Active Ageing in the European Union

Anyone interested in the field of age and work may be interested in this new book which explores the adoption of ‘active ageing’ policies by EU15 nations and the impact on older peoples’ work and retirement policy options.

The book, written by  Kate Hamblin a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, explores the labour market policies (including unemployment benefits, active labour market policies and partial pension receipt) and pension policies (pension principles, early retirement and incentives for deferral) adopted by these nations from the mid-1990s onwards.

Unfortunately the price, £55, puts it out of reach of most readers.

Further details at  http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=534123

Employers want default retirement age reinstated

Depressingly – but not unsurprisingly – a recent survey conducted by law firm, Eversheds, reveals that nearly half of employers would like the default retirement age (DRA) reinstated.

The survey revealed that a third of employers felt the abolition of the DRA has had a negative or very negative impact on their organisation: two-thirds cited difficulties in succession planning whilst just under half reported that opportunities were being blocked for younger workers.

Other implications included increased costs of redundancies and/or providing benefits (37%), more management time having to be spent on performance management (29%), whilst just over a fifth reported an increase in ill-health absence.

Unfortunately, older workers aren’t going to go away so employers will just have to accept that these are now facts of working life.

One wonders if it was the way the survey was worded and the way the results are being reported, but didn’t the other half (who don’t want DRA reinstated) have anything positive to say about older workers?

Some good news media support would go some way to supporting the cause of older workers and overcoming negative perceptions amongst the unconverted

See: http://www.workplacelaw.net/content/46850

Older worker stereotypes overturned

A new academic study confirms that almost all negative generalizations about employees over the age of 40 are untrue.

A recently published article, Evaluating Six Common Stereotypes about Older Workers with Meta-Analytical Data by Thomas W.H. Ng (University of Hong Kong) and Daniel C. Feldman (University of Georgia) presents the findings of an analysis of around 400 studies of older workers’ performance.

The paper finds that nearly all negative stereotypes about this group are unfounded and suggests, as the number of older workers continues to increase, that managers should reconsider widely-held misconceptions that often lead to age discrimination.

The study examines six of the most common and damaging stereotypes: i.e. that, compared with younger workers, older employees are (1) less motivated, (2) less willing to engage in training and career development programs, (3) more resistant to change, (4) not as trusting, (5) more likely to experience health problems that affect their work, and (6) more vulnerable to work–family conflicts.

The authors found empirical support for only one of those stereotypes. Older workers, on average, are indeed less likely to engage in career development—an attitude that relates, at least in part, to training programs designed for younger employees. The five other stereotypes were unfounded.

For further information, see http://www.strategy-business.com/article/re00225?gko=70968

The Psychology of Retirement

 

These days the line between work and retirement is increasingly difficult to define. How, when and in what manner it occurs is less certain than in the past. Its very meaning has changed with many people continuing to work even though they claim to have ‘retired’.

And, despite its inevitability in one form or another, many individuals still fail to plan adequately for its arrival. For example, a new report from financial services company MGM Advantage claims that “three in five (60%) over 55s admit to being unprepared for retirement”.

Thus the relevance to those interested in older workers of a valuable and interesting new book: The Psychology of Retirement – coping with the transition from work*. It is written by Derek Milne who retired as the Director of the Newcastle University Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme in 2012.

Unlike most other guides to retirement which tend to deal with the practicalities of growing older outside of full-time work, this enlightening handbook tackles the unspoken issue that many people find the transition to a happy and fulfilling retirement difficult and stressful.

In response, the book draws on proven psychological coping strategies to aid the process of coping with retirement, ensuring that individuals are able to gain a better understanding of the realities of retirement and maximize their enjoyment of a key period of life.

Incorporating the author’s personal experience, real-life case studies, the latest research and well-established theories, The Psychology of Retirement provides many insights and much food for thought concerning the nature of retirement and the new challenges and opportunities it represents.

* published by Wiley (February 2013).

