insight. Retrieved March 12, 2016 from, Inder, L & Bryson, J, 2007, “The Ageing Workforce: Retaining, Utilizing and Challenging Workers,” Victoria University of Wellington. Parry, E & Harris, L., 2011, The Employment Relations Challenges of an Ageing Workforce, “The Future of Workplace Relations,” An Acas View, Cranfield School of Management and Nottingham Business School. Read More