Bridge Employment: A Research Handbook

Citation

Sheila Jeanne Gewolb (2015), "Bridge Employment: A Research Handbook", Personnel Review, Vol. 44 No. 6, pp. 1039-1041. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2015-0032

In the context of increasing life expectancy leading to a higher percentage of older people in the general population, this book examines and discusses the concept of bridge employment, which can be defined as patterns of work designed to aid the transition from full-time employment to complete retirement for the older worker. A global perspective is taken on government policies and employer attitudes towards bridge employment which may take the form of flexible working arrangements, part-time employment or a gradual reduction of hours as retirement approaches.

The book is divided into three geographical areas: Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. Part I focuses on eight European countries: the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Spain, the UK, Italy and Germany. Part II concentrates on the USA and Canada; and Part III looks at Australia and Japan. This international perspective provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of employment trends between east and west; however, it is interesting to observe that there have been no contributions from other notable regions in the east, for example, Russia and China. It would have been useful to be able to examine and compare the employment policies and practices of these countries.

One theme which emerges relates to early retirement policies. Older workers in Belgium and Poland are encouraged to leave work before the state pension age, which has resulted in low levels of bridge employment. This contrasts with other countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, where no early-retirement policies are in place and where older people are gradually being encouraged to work for longer. The raising of the pension age in some countries has had the effect of extending the working lives of many older workers and has the added benefit of reducing social and welfare payments for those countries, many of whom have struggling economies. Only two countries still have mandatory retirement ages: Sweden (65 years) and Japan (60 years). These policies have resulted in contrasting effects on the take-up of bridge employment in these regions. In Sweden, rates of older people staying in their full-time jobs are high, with a low entry into bridge employment, however, in Japan, the mandatory retirement age of 60 is five years earlier than the pension age of 65, resulting in high rates of older workers in bridge employment to fill this income “gap”. Mandatory retirement policies are not practiced in the other regions reviewed in this book. For example, the UK, the USA and Canada encourage older workers to work for as long as they want as this is seen as a way to promote active aging.

Retaining the skills of older workers was given by some countries, such as the USA and Canada, as another reason to promote entry into bridge employment. In Australia, which has been relatively unaffected by the economic recession experienced in other regions, government measures, such as pension reforms and tax concessions, are being introduced to extend the working life of older people to counter the loss of skills. Spain is another country that has reported to have similar concerns; however, the reason for the loss of older workers’ skills in this region contrasts with that of Australia. In Spain, which has “runaway unemployment” (Alcover and Topa, 2014, p. 118) (the book under review) this phenomenon is a result of many older people not being in work.

Financial benefits are also suggested in this book to be a prime consideration by policy makers when encouraging people to stay on at work after retirement age, both for the workers who will continue to earn a wage, and for governments who will have increased tax revenues and reduced social and welfare payments. However, other reasons are also given by older workers for staying on at work are outlined, including, for example, in the Netherlands, many people said that they “like working” (Henkens and van Solinge, 2014, p. 45) (the book under review); and in the UK, people spoke of a “sense of value and contribution” (Parry and Wilson, 2014, p. 141) (the book under review). Several authors stated that bridge employment policies should be introduced or promoted in their countries to help achieve active aging; however, policies that extend the working lives of older people have implications for older workers themselves, as well as governments and employers. Active aging, which is argued to be a benefit of working for longer, appears to be a laudable objective; however, further research is needed to investigate how older workers themselves view this concept. Working after pension age may not be viewed favourably by all older people. I suggest that active aging may also be achieved in retirement through engaging in activities such as voluntary work and leisure pursuits. Further in-depth examination of how older people speak about being older at work and their attitudes and perceptions towards retirement could help to raise awareness of the issues surrounding staying on at work. Results of such analysis could help inform future policy-making decisions of governments and employers alike.

This book provides a fascinating insight into bridge employment across the world. The different attitudes and policies of governments and employers towards older people working for longer are complemented by the opinions of some older workers themselves, as mentioned above. This comprehensive volume will be most useful for anyone interested in the increasingly researched topic of older people and work.