MGM’s Retirement Nation Report 2012: http://www.mgmadvantage.co.uk/island/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Retirement-Nation-2012.pdf

Employing Older Workers

A new publication from the DWP (February 2013) seems well worth highlighting. Although it says nothing new (if you already have a rudimentary awareness of the issues), it does provide a concise and accessible summary for employers of the benefits of employing older workers and what to take into account.

If nothing else it’s good to see that the DWP hasn’t entirely abandoned the issue now that the legislation has been introduced and the topic is no longer ‘flavour of the month’.

The guidance is drawn from employers who report clear business benefits from effectively managing an ageing multi-generational workforce. It provides answers to employer questions and offers non-bureaucratic solutions tried and tested by employers of various sectors and sizes.

It also addresses misconceptions about employing older workers concerning productivity, up-skilling, health and ‘blocking’ opportunities for younger workers.

It’s called Employing Older Workers:  An employer’s guide to today’s multi-generational workforce and is available at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/employing-older-workers.pdf

Who’s doing what for older workers?

If progress is being made in respect of employing and retaining older workers in the UK, it is also – by and large – being kept very quiet. A number of old case studies are trotted out whenever ‘evidence’ is needed, but few new examples of good practice emerge to provide food for thought for employers and workers themselves.

Although it is a US publication, this report – Flex strategies to attract, engage and retain older workers from the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College – is well worth a read.

You can access it at

http://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/agingandwork/pdf/publications/flex_case.pdf

Hiring people like us

A recent report from Reuters focuses on continuing ageism in America’s Silicon Valley.

The piece starts with the story of a sixty year old who in order to nail a CEO job for which he was extremely well qualified felt he had to shave his head. Later, he “traded in his button-down shirts for T-shirts, made sure he owned the latest gadgets, and got an eyelid lift.”

Later on in the piece, an advisor recommends that to gain employment and credibility in this job market older applicants should “carry a backpack, not a briefcase …Avoid Blackberries and Dell laptops in favor of Android phones and Apple products. And above all, steer clear of wristwatches, which most younger people have replaced with the clocks on their phones.”

A 40 year old female recommends dressing young. For her first interview at Facebook, this market researcher “headed to a boutique popular with women 20 years her junior for advice on “something to look hip” and blend in.

She ditched her tailored pants and blouses for a dress, tights, and biker boots. She then got second and third interviews “and had to come up with more hipster outfits.”

Ignoring the fact that 40 is hardly old, this piece raises the issue of the extent to which ageism is a reaction to chronological age or simply reflective of the fact that people want to employ people who are like them.

In Silicon Valley, if this article is to be believed, this is taken to a farcical level and surely must be unsustainable from the older applicant’s perspective; but nevertheless the argument has some weight in other workplaces.

But – how much should older people be expected to adapt to younger models; and, more importantly, where should it stop?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/27/us-valley-ageism-idUSBRE8AQ0JK20121127

Status quo or retirement – what sort of choice is that?

A recent article in the Daily Telegraph exhorts us to “Bring back the retirement age”, maintaining that older people are blocking the promotion prospects of their younger colleagues.

It says: “More people staying on at work for longer is causing a bottleneck at the lower end of the career ladder, with young people missing out on promotion opportunities because their older colleagues are not moving on.”

This reiteration of the “lump of labour” theory that asserts that there are only so many jobs to go round and therefore by continuing to work older people are displacing younger people is wearisome and wrong.  As Tony Watts points out in his comment on the article, plenty of research has been done to show that this is simply not the case.

However what this new ‘survey’ does underline is that employers need to become more imaginative about restructuring the nature of work, introducing a range of flexible options which people can take at various points throughout their career.

As plenty of studies have shown – including my own – many older people would welcome the opportunity to work differently as they age. All that is stopping them is a lack of employer-provided opportunities which would enable them to step out of full-time, full-on, highly pressurised jobs which are perhaps those to which their younger colleagues aspire.

Unfortunately, in respect of recruitment, age discrimination is still rife which means that, to return to the quote above, there are few openings for older people to ‘move on’ to. This being the case older people currently face a stark choice in respect of work: either continue in the job you have or retire and lose all expectation of ever working again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9722365/Business-Bring-back-the-retirement-age.html#disqus_thread

Deciding when to persist and when to quit

Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter writing recently in the Harvard Business Review blog provided twelve guidelines for deciding when to persist and when to quit.

