Article Review. "Retaining Experts:Administrators' views on Retention Incentives and Older Employees" Moon T.C., Beck S., & Laudicina R.J., Clin Lab Sci 2014;27(3):162 Assignment in fulfillment of MBA, subject: Human Resource Management by Santhy Govindasamy, The Open University Malaysia

1. Assignment 2: Individual Article Review
QUESTION:
(1) Select an interesting article on issues pertaining to ‘skills and productivity of older
workers” in an organization from refereed journals or conferences.
(‘Refereed’ means that the article has been formerly reviewed and recommended by a
group of peer researchers.)
(2) Write the Review
Write the review of the article in accordance to the following format.
ARTIVLE REVIEW FORMAT
1. Introduction
2. Brief Summary
3. Results/Findings
4. Analysis
5. General Critique
6. Contributions
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.0.1Objectives and Domain of Article
This article has been written to address the issue of retention incentives that are favored by older
employees against those benefits that can actually be offered by their employers. The industry the
article is based upon is facing serious shortage of skilled and trained employees whilst the older
employees are reaching their retirement ages. The articles topic area lies in identifying the
workplace changes employers think are feasible in order to encourage retention of older staff
members. The article also looks at the concordance between retention incentives identified by the
employees and what is feasible from the employer perspective. It also looks at the traits employers
believe characterize older employees.
1.0.2 Audience& Appropriateness of Journal
This research article is written by PHD holders who are also Medical laboratory Technicians and
are members of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS). The article’s
intended audience is the Medical Laboratory Personnel and their administrators whose job function
is listed as supervisor, manager, administrator or director. It would be preferable for the reader to

2. have a medical background with knowledge of the work responsibilities of CLP’s. Individuals
working in HR Departments would also be interested on the issues raised by the article. In general
this article can be read by the general public who are interested towards furthering their knowledge
on issues raised.
The journal is appropriate for this assignment because it addresses the questions relating to skills
and productivity of older workers at the workplace. The first part of the journal addresses the
retention incentives for older employees from the employees and employer perspective. The
second part of the journal assesses employer’s attitudes about the value of older employees.
Twenty five characteristic relating to skills and productivity of older workers was identified and
studied in the article.
1.0.3“Empirical” Article
This is an empirical article as it offers empirical evidence to support each argument. The data for
this study was collected as part of an online Clinical Laboratory Professionals Retirement Survey
sent to members of the ASCLS via email in May 2012. 1,049 respondents from every state in the
United States submitted their answers. Each retention incentive and each characteristic from the
administrator’s perception of older employees was tabulated clearly. The responses from both
employers and employees was collected based on a 5-point scale which the respondents circled.
The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20. Descriptive statistics were used to tabulate
responses and calculate percentages and means.
2.0 BRIEF SUMMARY
The article addresses the medical laboratory profession which is facing problems getting skilled
and qualified staff to replace its older employees who are fast reaching their retirement age or have
retired. The article identified the incentives and physical workplace changes which can keep these
older CLP’s to continue working. These were compared against the workplace changes and or
additional retention incentives that can be actually implemented by their administrators. The only
workplace changes that both the CLP’s and their administrators agreed to was installing
ergonomics equipment.

3. Next the article assessed the attitudes of administrators about the value of older employees.
“Studies in a variety of disciplines focusing on the perceptions of older employees have uncovered
both positive and negative stereotypes about older workers.” The article discovered, generally the
administrators held a positive view of the working habits and skills of their older employees except
for wanting to lead and supervise others.
3.0 RESULTS/FINDINGS
The analysis revealed, ergonomic equipment, chairs and work stations as the workplace retention
incentives favored by CLP. The administrators too rated this incentive as highly feasible to be
implemented. However five retention incentive identified under the benefits and compensation
received high ratings from the practioners, but were rated as low feasibility by the administrators.
Similar discrepancies were observed for two factors in the alternative work schedule groups and
one incentive in the physical environment group. These factors were rated as highly important by
practioners but were not considered highly feasible by administrators.
A comparison of the administrators attitude towards older workers was split between
administrators aged 50 and above and those lesser than 50. Both categories of administrators had
differences in agreement on only one characteristic area of the older workers i.e., older workers
want to lead and supervise others. Generally administrators agreed the older workers are easier to
train and they are creative and enthusiastic about work. The older workers were also perceived to
work well with workers of other generations. It was found the older administrators score was
higher and they generally held a more favorable perception of the older CLP’s then the younger
administrator groups.
4.0 ANALYSIS
The data for this article was collected in May 2012 the article was published in summer of 2014. I
believe the article is applicable to my work life. I am employed in an audit firm and we experience
high turnover especially at audit assistant level. The staff employed as audit assistants are often
fresh graduates and they wish to get as much and as wide work experience as possible. Exposure
to different audit firms would give them varying work experience as clientele would be different
and the required audit procedures may differ, though not substantially. The staff too are able to
draw upon the work habits and experience of their supervisor which they find invaluable. The

