Staffing agency: A bridge to working during retirement

3.1 Ethical considerations

Since this study does not refer to any sensitive or health care data, neither include a vulnerable group of people, an ethical review according to the Swedish Law (2003 : 460) on ethical review of research concerning people [21] was not necessary. However, the authors carefully followed The Research Ethical Principles within humanistic-socialscientific research from the The Swedish Research Council [22] throughout the research process. Those principles include the participants’ right to information, consent, confidentiality and use of data.

3.2 Questionnaire

The questionnaire comprised questions on demographics, the staffing agency as an employer, the current work situation, and motivational aspects. Only questions relating to the aim of the study were relevant for data analysis. Questions on demography and work situation had fixed answer alternatives. Responses to statements on motivational aspects were given a value on a scale of 1–5, where 1 = totally disagree and 5 = totally agree.

3.4 Data analysis

A description of the sample was conducted in relation to demographic data. Six motivational aspects of working post-retirement constitute the core of this study. Firstly, correlation analysis was performed between these aspects and individual characteristics (in the form of age, gender, educational level, years from pension and marital status). Secondly, we compiled typical cases based on each of these motivational factors by dichotomizing the motivational responses and analysing which of the other motivational factors and personal characteristics typically represented the case (see below). Threshold levels for the dichotomization of the motivational aspects were originally set at “3” in order to capture individuals who more or less “agreed” on the statements but were adjusted upwards in two cases in order to yield reasonably sized groups. The persons that scored at or above the chosen threshold represented the case, since they agreed to a higher degree to the statement of the motivational factor, e.g. “I work because my partner work”. The motivational factors (with dichotomized cut points for the typical case definition, and fraction of the sample representing the case in parenthesis) were:

Fellowship: “I missed the social affiliation in working life”; response limit≥4, (49%).

The threshold response values for the typical case definition were set at≥3 for half of the cases, exceptions being Fellowship≥4 and Confirmation = 5, since these groups otherwise became too large. Further, in order to distinguish the group of persons who really have to work for their living, the limit for Poor economy was set = 5 (15 % of the sample, or 243 individuals, belonged to this group).

It should be noted that the pairwise correlation between the six dichotomized motivational factors is limited in size ranging from –0.06 to 0.18 (Poor economy and Extra money) not indicating that problems of collinearity plague the analysis at hand. For the raw data (before dichotomizing), the correlations range from –0.04 to 0.39.

For each case, all possible answer combinations of the other motivational aspects and the independent variables (gender, educational level, marital status, similar work tasks as before) together with answers to the questions of whether the respondents “appreciated new challenges” and perceived their current work as “increasing their well-being”, were sorted in descending frequency. The most common answer combinations (defined as consisting of the 50% highest frequencies cumulatively) were regarded as belonging to the case. The respondents having an answer combination among these were defined as belonging to the case. For each case, a frequency analysis was conducted on how the respondents belonging to the case had answered the questionnaire about the other motivational aspects and the other variables described above. The frequency of responses was also computed for a reference group containing the full sample of respondents (N = 1,741). Finally, the quotient between these frequencies (case/reference) was used as an indicator of how much more common the motivational aspects and independent variables were for the respondents belonging to a particular case compared to the reference group.

For instance, 56.6% of the persons defined as belonging to the typical case Poor economy were women whereas the reference group consisted of 35.0% women. Hence, women were overrepresented in the Poor economy case by a factor 1.62 (56.6/35). This type of comparison of proportions was made for each motivational factor separately with regards to the other motivational factors and variables above.

4.1 Demographics

Among all employees (3950 individuals) invited to participate in the questionnaire, 62% were men and 38% women, and their mean average birth year was 1947.7. Of the 1,741 respondents, 65 % were men and 35 % were women, with a mean birth year of 1947.8. Most people in both samples were born during a ten-year period, 1943–1952, with a peak 1947-50. Hence, the sample of respondents seems to be representative for the full population of employees with respect to age structure and gender. Sixty-six percent were married/cohabiting, 27% were single and 7% lived apart. Forty-nine percent had secondary school, 30% university and 21% elementary school education. Most of them became pensioners between 2008 and 2017. The highest work frequency in 2017 (14%) in the sample was found for those who retired in 2015, i.e. two years after their retirement year, Fig. 1.

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Fig. 1

The figure shows the highest work frequency (14%) for those who retired in 2015, i.e. two years after their retirement year (2017).

