On the motives and needs for work beyond age 65: Comparing voluntary workers versus agency workers

Much has been written about older workers, including how to adequately manage a more mature workforce. Currently, the bulk of research concentrates on the push-pull factors for early retirement vs. the continuation of work life until the pensionable age. This article focuses on a different and rarely investigated group and explicitly addresses an issue up to now overlooked: for those who continue work beyond the age at which full government pension benefits are available (i.e., post-retirement workers), is the meaning of work related to their employment status? To answer this question we compared the work motives of Dutch volunteers and agency workers aged 65 years (i.e., the official Dutch pensionable age) and older. Contrary to the presumptive prevailing common convictions, we found that for post-retirement agency workers financial motives or needs seem less important than personal motives, and the employment status itself is not a good indicator for decision-making on human resource practices. We conclude that for these ‘indisputable seniors' the satisfaction of esteem needs through work remains unremitting, and may even be increasingly important as time goes by.