4. professional accounting bodies too expect their students to acquire working knowledge before the
student receives a full-time membership as a professional.
The staff turnover is approximately 9 to 12 months a year. Thus after the firm has spent manpower
and financial resources training the staff, they leave. It would perhaps be a good idea for the firm
to draw upon the expertise of retired accountant who may be willing to work for a fee. There would
at least be a ‘permanent’ expert staff who can continue with the work while the new staff is
receiving training or during the gap when the staff leaves and a new staff is taken in.
The results of the survey indicated, older workers were perceived as easy to train and worked well
with all staff levels. The administrators agreed that older workers are creative and are enthusiastic
about work. Studies from other disciplines indicate older workers have better soft skills which
include social skills, commitment, customer-oriented skills and reliability. These qualities are
relevant in a professional accounting firm where staff handle highly confidential information of
clients as well having to interact with all levels and characteristics of clients. Human interaction
skills is crucial in an audit firm and an older employee would be able to ease and smoothen the
communication with clients.
The firm can consider some of the retention strategies identified to be put in place in order to attract
the older employees. The retention incentive which was in agreement between the employee and
employer in the research report was ergonomic equipment, chairs and workstations. The audit firm
can consider work scheduling alternatives identified in the article such as part-time work schedules
and job-sharing with a full-time staff. I would not consider the feasibility of the other retention
incentives identified in the report as the accountant being employed need not necessarily have been
employed before by the firm as an auditor. Besides cost of execution of the retention incentives
could be high.
5.0 GENERAL CRITIQUE
The authors of this article have done a thorough research before presenting their articles for
publication. The study related specifically the retention of older employees among laboratory
specialists. Thus the aspect of retention incentive from the employees and employer perspective
was studied as well as the perception of the employers towards older employees. The study was

5. approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Office of Human Research Ethics at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The findings of the responses was clearly presented in a table form, which was clearly labelled and
the results listed according to mean scores. The authors then went on to give detailed explanation
of their findings. Comparisons of the findings were made against similar studies of different
professions. Lastly recommendations were given to the administrators and head of departments as
to importance and significance of findings to the profession. There is a serious shortage of qualified
younger personnel in the profession and the heads of departments should put in place strategic
human resource plans to keep the older CLP in the workplace longer.
However the article fails to address the reasons for the shortage of young trained CLP
professionals. Are there less students signing up for the courses in colleges or universities? What
is their reason? Is the job opportunities available not known to these students or they cannot get
information on vacancies? Is the opportunities for advancement in this field not properly
explained? Can’t the medical profession absorb the students who have completed their course of
study into their organization and provide them with on-the-job training? This is a solution which
should be considered together with retaining the older CLP’s to solve the problem of shortage of
staff.
6.0 CONTRIBUTIONS
This article adds to the body of knowledge in the research field of retaining of older employees in
the workforce. Various retention incentives were considered by this article. The incentive was
considered from perspective of the older workers as important to them and their employers as to
the feasibility of implementing them. The article says, ‘To date, studies of laboratory
administrators’ perceptions of folder CLP have not been reported.’ The current research in other
disciplines on this issue says the comparative advantage of older workers lies chiefly in their soft
qualities. However the study found that the laboratory administrators perceived older CLP as
having both the hard and soft qualities described in other research.
The issues raised the article are relevant and current to the managerial problem of demographic
changes in the workforce. Problems of replacing older workers who are retiring or have retired has
become a problem other industries are facing. Certainty the issues raised and possible

6. consideration of solutions which have been highlighted in the article are relevant to other
professions. On the problem that not all incentives considered as important by the CLP were not
enforceable by their administrators due to various reasons , the article says, ‘ It may be more
effective for laboratory assistants to work together with administrators from other hospital
departments to force institutional level changes’.