Joop Schippers

Managing an aging workforce and a tight labor market: views held by Dutch employers

Despite the strong growth in employment of the past years, the Dutch labor market faces a number of persistent problems. One such problem is the large number of people on disability benefits. Another problem is the low labor force participation of women, not so much in terms of people, but in terms of hours worked (Henkens et al. 2002). And, despite an increase since the mid-1990s, the labor force participation of people over 50 is also much lower than the European average (OECD 1996). These low labor force participation rates should be seen against the backdrop of a strong increase in labor demand in recent years. In many sectors of the Dutch economy, this has led to tightness in the labor market (CPB 2000). Given that the population of the Netherlands is aging, new imbalances are looming on the horizon. Structural changes need to be implemented to pay for the growing number of pensioners. [....]

Employers’ attitudes and actions towards the extension of working lives in Europe

Purpose - Although policymakers have put great efforts into the promotion of older workers’ labour force participation, quantitative empirical knowledge about employers’ views towards extension of working lives is limited. The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of employers’ attitudes and actions towards extension of working lives, by examining recruitment and retention behaviour towards older workers, employers’ views on the consequences of an ageing workforce, organisational policies, and what governments can do to extend working lives. Design/methodology/approach - The authors analyse surveys administered to employers in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the UK in 2009. Findings - It is found that a minority of employers have applied measures to recruit or retain older workers, and employers rather retain than hire older workers. A considerable share of employers, albeit to different degrees per country, associate the ageing of their staff with a growing gap between labour costs and productivity. Employers expecting a larger gap do not apply more organisational measures to either increase productivity or adjust the cost-productivity balance. Employers may think the cost-productivity issue is partly for governments to solve; employers expecting a larger cost-productivity gap consider wage subsidies to be an effective measure to extend working lives. Originality/value - The paper addresses the employers’ perspective, one that is often neglected compared to attitudes and behaviour of older workers themselves and research on institutional arrangements. This paper is also among the first to report on employers’ policies and practices from a cross-national perspective.

Changing dynamics in female employment around childbirth

There is a strong effect of childbirth on female labour supply.This effect, however, is changing over time.This article uses panel data on the last two decades on three European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, the UK) to study changes in female labour force behaviour around childbirth and tries to find an explanation for these changes by looking at differences between the three countries.We conclude that there are substantial differences in participation patterns between the three countries in our study and that policy measures and institutions such as childcare that make the costs of combining work and family lower relative to being a full-time mother seem to increase female participation rates.

Labour market flexibility in the Netherlands: looking for winners and losers

Almost two decades have passed since Dutch employers, unions and the government, in their struggle against unemployment, agreed on a policy to increase labour market flexibility. Over the years the share of flexible jobs in the Netherlands has gradually increased to around ten percent. According to some parties the introduction of more labour market flexibility would lead to more inequality and a division in the labour market between workers with permanent employment and an underclass of women, immigrant workers and poorly educated workers with temporary contracts. The Dutch government has always claimed that a special set of legal rules regarding labour market flexibility would prevent the development of such an underclass. In this article three questions are addressed: Who has a flexible labour contract and who is in permanent employment? What is the pattern of transition to permanent contracts? What are the consequences for wage rates for those on permanent or flexible contracts respectively? The answers to these questions are provided using panel data for the period 1986-96. The results show that labour market flexibility has been introduced into the Dutch labour market without detrimental consequences for specific groups of workers.

Towards an Equal Division of Paid and Unpaid Work: the Case of the Netherlands

Both the Netherlands and other European countries are involved in the transition from a breadwinner society towards a more individual-oriented society. What is unique in the Dutch case is the strong emphasis on the equal sharing of time, between paid and unpaid work as well as between women and men. Despite the preferences among citizens for a more equal sharing of paid and unpaid work, in practice it appears that general participation in paid labour is being achieved more rapidly than general participation in unpaid labour. The article looks at the obstacles and sticking points which stand in the way of the process of redistribution and investigates how this process can be accelerated. It includes an empirical analysis on survey data for the Netherlands with respect to both actual and preferred working hours for married and co-habitating men and women. The authors conclude that a consistent government policy is lacking. As a consequence neither individuals nor organizations get signals that might contribute to those steps in the area of part-time work, child-care provision and leave facilities that would bring about a redistribution of paid and unpaid work between women and men.

