Final answer:
Permitting older employees to work fewer hours is a strategy of workforce management for retaining experienced workers and supporting age diversity within an organization. It aligns with regulations like the ADEA and responds to changing workforce demographics and generational expectations for flexibility and work-life balance.
Step-by-step explanation:
Permitting older employees to work fewer hours per week as a strategy to attract and retain these experienced individuals is an effort towards workforce management and age diversity.
This approach can be seen as part of age-friendly employment practices that recognize the value of older workers and aim to keep them in the labor force while balancing their changing lifestyle needs.
Companies that pursue such strategies can benefit from saving money, potentially increasing employee satisfaction, and fostering a multi-generational workplace.
These measures are in response to the shifting demographics, such as the aging labor force and a youth bulge, impacting labor markets.
The goal is to reduce the occurrence of firings and maximize hirings within an organization's size, while also adapting to the generational expectations of millennials and Generation X, who may value meaningful work, flexibility, like telecommuting, and a healthy work-family balance, over long-term tenure at a single company.
These practices are also in alignment with regulatory changes, like the amendments to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), allowing older workers more freedom in choosing when to retire.