We begin by conducting bivariate correlations between the motivational aspects and key personal characteristics (Age, Gender, Educational level, Years from pension, Marital status). The only motivational aspect that correlates (negatively) with age is “Partner works”, which is logical because the probability of having a partner that still works decreases with higher age in this sample. The importance of pecuniary motives in terms of “Extra money” and having a “Poor economy” is more pronounced among women. Women are also less likely to state that “Partner works” as a motive for continuing to work. This reflects that women overall have a less favourable economic situation with lower earned pension income rights, and also on average are married to an older man, implying that he will reach pensionable age first. Educational level correlates negatively with “Confirmation” and weakly with “Extra money”, whereas Years from pension correlates with “Partner works” and “Fellowship” –the nearer one was to pension year, the more one agreed (see Table 1). This implies that the importance of missing social interaction, as a motivational factor for continuing to work, fades away over time. Finally, married people are less likely to state pecuniary motives for their continued work, both in terms of “Extra money” and Poor economy”, reflecting gains from pooling resources and specialisation within the household. They are also weakly more likely to state “Confirmation” as a motive for working. Taken together, this correlational analysis confirms that there are associations between the motivational aspects and first and foremost gender and marital status that run in the expected directions. Now we turn to the typical cases in order to deepen the understanding of how people are motivated to continue to bridge their employment.

Compared to the reference group the respondents in the Fellowship case were characterized by an overrepresentation along the following dimensions: “Kicked out” (1.4 times more likely than the reference group), “Appreciating new challenges” (1.4), “Well-being” (1.4), “Poor economy” (1.3), and “Confirmation” (1.2).

People in the Extra money case were “Single” (1.9), worked because of “Poor economy” (1.6), were “Women” (1.3), had “Secondary school” (1.2), stated “Fellowship” (1.2) and that they had been “Kicked out” (1.1) from their previous work as motivational factors, more than the reference group.

The people in the Confirmation case were characterized by “Partner works” (1.7), being “Married/cohabitant” (1.2), having “Secondary school” (1.2), and were “Women” (1.2) times more than the reference group. They perceived that their work increased their “Well-being” (≥2.0), worked for “Extra money” (1.6) and “Fellowship” (1.6), and “Appreciated new challenges” (1.6) more than the reference group.

The Kicked out subjects were characterized by “Poor economy” (1.4), “Extra money” (1.4), “Fellowship” (1.4), “Partner works” (1.2), “Secondary school” (1.3) and were “Men” (1.2) more than the reference group.

The individuals in the Partner works case were predominately “Men” (1.6), had “Secondary school” (1.5), worked because they had been “Kicked out” (1.4) and “Fellowship” (1.2), and experienced that the work increased their “Well-being” (1.2) more than the reference group.

Finally, the individuals in the Poor economy case were “Single” (2.2), “Women” (1.6), worked because they had been “Kicked out” (1.9) needed the “Extra money” (1.6), for “Fellowship” (1.4) and “Confirmation” (1.2). Their work increased their “Well-being” (1.4) and they “Appreciated new challenges” (1.2) more than the reference group.

Most persons (52%) worked between 5 and 25 hours per month, and about as many worked less (26%) as more (22%). One third wanted to work more than they do, and three percent wanted to work less Table 2.

The employees provided services to private customers (61%), companies (11%) and 28% provided services to both groups. The most frequent service area was gardening (43%), trades (33%) and cleaning (31%). But there were also assignments such as care (8%), IT services (4%), doing housework (4%), helping with removals and snow clearance.

As seen in Table 3 there were some correlations worth mentioning. Men seem to work more with gardening, trades, IT services, removals and snow clearance, while women to a higher extent work with cleaning, housework/childcare/cooking and care. Persons with higher education seem to work more with IT services, housework/childcare/cooking and care, while persons with lower education work more with removals.

In total, a majority (73%) worked with tasks they had not done before. From a purely economic perspective, this may seem odd because it is likely that the productive capacity, expertise and comparative advantage in the labour market would yield higher returns (wage) as well as appreciation and confirmation in their old line of work. On the other hand, shifting working career may allow people to explore new (or old) interests and cultivate new skills that may well be rewarding. The segment of the labour market sector targeted by the staffing agencies for retirees centres around services covered by the RUT and ROT (see above). Hence, there may be limited possibilities for people to continue in their old line of work within these agencies. Of the motivational aspects addressed above, “Poor economy” and “Kicked out” are probably the strongest determinants of continuing to work for economic reasons. In order to assess whether people shift their line of work out of necessity, we computed correlations between these aspects and working with “Other tasks than before”. The results showed that there are strong positive correlations (p-values < 0.01), but only for women. For men the estimated correlations are close to zero. Hence, women who change their work tasks are more likely to justify their choice to continue to work with “Poor economy” and having been “Kicked out” than women who continue in their old line of work. This indicates that women bridging their employment may be pushed into new lines of work out of necessity.

