If someone is good at their job then why shouldn’t they keep it?

In an earlier post I made a plea for some employer and media support for older workers.

Fortunately I didn’t have to wait long. Charlie Mullins, founder and CEO of Pimlico Plumbers writing in Real Business magazine, outlines the case for taking age out of the employment arena and concentrating on an individual’s skills and ability – whatever their years. He states:

“The simple fact is that in the 21st century, just like a thousand years ago, we need to use all the resources available to us. If we are serious about returning to economic growth, to do anything else would be stupid.” 

Quite.

The article is well-worth a read.  Click here

The power of the ballot box

Sometimes it is very easy to think that we are the only nation in the world suffering from the various dilemmas now confronting us, in terms of, for example; economic woes, an ageing population, pension and care costs, youth unemployment, obesity, drinking problems and healthy living in general. And this list is by no means exhaustive.

But these issues are global, affecting just about every developed nation and many lesser developed nations as well. And the ways in which other countries are attempting to grapple with the situation are as many and varied as there are nations. We should, therefore, look elsewhere and see whether we like the way things are going and whether they provide a good blueprint for us here.

One particularly pernicious avenue of discussion here, both in the media and amongst politicians (notably of the “two brain” variety), is to set “the young” versus “the old”, as though one camp can only gain if the other camp loses. This is no way to solve such problems, especially if it leads to the actual polarisation of society.

The following extract is taken from a recent report from DutchNews.nl concerning the political situation in Holland:

“Fears that pensioners are being hard hit by the government’s austerity measures continue to boost support for the 50Plus party, according to a new opinion poll.

The TNS-Nipo poll says the fledgling party would win 24 seats in the 150-seat parliament if there were a general election tomorrow. That would make it the second biggest party in parliament, behind the VVD Liberals on 28. The party debuted in parliament at the September general election and has two seats.

The Labour party (PvdA), which currently partners the VVD in the coalition government, would be third with 23. The Labour leader caused a stir earlier this week when he said the over-50s are the richest group in the country.

The TNS-Nipo poll puts the Socialists in fourth place on 19 seats and the anti-immigration PVV fifth with 16.”

Despite an attempt a few years ago to set up an “older persons” party in the UK (which appears to have sunk without trace) we must hope that British democracy is better than this. Just look above at who came fifth in the poll, only a few seats behind!

Ageing workforce starts to impact UK businesses

According to Aviva’s recent annual Health of the Workplace report* UK companies are now starting to see a change in their workforce demographics with 29% of employers in their survey reporting a rise in the average age of their employees. Alongside this, 37% expect to see their workforce get older in the future.

Although half of employers believe there are positive benefits for individuals working past the traditional retirement age, 38 per cent predict that health issues associated with an ageing workforce will impact their business.

As a result, 29 per cent  of employers said they would need to offer different health advice while over a third (36 per cent) realised they may need to introduce flexible working hours for older employees.

The report also reveals – based on interviews with older workers – that employees’ requirements change with age and, as a result, so do the benefits that they value. Over a third of employees over 55 said that having access to benefits such as private medical insurance could help them stay healthy, compared to a fifth of 25-34 year-old employees.

The report is interesting and valuable in respect of the confirmation it provides that working longer is now starting to be recognised as a practical and immediate concern in the workplace rather than the somewhat theoretical issue that it has been until now.

Our prediction has long been that workplace policies and practices – and attitudes – would only change and improve when employers and employees find themselves surrounded by increasing numbers of older faces. Let’s hope this is starting now.

*Aviva’s Health of the Workplace report is an annual research study of 1,000 UK employers and 1,000 employees. The research was conducted by independent research company One Poll in August 2012.

How to make an older worker an ideal worker

A recent blog from the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College raises some interesting questions about what employers take into account when they consider an “ideal worker” and how this conflicts with the career ambitions of many older employees.

One wonders what it will take, bearing in mind current levels of unemployment and the likelihood of prolonged recession, for employers to stop pursuing the current full-time, presentee, long-hours model of employment. Surely it’s time to take on board that those who work in ways that best suit their own situation and motivation – whatever their age – will be those who perform  at the highest levels and are the most engaged, productive and loyal?

Yet again, the ‘one size fits all’ model fails most people. These issues aren’t about age or gender but about lifestage, ability and circumstances. The more employers start to address these, the more that ‘diversity’ issues – particularly the problems of an ageing workforce – will start to recede. 

http://agingandwork.bc.edu/blog/the-ideal-worker-vs-the-older-worker/?utm_source=Huong+blog15Matz-Costa_else_12-07-25&utm_campaign=blog15+email+ELSE&utm_medium=email

 

New age discrimination rulings

A useful summary of two recent cases with implications for workplace age discrimination can be found at

http://www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/staff/age-discrimination-update-what-you-can-and-cant-do/40884 

Further analysis from TAEN (The Age and Employment Network) is at http://taen.org.uk/blog/view/98

There’s no point rehashing these summaries here. However, one wonders about the values inherent in an organization that would want to discriminate against older workers by making a degree mandatory. It’s one thing not to have thought it through but to pursue it through the courts is indefensible (excuse the pun).