Shortages in an ageing labour market: an analysis of employers' behaviour

Different policies are being promoted to increase the labour supply in ageing labour markets. This article presents the results of a large-scale survey carried out among Dutch employers into their management of the constraints presented by a tight labour market. Organizations take different measures in response to staff shortages, which can in fact be distinguished as four strategies. The first relates to the recruitment of new groups of workers: groups that traditionally were perhaps not a preferred choice. The principal measures in this strategy are the recruitment of women and ethnic workers, and to a lesser extent the elderly. The second strategy focused on increasing the labour supply of existing workers. Overtime, encouraging part-timers to work extra hours and a structural increase in the length of the working week were part of this strategy. The measures constituting the third strategy were of a different type. Generally, these measures were adopted in order to cope with temporary peaks. Work was outsourced, a recruitment agency used, and higher wages offered to try to fill a vacancy. The fourth strategy focused on substituting technology/capital for labour. Regression analyses is carried out to explain which strategies organizations use to deal with shortages.

Family-friendly policies in The Netherlands

The article reports on research among Dutch employers concerning the arrangements they provide for employees to help them with the reconciliation of work and family life. The research not only answers the question of to what extent different employers offer arrangements like childcare facilities, flexible working hours or leave schemes, but it also tries to explain employers’ policies. The explanatory analysis includes organisational characteristics and employers’ opinions with respect to costs and benefits of different arrangements. The empirical analysis is based on a survey among 871 organisations in the profit sector and the non‐profit sector. One major conclusion is that family‐friendly arrangements have become rather common among organisations; employers are aware of the fact that the reconciliation of work and care has become an issue for an increasing number of workers.

The importance of illness duration, age at diagnosis and the year of diagnosis for labour participation chances of people with chronic illness: results of a nationwide panel-study in the Netherlands

BackgroundCompared to participation rates among general populations, participation of people with chronic illness in the labour market lags behind. This is undesirable, both from the perspective of individuals’ well-being as from a macro-economic perspective for western countries where concerns exist about labour supply and sustainability of social security in the near future. To help develop successful policy measures to prevent early drop-out and support reintegration, we aimed to gain insight into the role of three age related characteristics that may relate to labour participation chances of people with chronic illness: the duration of their illness, how old they were when the chronic disease was diagnosed and the historical year in which the diagnosis was established.MethodsWe analyzed data of one (first) measurement of several cohorts of people diagnosed with a somatic chronic disease, who (had) participated in the Dutch ‘National Panel of people with Chronic illness or Disability’ since 1998 (N = 4634 in total). Multi-level logistic regression analyses were conducted to estimate random effects of the age at diagnosis and the year of diagnosis and fixed effects of illness duration on labour participation, while correcting for the effects of socio-demographic and disease characteristics and socio-economic indicators.ResultsA significant part of the variation in labour participation among people with chronic illness relates to the age they had when they were diagnosed. Furthermore, a longer illness duration is significantly associated with a lower chance of being economically active. This is more the case for men than for women. Labour participation of cancer survivors depends on the phase of the illness they find themselves in. No evidence was found that the year in which the diagnosis was established matters for employment chances later in life.ConclusionAge at diagnosis and illness duration relate to chronically ill people’s chances to participate in the labour market, but how and how strong they relate to labour participation depend on gender and the type of chronic disease at stake. Prospective studies are needed to assess illness trajectories of specific diagnostic groups along with the development of their school and work careers.

Organizations’ Ways of Employing Early Retirees: The Role of Age-Based HR Policies

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY We examine whether from an organizational perspective it is possible to distinguish different ways of employing early retirees and explore how the employment of early retirees is related to the application of 4 age-based human resource (HR) policies, namely demotion, offering training opportunities to older workers, offering early retirement, and allowing flexible working hours. DESIGN AND METHODS We perform a latent class analysis on a sample of 998 Dutch organizations in order to categorize them based on 3 dimensions of their employment of early retirees. We then run a multinomial logistic regression to relate the employment of early retirees to the 4 age-based HR policies. RESULTS We distinguish 4 types of organizations based on their way of employing early retirees: nonusers (52.6%), users for mainly standard work (20.8%), users for mainly nonstandard work (9.8%), and users for standard and nonstandard work (16.7%). We find that organizations that apply demotion, offer early retirement, and allow flexible working hours are more likely to be users for mainly standard work. Also, organizations that do not offer early retirement are less likely to employ early retirees. IMPLICATIONS Age-based HR policies, especially demotion, offering early retirement, and allowing flexible working hours, are conducive to the employment of early retirees for mainly standard work. Broader implementation of these policies may provide opportunities for older workers to make a more gradual transition from work to retirement.

Active ageing in Europe: the role of organisations

Purpose - The purpose of this paper (overview) is to provide a brief introduction to the topic of active ageing and summarise the seven studies included in this special issue. The authors also acknowledge those who were instrumental in bringing this issue to fruition. Design/methodology/approach - The Findings - The findings of the studies included in this special issue provide insights into the factors and mechanisms that hamper higher participation levels of older adults in paid employment and civil society, and give suggestions on how to improve their inclusion and how to deal with an ageing workforce. Originality/value - Taken as a collective, the papers in this special issue help propel forward in significant ways the study of active ageing from an international and interdisciplinary perspective.