Impacts of organizational change on senior employees

Senior labor constitutes a growing share of the workforce. Parallel to this, organizational changes have become more frequent in companies. If the two trends create imbalances between demands on and resources of the seniors, this could affect the seniors’ possibilities for employment and their wellbeing in the workplace. This article addresses the above dilemma by exploring how organizational changes are related to recruiting, retaining and retraining of seniors in private and public companies, as well as sickness absence and seniors’ views on transition and change. The data comes from the SeniorWorkingLife project (Danish: SeniorArbejdsLiv), collected in 2018, and includes questionnaire data from companies and employees, as well as qualitative interview data. In the analysis companies with organizational change in the period 2016 – 2018 are compared with companies without organizational change in the same period. The results from the analysis portray a period of many organizational changes where, despite efforts and intentions to retain, retrain and recruit senior employees, organizational changes may still have negative consequences. Companies that have been through organizational changes have more sickness absence, including long-term sickness absence due to mental illness and musculoskeletal problems. The results also indicate that a better balance between company demands and employee resources may contribute to retaining the employees beyond retirement age. Responses from employees indicate that better opportunities for further education are not likely to make many employees stay longer. However, it is possible that continuing education and training better targeting the seniors' resources and wishes is needed. Taken together, the results indicate that, especially in periods of organizational change, attention should be paid to retaining senior workers.