There is plenty of further commentary coming through from legal experts about the precise implications of these cases and the debate is far from over.

In the meantime, perhaps, based on these cases, we should shift our focus from identifying the best employers for the over 50s to the worst employers for the over 50s. There are few of the former; many more of the latter I suspect.

 

 

Nothing new to say about ageism

An article in yesterday’s Observer was entitled Ageism is back as unemployed over-50s struggle to get back into work. From this one might have hoped that it would have revealed some deep but profound secret that we weren’t aware of in that somewhere, for a period of time, ageism had gone away.

Well it didn’t and it hasn’t. There was no new news and certainly no good news in this piece.

The Work Foundation Director commenting that “The older worker had not fared too badly over recent years, and there were more over-50s in work now than before the recession” really missed the point.

The problem with ageism largely isn’t in the workplace itself it’s with older people trying to get back into the workplace – two entirely separate issues.

The reason there are more over-50s in work is probably twofold; there are more over-50s around, and those with jobs are staying on in work longer, for a variety of reasons.

The optimist in me says that, over time, if there are more older workers around, employers will appreciate more what they have to offer and this will eventually translate into actually recruiting new older workers. Is this just “pie in the sky” and, if not, how can we accelerate the process?

Read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/15/unemployed-older-workers-struggle-to-find-work?INTCMP=SRCH

 

Age friendly products

I have recently been alerted, via Dick Stroud’s excellent blog site, (see http://20plus30.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/age-uk-is-launching-accreditation.html) to what appears to be the re-launch of the Age UK age friendly product/service accreditation scheme. It was previously called “Age OK” and now is called “Engage” but is still extremely low profile on the Age UK website. The cost to a company is not small, £1500 for the assessment exercise and accreditation, and £1000 a year for continued membership of the Engage network. Age OK did not seem to get many takers so we will see whether Engage captures the imagination.

If I am honest, my impression is that this is a bit of a money-spinning device for Age UK rather than the “age friendly” equivalent of what we might see from Which?, for example. As a huge charity existing to serve the older population I believe Age UK could be a bit more detached and objective in their approach to this very important area.

Also, at the time of the Age OK push I suggested that there was great scope for identifying products and services which were “age unfriendly”. I am not saying that the name I facetiously constructed “Negative Age Friendly Features” or “NAFF” should do anything other than fade away but negative publicity captures the attention of organisations faster than anything else and sends a serious shudder through the ranks of an organisation’s senior management.

This brings me to the topic of “greywashing”, a subject I have been meaning to write about for a while. This I will do shortly, in conjunction with stones and glasshouses.

 

Taking an inventory approach to assessing the workforce?

Applying the 80/20 rule through taking an inventory approach to human capital means that organizational success probably depends disproportionately on a vital subset of employees. That’s the premise  adopted by an interesting article published recently in the US.  It maintains that applying the principles of inventory management can “retool” traditional HR numbers like turnover rates, hiring costs, and yield ratios to reveal opportunities to optimize the organisation and its people.

The article uses McDonald’s as an example, quoting the, by now, familiar tale  of how it invited a university study of the performance of 400 of its UK restaurants and found customer satisfaction levels to be 20% higher in outlets that employed kitchen staff and managers over age 60. The result was attributed to the older workers’ additional experience, work ethic, and face-to-face customer relations skills, along with their influence on younger workers.

The interesting aspect of this article is that it goes on to demonstrate that it’s not a simple matter of “more is better” in terms of older employees. Apparently further analysis undertaken by McDonald’s revealed that the positive effect peaks at about three older workers on a crew and levels off after that.

The article goes on to make the point that in inventory terms McDonald’s should treat older workers differently from younger workers even if younger and older workers perform at the same level. It maintains that the inventory of older workers is “like the inventory of a rare and vital ingredient or product component, with the same management implications”.

It concludes: “Traditional employee turnover rates would show that vacancies can be filled more inexpensively and quickly using younger workers. That is the opposite of what inventory analysis reveals, because it misses the 80-20 principle. McDonald’s should manage its inventory of older workers with longer lead times, larger investments in recruitment, a higher tolerance for surpluses, and more urgency about shortages. Older workers in one store should be inventory for other stores, avoiding imbalances and keeping the numbers at about three per store”.

Food for thought?

http://www3.cfo.com/article/2012/1/people_boudreau-inventory-optimization-mcdonalds-floersch-fairhurst

 

Reluctance to employ older workers – fear of the unknown or the known?

