The one factor that could force your older workers to retire early

An older worker, whose reasoning abilities no longer allow them to meet their job demands, may be more likely to retire early, according to a recent research by the American Psychological Association.

In fact, Margaret Beier, PhD, of Rice University and lead author of the study revealed that when the reasoning abilities of older workers matched the demands of their job, they experienced fewer health issues and worked longer than those who lacked the necessary reasoning abilities to carry out their jobs.

Explaining this, Beier said: "We found that a poor fit between reasoning abilities and job demands might cause older workers to experience stress and strain that serves to push them out of the workforce."

This, in turn, is not ideal for both the employer and the employee.

As reasoning abilities decline with age, organisations and HR leaders must be aware of how employee health can be negatively affected by the demands placed upon an employee, Beier noted. That said, older workers can handle highly complex jobs as long as they have the mental resources to match the job demands.

Hence, while the decline in an older worker's ability to reason with age is unavoidable, it is important that organisations and HR leads know how to address this and retain them for as long as possible. After all, these older workers do bring with them valuable experience and values that would be beneficial to the workforce.

For instance, introduce more incentives such as medical benefits, or place these older workers in mentoring roles to boost their morale.

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