There have been a significant number of older people, i.e. those aged 65 years and older, who have entered the working environment. The statistics have been confirmed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
For example, the numbers increased by 25,000 in January to March 2014 compared to the previous quarter, which totalled rise of 107,000 over the previous year (‘Substantial rise in older workers,’ People Management, 14 May 2014).
Over three years since the abolition of the default retirement age, the Department for work and Pensions (DWP) has shown that more than one million people over 65 years-old now choose to stay in work (‘More than a million over 65s choose work instead of retirement,’ TAEN [The Age Employment Network], 50+ bulletin, September 2014). There are now 1,103,000 workers in that age group in work compared to 874,000 in December 2011 – an increase of 229,000.
Ros Altmann, the Business Champion for Older Workers in the Government, commented: ‘Older people are a huge resource for society and the whole economy. Indeed they have the potential to revitalise growth as more of them are working longer and staying active than ever before.’
However, there is no evidence that businesses are ready for ‘4D’ working environments, where employees representing four generations are working together (‘Businesses recognise benefits of age diversity but must do more to prepare for “4D” future,’ CIPD Press Release, 24 March 2014). It is the vision of UKCES (the United Kingdom Commission for Employment and Skills, a Government body) that this situation will be welcomed and not feared. However, it is recognised that businesses need to start working toward this objective now, although many are already recognising the benefits of having an age diverse workforce.
There is evidence that employers have removed the ‘missing million’ of over 50 year-olds from the workplace, according to the Prince’s Initiative for Mature Enterprise (PRIME) (‘More than one million over-50s pushed out of employment,’ People Management, 24 October 2014). Up to 1.5 million mature workers left the work environment involuntarily citing reasons such as redundancy, ill-health or ‘forced’ early retirement, despite 1.1 million being willing still to work.
Toby Peyton-Jones, the UKCES Commissioner, has raised the question as to whether this emerging multi-generational working environment will result in stress and culture clashes or create positive tension leading to innovation. In a large-scale survey by CIPD, nearly a third of employees reckoned that there would be no challenges in colleagues from different age groups working together. Employers and employees see the situation leading to greater knowledge management and sharing, and greater innovation.
Regardless, despite the possible positives, the CIPD research paper ‘Managing an age-diverse workforce’ indicate that many businesses are still not ready to embrace the opportunities of age diversity in the workplace:
· Nearly a third (31%) of employers say that they react to issues relating to the ageing population as they arise rather than have a strategy in place.
· Worryingly, 34% of employers are most likely to say that their business does nothing to ensure that it has access to enough skilled and diverse people of all ages.
· A fifth (22%) of employers say their companies have no provisions in place to ensure employees of all ages develop and keep their skills up to date.
· Nearly half (46%) of employers commented that line managers are not trained in managing teams of different generations and their organisations have no plans to alter this situation. It is an apparent oversight, especially in the light of 1 in 5 employees believing their managers to be ineffective in this area.
Claire McCartney, a Research Adviser at the CIPD, commented: ‘Despite well-publicised skills shortages and low productivity, our research shows that businesses are not doing enough to recruit from an increasingly age diverse talent pool. And even amongst those companies that are, many simply aren’t equipped to manage their own age diverse teams in order to maximise their potential. This is a missed opportunity and could put businesses at a serious disadvantage in a four-generational future.
‘The good news is that both employers and employees recognise the benefits that workers from different generations bring. Indeed, fears of intergenerational tensions in the workplace couldn’t be further from the truth. Companies report important business benefits such as knowledge sharing and enhanced customer service, while employees clearly enjoy the new perspectives and fresh ideas inspired by working with people of diverse ages.
‘To capitalise on these opportunities, businesses must be much more proactive. They need to do more to tap into the variety of skills an age diverse workforce can bring and ensure they are able to support the extension of working life. Practical and immediate steps they should take include employing strategies to bring in and develop talent of all ages and providing line managers with more support.
‘We know that the multi-generational workplace is on the horizon, and businesses need to act now if they want to be prepared.’
· The other key findings from the report were:
· Organisations today seem to be quite age diverse between the ages of 16 – 64 but very few (1%) currently have employees aged 65 years or over (compared with a median 20% of 25 – 34 year-olds and 45 – 54 year-olds and a median of 10% of 18 – 24 year-olds and 55 – 64 year-olds).
· Employees are far more likely to recognise the opportunities for innovation created by age diverse teams than employers. Whilst almost half of employees (41%) identified access to new ideas (41%) as a key benefit, only a small minority of employers (7%) cited greater innovation as an advantage of age diverse teams.
· People are planning to work longer. The highest proportion of employees surveyed (38%) is expected to retire between the ages of 66 – 70 years, while 16% are realistically expecting to retire after the age of 71 years. This is followed by nearly a third (31%) who are expecting to retire between the ages of 61 – 65 years and 11% between the ages of 56 – 60 years. Very few employees (4%) are expecting to retire before the age of 55 years.
· The initiatives that organisations are most likely to be using to support the extension of working life include: flexible working options (42%) and a flexible retirement policy (30%). However, three out of ten (30%) employers stated that they do not offer any support for the extension of working life.
It is this lack of support that makes employers reason that a third of their workers would struggle to perform in their current job beyond the traditional retirement age of 65 years.
A survey was conducted amongst HR directors by the benefits specialists MetLife UK and it was suggested that this was an emerging problem for employers as 54 per cent expected the proportion of older employees to rise (‘Third of workforce ‘will struggle beyond 65 in current role’,’ People Management, 28 August 2014), which is inevitable as there are now more people in the population who are over 65 years than people under 16 years.
The good response by the HR directors was that a third of the companies have a positive attitude toward older workers and 54 per cent stated that their company was neutral on the issue.
However, 12 per cent of the respondents admitted that there was a negative attitude toward older employees in their workplaces. This attitude could be affected by the perception that there will be higher rates of absence among older workers with 10 per cent of respondents thinking that older workers will take more time off, while 6 per cent of the respondents believe that the rise in the number of older workers will make career progression and recruitment more difficult.
In response, it has been shown that older workers can be more reliable in their attendance rates; although, with the usage of flexible working, they might not work the hours of a younger person. With the encouragement of the Government for people to work longer in their lives (mainly due to the realisation that there is not enough money in the Treasury for pensions), the issue of career progression and recruitment still has not been resolved and may be an underlying cause (with other reasons) for the persistent high percentage of youth unemployment.
Tom Gaynor, the employee benefits director at MedLife UK, stated: ‘Employers are on the frontline and need to respond positively to the demographic changes we’re starting to see in the workforce. It’s encouraging that there are mainly positive attitudes but there is still an undercurrent of concern and misguided thinking that could inhibit positive change. Older workers have a tremendous amount to offer and shouldn’t be seen as a problem but as a solution to many workplace challenges.’
In the Bible, we are given many examples of intergenerational working, such as (in the Old Testament) Moses and Joshua. There is teaching in the epistles for one generation to assist another (such as Titus 2: 2 – 12) and it is not always in one direction (see 2 Timothy 4: 11).
The older generation still have contributions to make as we are reminded in Psalm 92: 14 – ‘They will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green.’
It seems as though, by default, our society has finally come to the Biblical model of intergenerational working, which will work if the positivity and policies are in place to make it work with equity for all concerned.
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