The ageing workforce presents an opportunity to employers

The average working age is increasing across the globe and as a result, employers should embrace the benefits of a more mature workforce, says recruiting experts Hays.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people aged 60 and over is estimated to double to more than 2 billion by 2050. As the average age of populations across the globe increases, older workers will soon represent a greater proportion of the workforce and businesses must make sure they are utilising the skills of more mature workers.

Grant Torrens, Regional Director for Hays Singapore, says “At the same time as the pool of available workers ages, businesses are continuing to struggle to secure the people they require in skill short areas. Businesses that retain the key talent and skills already within their organisation will therefore have a skills advantage over those who do not value the benefits of a workforce of diverse ages.

“In order to attract and retain these mature workers, businesses need a clear strategy in place for supporting and managing their ageing workforce.”

According to Hays, businesses need to devote greater time and investment into training and reskilling, while also modernising working practices to account for flexible working to support older workers more effectively.

Hays offers the following advice to businesses on how they can encourage continued participation from older workers.

Removing bias
There is a misconception that younger workforces are more likely to cultivate innovation, however a Boston Consulting Group study of 1,700 companies in eight countries found that businesses with above-average total diversity on average scored 19 percentage points higher in innovation revenues.

“Many companies are focused on attracting younger talent but should equally think about more mature workers. In order to do so they need to remove any age bias that might exist – whether conscious or unconscious. While younger workers may have a greater understanding of new technologies, more mature workers can offer other skills which are just as important such as mentorship, judgement and experience,” said Grant.

Hays CEO, Alistair Cox, recently stated in his LinkedIn Influencer blog the value mature workers can bring to the workplace, “Older workers bring a huge amount of knowledge and wisdom to a business, at a level which simply cannot be taught but is gained only via experience.”

Time to develop
Employers must be aware of how to support more mature workers, who often have different commitments outside of work compared to younger workers.

Paul Irving, Chairman of the Center for the Future of Aging in California, says “Consider age-friendly approaches such as flexible work hours, job sharing, part-time opportunities, transitional retirements and workplaces designed for a changing demography.”

Alistair Cox also recently commented how beneficial flexible working practices can be for more mature workers, “Work is being re-designed and re-engineered. The rise of flexible working practices, combined with technological advancements, mean that the jobs we do, and the way we do them, is changing – mostly for the better, for all generations; younger and older. In essence, it’s becoming far easier to work for longer, if we want to.”

Learn from experience
Mature workers make good mentors to younger members of the workforce. Today’s workforce will soon be made up of five different generations. This provides a unique opportunity for businesses to facilitate the efficient transfer of knowledge from older, more experienced workers to their junior colleagues.

“The knowledge and experience older workers can share with a workplace is invaluable. Businesses can also consider two-way mentorship, whereby younger staff are provided with tutelage from senior colleagues in return for support in understanding and using new technologies, for example. This ensures that not only are more mature workers imparting their knowledge, but no one is left behind as the workplace becomes increasingly digitalised and complex,” says Grant.

Effective communication
With changing demographics on the horizon, there is set to be more generations in one workplace than ever before. This will mean lots of different challenges that HR departments haven’t had to deal with in the past. It is up to HR departments to communicate these to the workforce and they should be putting the topic of an ageing workforce at the top of their agenda.

Grant says, “There is a real opportunity for businesses to embrace the benefits of a multigenerational workforce, and those who actively adopt age diversity will be able to open their doors to a huge talent pool of older workers that may have previously been ignored and have valuable skills and experiences highly sought after by businesses.”

This issue is explored further in the latest Hays Journal.

- Ends –

About Hays

Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:

– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA