Companies ‘need better policies to retain skilled older workers’

New Zealand businesses should introduce flexible workplace policies to retain older staff rather than encouraging early retirement, a study led by Massey University has found.

The study says that NZ faces a future labour shortage as older workers feel pressured to retire and begin to experience age discrimination and unconscious bias about their abilities to learn new skills.

“Nearly 79 per cent of New Zealanders aged 55 to 64 are employed—and supporting older workers to remain at work will only become more important in the future,” lead author Tim Bentley said in a university statement.