Chapter 13: Maintaining Work Ability to Support and Retain Older Workers

The retention of older workers is a topic that at some point will be relevant to nearly every person working today. Given the advances in modern medicine and the aging populations of many countries, organizations and society will need to identify effective methods for accommodating these societal changes. In this chapter, we discuss the implications of an aging workforce for individuals, organizations, and society and the importance of supporting and retaining older workers. We then discuss the construct of work ability (WA), an important predictor of exit from the workforce (von Bonsdorff, Seitsamo, Ilmarinen, von Bonsdorff, & Taina, 2012), including current conceptual and methodological questions regarding WA. We couch our discussion of older worker retention in the promotion and maintenance of WA within the work design, and specifically, the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) frameworks. Throughout this discussion, we identify specific antecedents that either promote or diminish WA. We conclude by discussing directions for future research and providing practical recommendations to help maintain and improve WA, thereby improving older worker retention.