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

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

Media personalities vs. ordinary people

An interesting comment has appeared in HR Magazine in response to the news that racing commentator John McCririck is seeking damages of £3m from Channel 4 following their decision last year to drop him. McCririck, 72, is alleging ageism.

In the article, Caroline Gumble, HR director of manufacturing organisation EEF, highlights the need for employers to be “hotter” on performance management if they are to avoid leaving themselves open to potential ageism cases such as this.

Ms Gumble is undoubtedly right in as much as this case will probably encourage employees to bring cases against their employers where they feel they have experienced ageism. Employers who have not exercised good performance management prior to terminating the contracts of older employees may well find themselves with scant defence to offer.

However, like the Miriam O’Reilly case a couple of years ago where the BBC was sued for dropping a presenter for reasons of both ageism and sexism, there are issues in this case that are undoubtedly unique to the nature of the media. For example, how can a media channel replace a presenter when they feel a need for some new blood and a fresh approach if they are constrained by potential claims of ageism? And at what age does ageism kick in – presumably it must be linked entirely to the nature of the programme?

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this case, but even more interesting will be finding out the extent to which improved performance management would make any difference at all in relation to this type of media role.

For HR Magazine article click here

A great step forward in upskilling for older workers?

Interesting and potentially exciting news at the end of 2012 that a group of established UK learning institutions are joining forces to enter the world of MOOC provision. For the uninitiated (which, until reading this article, included me) MOOCs are ‘massive open online courses’ – training courses that typically free, conducted online and open to anyone who wants to participate

In 2013 12 UK universities will be getting together to form a new company that will offer the online courses – under the brand name of FutureLearn Ltd. The universities are: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, King’s College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick, along with UK distance-learning organization The Open University (OU).

Several U.S. universities including Harvard and MIT are already involved with MOOCs as are a few other UK universities but this will apparently be the first large group to set up a dedicated MOOC business located in the UK.

Details of courses and operations are yet to be finalised but the OU said FutureLearn will be open to students in the UK and internationally. It will:

• bring together a range of free, open, online courses from leading UK universities, that will be clear, simple to use, and accessible.
• draw on the OU’s expertise in delivering distance learning and pioneering open education resources to underpin a unified, coherent offer from all of its partners.
• reimagine class-based learning rather than trying to replicate it online – using the potential of digital technologies.

Commenting on the development, Martin Bean, the Vice Chancellor of The Open University said: “MOOCs represent an enormous development in higher education, one that has the potential to bring about long-lasting change to the HE sector.” 

The potential role of MOOCs in ongoing learning and upskilling, particularly for older workers is theoretically vast and could be a key tool for helping people stay in work for longer. Let’s hope that this is borne in mind by those designing and marketing the courses.

Read more at http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/13/12-u-k-universities-forge-moocs-alliance-futurelearn-consortium-will-offer-uni-branded-open-online-courses-starting-next-year/

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