5.1 Sample

In the sample there were more men than women who had chosen this form of work, which is in line with results from other studies showing that men are more likely to work in bridge jobs than women [23, 24]. Most of the employees were aged 65–74 years, which is within the age span in Dingemans, Henkens and van Soline’s [14] study of 16 European countries, where 11% of older adults between the ages of 60 and 75 participated in bridge employment. They found a considerable variation across the investigated countries. Working after retirement was rather common in countries like Estonia (22%), Sweden (21%), Switzerland (20%) and Denmark (12%) compared to countries such as Spain (3%), Slovenia (3%), Poland (5%) and France (5%). In our study 73% had secondary school or higher education, a circumstance that has been found to have a significant impact on the likelihood of individuals working at higher ages [6]. In our sample 61% were married/cohabiting, contrary to Dingemans, Henkens and van Soline’s study [14] where retirees who had experienced divorce or widowhood were more likely to work in bridge jobs compared to married retirees.

5.2 Motivational aspects

The three most common motivational factors given by the respondents for working at a staffing agency were Fellowship, Extra money, and Confirmation. The Fellowship case consisted of employees who typically had not been allowed to continue their previous work. They appreciated new challenges and thought that their work increased their well-being. In addition to this, work provided financial support. The Extra money case was typically represented by single women who had a secondary school education. They had been forced to retire and worked out of economic necessity, but they also appreciated the social context. The Confirmation case typically involved married/cohabitant women with secondary school. They worked because they had a partner who worked, to earn extra money and to be part of a social context. They also appreciated new challenges and perceived that their work increased their wellbeing.

Important incentives stated by most of the employees were getting an extra income and belonging to a social context. Most employees also appreciated new challenges and achieved well-being through their work. Previous studies have identified factors that could indicate the propensity to continue working later in life and choose bridge employment as an option. These factors are, for example, health, work experience, level of education and financial factors [6–8, 18]. It was not possible to fully explore health in the present study since accepting a job through a staffing agency demands a certain level of health to be able to perform the job in question. On the other hand, if looking at health as perceived well-being, a majority of the respondents stated that the working life after pensionable age increased their wellbeing. Finance was a strong factor, and although this factor kept recurring in the different cases, the arguments ranged from “enhancing” life, to needing that extra money to get by. There was a positive correlation between needing an extra income and being a single woman.

Among all six cases, there was a concordant agreement that belonging to a social context was important. The staffing agency thus provided the employees with an important social arena in life. However, the cases revealed a possible gender divide in terms of arguments for working in bridge employment via a staffing agency. The material suggests that while single women need to work, men, to a larger extent, work for the social context and well-being. This should be further explored in future studies.

This study has focused on the employees at the staffing agency who are involved in bridge employment, since there was a need for studies on the employees’ perceptions and perspectives. Flynn [17] and Shacklock and Brunetto [18] emphasize the importance of working conditions in order to understand the desire and opportunities for a prolonged working life. Therefore, the workplace characteristic of staffing agencies should be explored in future studies. We propose that this is done in combination with employees’ perception of bridge employment. The reason is that unmet expectations could jeopardize both employer and employee outcomes of bridge employment [3]. This is of particular interest when working for a staffing agency, where the customer is an important part of the work environment for the bridge worker, since work is performed in the customer’s context, not at the staffing agency’s offices.

5.3 Working patterns

Most employees worked 25 hours or less per month and with other work tasks than before. They worked the most two years after their pension year. Nearly 40% wanted to work more, although 3% wanted to work less. Nearly half of the sample stated that they wanted to work more, and it could be noted that the total contribution of working hours per month is fairly low. Further research on how much more time they are willing to work per month is wanted. Dingemans, Henkens and van Soline [14] found that though there is high support for working after retirement in countries like Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, a substantially lower number of hours is worked in bridge jobs than in countries with lower support.

5.4 Service provision

Most services were done for private customers. Men mostly worked with services like gardening and trades while women to a higher extent worked with cleaning and other housework tasks. Additionally, persons with higher education also worked with IT services and housework to a higher extent than those with elementary school education. This is in accordance with earlier research [6–8] showing that formal education, work experience and health have a significant impact on the likelihood of individuals working at higher ages. It is however interesting to note that the study indicates a willingness to do different tasks, such as performing housework, although people have a high degree of education. In other countries, individuals working in housework may be less educated and foreign-born. This could be an effect of the economic and socio-cultural environment highlighted by Mazumdar et al. [3]. In Sweden, people are often interested in manual labour and although there are increasing social divides in society, working life still is characterized by an openness between hierarchies.