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An older employee at a greenhouse.

Senior Employees

What can policymakers, governmental authorities, and workplaces do to retain more senior employees up to or beyond the state pension age? To investigate this, The National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA) does research on both what pushes senior employees to leave the workforce and what can keep them employed.

About Senior Employees

As life expectancy rises, reforms have been implemented to encourage Danish residents to stay longer in the workforce. For some senior employees, this is not a problem, while others are uncertain if they are able to continue to work, or have already left the workforce.

The reasons why senior employees either leave the workforce early or choose to work into advanced age are complex, dynamic and vary widely depending on whether one asks a bricklayer, social worker, childcare worker, or social and healthcare assistant. One common factor is that the work environment plays a significant role.

What Causes Senior Employees to Leave the Workforce?

Poor health, excessive mental or physical demands at work, and age discrimination can push some senior employees out of the workforce prematurely – some become long-term unemployed, while others end up on disability pension or voluntary senior pension. Some senior employees choose to stop working to enjoy more leisure time or because they have the option of voluntary early retirement.

What Encourages Senior Employees to Extend Their Careers?

Good relationships with colleagues and interesting, meaningful work tasks encourage some senior employees to remain in the workforce. A healthy worklife balance with high flexibility and reduced working hours is also important for many senior employees. There are also senior employees who continue working, although they do not want to or do not feel capable of doing so, but have to because they cannot afford to retire before the state pension age.