Personnel Review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature linked to older workers' work orientations and the use of typologies to identify groups of older workers according to their work and retirement patterns.

Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken entails reviewing books and academic journals from the area of human resource management, retirement, diversity and pensions. The paper focuses on the industrial sociology literature as the grounding for the construction of older worker typologies.

Findings – The review of the typologies reveals that the older workforce is a wide range of workers whose experience in work impacts their attitude toward and planning for retirement. Policy makers cannot, therefore, take a “one size fits all” approach to designing incentives for delaying retirement.

Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the review is that the studies which have been reviewed are based on both qualitative and quantitative data and have focused on different aspects of later life work, such as early retirement, ill-health retirements, pensions and staying in work past retirement age.

Practical implications – The review has a number of practical implications for HR practitioners, government, and trade unions who want to develop targeted incentives for older workers to delay retirement.

Originality/value – The originality of the review is that it is unique in bringing together the range of literature on older worker typologies in order to identify overarching themes. The review found that Titmuss' “two nations” provides a useful model for identifying groups of older workers who are in most need of support.