Employers need to start planning how they are going to respond to the health and productivity challenges posed by an ageing working population, the conciliation service Acas has warned.
In a discussion paper on the future of the workplace, the organisation argued that, as people lived and worked for longer, thousands of workers would experience increased pressure as they tried to balance work with time spent caring for elderly relatives.
Employers were likely to receive more requests for flexible working and part-time working while, with the removal of the default retirement age, employers were also going to have to become more proactive about how they managed older workers, including the management of health needs and physical limitations, Acas suggested.
