As western society ages, the ability to ensure older people make valuable contributions is likely to be crucial if we are to enjoy a longevity premium. New research from Rice University suggests that maintaining a good fit between the job people have and their abilities is likely to be vital to achieving that.
Indeed, the authors argue that people who are no longer able to fulfill the roles of their job are much more likely to develop a range of chronic health conditions and retire early, which is not great for either employer or employee.
“When their reasoning abilities matched the demands of their job, older adults experienced fewer health issues and worked longer than adults who did not have the necessary reasoning abilities to perform their job,” the authors explain. “Experienced workers offer much in terms of knowing the company culture and being able to mentor younger employees, so it is vital that we look into the best ways to extend their careers and improve their health outcomes.”
Healthy retirement
With a growing number of baby boomers entering retirement, the researchers wanted to explore what factors helped people to stay healthy as they enter that phase of their life. They turned to the Cognition and Aging in the USA survey, which was undertaken between 2007 and 2014, with a few hundred participants having completed each of the seven versions of the survey.
The survey looked at a wide range of factors, with the researchers focusing specifically on the ability, health and retirement status of participants throughout the study, with the average age of those starting the study being 61 (the minimum age was 51 years old).
Alongside the measure of cognitive ability and general health of the participants, the researchers gauged the demand for jobs via the O*NET database, which reports on things such as the knowledge, skills and abilities required for the various jobs across the United States.
“Mathematical reasoning may be important for both a middle school math teacher and a calculus professor, but the level of ability demanded for the calculus professor is higher than for the teacher,” the authors explain. “To measure health conditions, we summed up the number of chronic health conditions participants reported in the Cognition and Aging in the USA study. Retirement status was measured simply by asking the participants about their current employment situation.”
Matching the demands of the job
The data showed that having the reasoning abilities required in your job was crucial to having a good experience at work in older age. Indeed, when people had greater reasoning ability than required by their job (ie they weren’t being stretched), they also seemed to report greater health issues and were much more likely to retire.
“We found that a poor fit between reasoning abilities and job demands might cause older workers to experience stress and strain that serves to push them out of the workforce,” the authors explain.
It’s widely believed that our reasoning abilities decline with age, so it’s vital that organizations appreciate how our health can be negatively affected by the demands we place on employees. It’s vital that the mental resources each employee has are well matched to the demands of their particular job.
The authors believe that their findings could help to inform the design of jobs for older employees so that any risk of negative health outcome is reduced, and incredibly valuable older workers are retained in the workplace for as long as possible.
“With the average age of retirement increasing across the country and the older population itself becoming a larger portion of the population, it is important that we study how the demands placed on older workers in the workforce should match their abilities,” the authors conclude. “Older workers have such valuable experience that it is vital we look into the best ways to extend their careers and improve their health outcomes.”
