Can age management promote work ability among older workers?

Facing an expected future labour shortage due to demographic factors, there is a growing interest in many countries, how to cope with early retirements among older workers. The Swedish government has financed two Age Management intervention programmes for the public sector. The goals for both programmes were to break the negative trends in regard to long time sick leaves as well as early retirements. The main focus was Age Management training and professional support through a mentorship programme for middle managers. The concept of work ability rather than work inability was of crucial importance to the programmes. The programmes have demonstrated that Age Management can be applied in a successful way, also in the Swedish labour market. As expected, positive results will not come easily and without hard work and a commitment from employers, employees and labour unions. To break down barriers and find new ways to develop a more age-friendly work organisation calls for a close cooperation between the social partners.