Undoubtedly amongst all the issues relating to extended working life and age management the problem of the unemployed older person is the most challenging and frustrating at an individual level.   While unemployment for anyone is a tragedy, the plight of the older unemployed who were once – quite recently – not only employable but capable of holding highly skilled, powerful and influential roles is heartbreaking and disturbing.  In the job market they typically cannot even get an acknowledgement of their application for a post, let alone an interview.

Coaching, counselling, and even physical makeovers can all help improve an individual’s chances but ultimately nothing can be done to remove the elephant in the room – age – that is the barrier to their employment.

I have yet to meet an employer – whether a business owner, HR professional or individual manager – who is prepared to admit that they are reluctant to employ older people. And I am unlikely to.  After all, such an admission would amount to age discrimination and, what’s more it is easy to concede that there is little wrong with older people in principle.

So where is the sticking point?  Is it fear of the unknown i.e. employers are happy with the older workers they already have – whose strengths, weaknesses and work proclivities they know, but don’t want to risk any unknown quantities in terms of older workers who may have issues? Or is their reluctance based on perceptions of their past and current older employees who they certainly wouldn’t want any more of, thank you very much?

Would knowing the answer make any difference?  Probably not.  But it might help individual older job seekers if they could be convinced that really and truly it had very little to do at a personal level with them.

 

 

 

 

 

When good news feels like bad news

The winners of the US AARP’s Best Employers for Workers over 50 Awards have just been announced.

Representing the UK the worthy recipients were Centrica, Marks and Spencer, The Co-operative Group and BMW. No BT, MacDonalds or B&Q? Well never mind, they were probably in the runners-up list.

Whilst not wanting to denigrate the efforts of the winning companies who as large UK employers are leading the way in terms of decently managing an age diverse workforce in difficult times, these winners were a racing certainty.

Knowing that only a very few organizations such as these win, time after time, is depressing mainly because it underlines that most organizations are still doing very little. Certainly very little that is innovative or genuinely helpful to older people.

Where are the public sector employers? Where are the entrepreneurial organizations? Where are the academic employers, or the charities or those whose market is the over 50s?

The day that the AARP awards (or any others in the UK itself) reveal a list of new and unexpected names will be a great day indeed.

http://www.aarp.org/work/on-the-job/info-09-2011/aarp-best-employers-international-winners-2011.html

Let’s have a BBC1 controller who understands the over 50s

Alarm bells ring with the announcement that 37-year-old Danny Cohen, the youngest ever controller of BBC1, intends to show more programmes aimed at older viewers. 

Recognising that the BBC’s core audience is now typically around 50 years old (the younger demographic preferring other pursuits or channels) the beeb is belatedly and no doubt rather reluctantly acknowledging that catering for the old codgers therefore must become a priority.

Not wanting to prejudge the situation (while desperately wishing it was easier to be optimistic), one’s heart sinks upon hearing that Mr Cohen was previously in charge of the ‘youth channel’ BBC3 which commissioned shows such as Hotter Than My Daughter, and that he now wants BBC1 ‘to be known for being innovative and experimental’.

So what sort of innovative things is he planning for us then? Well, the big news is that next year BBC1 will air the largest live natural history broadcast in the BBC’s history following animals’ struggle for survival over the first four weeks of their lives. Mr Cohen commented that it will be “one which is likely to appeal to older viewers”.

Watch that space… for as long as you can bear to.

The word is out – older workers welcome!

Thebigword, one of the country’s fastest-growing and most successful companies, has put out a call for workers aged 40 and above to fill more than 30 vacancies.

thebigword is a multinational translation and interpreting company which provides language services to national governments and some of the world’s biggest companies. Recently named as one of The Sunday Times 100 fastest-growing international companies, it is looking for a wide range of candidates with both industry-specific and more general skills.

CEO Larry Gould (in the 50-plus category himself) says: “It’s great to employ young people who bring tremendous energy and excitement to the workplace but we also need to balance this with the experience and considered approach of older employees”.

“Although older people represent a small percentage of our total workforce, they’re amongst our most successful and long-standing employees. What’s frustrating is that we’re not getting good job applications from older people despite this age group suffering from high unemployment.”

Currently, employees between ages 40-49 represent only 6.19 per cent of thebigword’s 510 employees and those aged 50-plus represent only 3.41 per cent. The largest single age group in the company is 25-30 year-olds which comprise 45.5 per cent of the company’s workforce.

Obviously the company will need to be careful not to exhibit positive discrimination in its selection procedures.

That aside, it is enormously heartening and refreshing that such an entrepreneurial organisation is actively supporting and recognising the value of older workers. Let’s hope many other enlightened organisations follow suit by similarly openly encouraging older workers to apply for their vacancies.

http://www.thebigword.com/work-for-us.html