Leading change to workplace age equality

By Steve Butler, CEO of Punter Southall Aspire and author of Inclusive Culture: Leading Change Across Organisations and Industries

The population is ageing, with life expectancy rising and fewer younger people entering work. Traditionally, the finance sector has ‘cut loose’ many older employees well before state pension age to accommodate younger people in the senior ranks and reduce longer-term defined benefits pension commitments. This practice has not served the sector well, with firms often jettisoning the wholesale experience, soft skills, and contacts of older workers.

Demographic changes are putting pressure on future talent pools. In their 2017 report, the Local Government Association estimated that by 2024 there will be a shortage of over four million people to meet the demand for high-skilled jobs. To fill that gap, look no further than the increasing availability of older people in the general population thanks to the ‘Boomer birth bulge’ during the 1950s and 1960s. Many people in this generation are not only able to carry on working into their sixties, seventies or beyond but also want (or need) to carry on being economically active. Their skills, experience and knowledge can complement the talents of younger employees.

In spite of this, many employers are still giving experienced employees incentives to retire early or letting them leave without finding ways to retain them, even part time or as consultants. This can cost the business a vast amount of expertise and knowledge, while casting aside people with thirty or even forty years of life ahead who aren’t prepared, psychologically and often financially, for their new situation. It is possible to retain (and retrain, if needed) these older employees while still promoting younger talent and containing costs.

To encourage age-related diversity in your company, it’s important to be aware of the challenges that employees may face at different stages of life:

• Older employees may want to scale down their role or their hours for health reasons or to achieve a better work/life balance. They may also have caring responsibilities to juggle.
• Those in mid-career may need guidance and support to determine how best to spend their remaining years with the business, including by retraining or changing roles.
• Women returning to the workforce may need to go part time or stagger their return so they can continue providing childcare.
• Many fathers now want to play a major part in their children’s early years, so they may need more flexibility too.
• Women going through the menopause may need support or flexible working.

One of the challenges for older employees is that work may not be the only call on their time and energy. Large numbers have caring responsibilities for partners, older relatives, or grandchildren. Many want to start reducing their working week to enjoy a better work/life balance or accommodate health conditions that make it problematic to work at the level they are used to.

Traditional career structures are changing, and at some point, in life – for example, when reaching a significant age – people will want to stop, re-evaluate, and think about taking time out to pursue other interests or explore other avenues. ‘Cliff-edge’ retirement will be a thing of the past. This opens up the opportunity for us all to enjoy fuller, richer lives, but it also throws up challenges. How will people negotiate changes with their employer or go about job hunting or retraining? How will they finance the years ahead if they are going to work less or in less-well-paid roles?

Enter the ‘midlife review’, sometimes referred to as a ‘midlife MOT’. The concept has gained significant traction in recent years – not least because the government is keen on the benefits that longer working lives bring to the national economy: reduced dependency on state benefits and increased tax revenues and gross domestic product.

Not to be confused with the regular career reviews that many employers provide, the midlife review focuses on the medium to long term and looks at a person’s situation holistically. It’s the starting point for deeper reflection on finances, work aspirations and overall wellbeing. In short, everything that can impact upon a person’s work is (ideally) examined, with a view to developing a clear perspective on what will enable them to be their best at work, for themselves and their employer – even if that means going part time, changing role, winding down to retirement or leaving entirely. Rather than being a way of trying to gently edge someone out, the overriding objective is to retain the talents and experience of older people in the workforce by identifying the right course to meet their needs and aspirations.