Public Servant Lifestyle

The Scottish Council Foundation thinktank has released the results of a major study into the future of work and retirement, presenting the findings of in-depth research with employers and employees in various sectors of the Scottish economy.

The authors identify a range of options to improve flexibility across working life and retirement.

The report comprises two papers:

1: Taking Time Out

The Scottish Council Foundation’s Lifelines study explores how sustainable working lives can be supported. The first papers in the series are the result of a two-year study into working age and retirement.

In this first report, the Foundation explores how long-term flexibility in work could be improved in Scotland. Employee awareness of the need for greater work-life balance has grown in recent years. While employment rates have improved, other indicators are less encouraging: job satisfaction has fallen, especially among women; stress and absence have grown; and productivity continues to age.

As the Scottish workforce ages, the sustainability of working life should become an integral focus for policy-mmakers and employers. We believe demand for more personalised approaches is likely to gain momentum, and that new tools for achieving flexibility will be required - practical and affordable steps to address the emerging needs of both employees and employers.

2: Re-thinking Retirement

The UK debate about retirement is usually couched in gloomy terms: pension ‘time bombs’, rising dependency ratios and inter-generational ‘backlash’. There is a broad consensus that changes are required to manage the transition to an ageing society better, but little agreement on what should be done.

The Pensions Commission, chaired by Adair Turner, was appointed to consider the hard choices of saving more, working longer and paying more towards state pensions. The Commission’s work follows a raft of policy reforms to cut poverty and increase flexibility in retirement.

There is growing support for enabling people to experience retirement as a gradual process rather than only as a sharp exit from work. The UK Government, says the Foundation, can claim some success in reducing pensioner poverty, though at the cost of a significant increase in means-testing. This paper focuses on the challenge of increasing flexibility or older workers.

The Scottish Council Foundation aims to develop leading edge thinking and world-class practice to address Scotland's strategic challenges. It produces research, drawing on extensive international and local networks.

More information available in Careers