I was attracted by the piece as it seems to me that this epitomises a common dilemma faced by many older people searching for work.

Often I’m asked for advice about how long older jobseekers should persist in sending out CVs and completing application forms in the face of employers’ general disinterest and lack of response. Where does the line lie in this situation between admirable persistence and perseverance and dogged stupidity and lack of acceptance of the situation?  

Although Rosabeth’s list (below) relates to projects and start-ups it nevertheless seemed to me to have some resonance for older people seeking work:

1. Are the initial reasons for the effort still valid, with no consequential external changes?
2. Do the needs for which this is a solution remain unmet, or are competing solutions still unproven or inadequate?
3. Would the situation get worse if this effort stopped?
4. Is it more cost-effective to continue than to pay the costs of restarting?
5. Is the vision attracting more adherents?
6. Are leaders still enthusiastic, committed, and focused on the effort?
7. Are resources available for continuing investment and adjustments?
8. Is skepticism and resistance declining?
9. Is the working team motivated to keep going?
10. Have critical deadlines and key milestones been met?
11. Are there signs of progress, in that some problems have been solved, new activities are underway, and trends are positive?
12. Is there a concrete achievement — a successful demonstration, prototype, or proof of concept?

Perhaps the unemployed over 50s would find it useful to have a similar checklist to help guide their thoughts. If so, what might it highlight? Are any of the above points relevant? Any views?

http://blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2012/10/12-guidelines-for-deciding-whe.html?goback=%2Enmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1

Older vs younger workers: to what degree is it irrelevant?

I was interviewed on BBC Radio Sussex last week talking about why employers should hire older workers. The piece had originally intended to focus on why they should hire older workers rather than younger workers but fortunately, in the event, they steered clear of that aspect and took a more general approach.

Much as I’m happy to comment on issues relating to the over 50s and older workers, I loathe the polarisation of young vs old that the media seem determined to pursue. Intergenerational warfare is definitely something we can do without and, I believe, isn’t an approach that reflects the views of the majority of people – old or young.

In preparation for the interview I had a quick look round for any new evidence underpinning the case for employing older workers and, fortuitously, came across an article published the previous day in the US focusing on a new survey which had been carried out by the recruitment agency Adecco.

Apparently in their study of 500 hiring managers, 91 per cent associated mature workers with reliability and 88 per cent associated them with professionalism. Older workers were also seen as having better communication skills (especially written) than those born between 1981 and 2000.

On the other hand, 74 per cent of hiring managers said that younger workers are more creative, better networkers and have more technological know-how.

So – the same old perceptions persist, demonstrating strengths and weaknesses for both groups. The danger lies however, as I pointed out in the interview, in applying group stereotypes to a situation where the skills and strengths of individuals are being assessed.

But, in reality, is it a better policy to stress to employers that they should try and achieve a balance of attributes in their workforce (e.g. professionalism and creativity) by hiring both young and old while acknowledging that neither generation has exclusive ownership, or to ignore the existence of these generational stereotypes entirely? Any views?

To see the article go to: http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20121004/WIRE/121009827?Title=Lesson-from-surveys-help-all-looking-for-jobs

Never forget your dreams

I was attracted by the headline of this article on the BBC website: Young workers: ‘Never forget your dreams’.  It seems to sum up what we should be saying to older workers too as we/they wrestle with issues regarding how to remain employed – and for how long, what sort of work to do, and how to design a meaningful and rewarding retirement.

Clicking through to the article, a glance at the subheadings showed that there really isn’t much that’s different between the advice it gives to those just starting out and what I’d be saying to an older person, e.g.’Don’t get discouraged by failure and keep trying’, ‘Have the courage to stand out, and stand up for yourself’, ‘Find a strategy that emphasises how interesting and unique your background is’.

So are the challenges faced by older and younger job seekers essentially very similar – what are your views?

To access the BBC article go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19464117

 

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.