You might remember earlier this year when the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, encouraged those who have taken early retirement in recent years, but asking them to get “off the golf course and back to work!”. Since then we’ve had the “back to work budget” and detailed employer guidance has been published by the Equality Hub and the Government Equalities Office on helping individuals return to work.
This is fuelled by the fact that even this week there are still over 1,000,000 vacancies in the UK workforce and employers including housing providers are finding it difficult to recruit.
What do older workers want?
The CIPD put together a report last year, ‘Understanding older workers’. According to this over 10.4 million older workers (those aged 50 and over) account for close to a third (32.6%) of the workforce. The report made a series of recommendations based on the key issues that employers and policy-makers should understand when considering how to recruit and retain older workers.
The recommendations include enhancing the flexible working offering and providing early and ongoing support for health and wellbeing. The report points out that more than half of workers have a long-term health condition by the time they reach 60 which highlights the importance of supporting the health of workers throughout their working lives, to maximise their chances of enjoying a healthy and active life as they get older. Finally, employers should improve skills and training and guard against assumptions that older workers are less likely to be interested in training or career progression.
Returner programmes
The guidance focuses on returner programmes involving paid work, on a temporary or permanent basis, that give a supported route back to permanent employment. The guidance notes that returners can be people returning from any type of career break, so it will include those who are parents or carers, those who have taken a career break, or those who have decided against early retirement in favour of a return to work.
As the guidance points out, running a successful returner programme can have a positive impact on an employer’s reputation. The employer will be able to access a highcalibre talent pool of experienced and mature people, tackle skills shortages, and create a more inclusive workplace. Flexibility is now a necessary tool for employers to consider, and, unsurprisingly the guidance notes that it is likely to be high on the list of priorities for returners, especially if they have ongoing caring commitments. Offering a variety of working patterns – part-time work, remote work, compressed hours or job sharing – will be appealing for those looking to balance their professional and personal lives.
How to attract older workers?
In view of the benefits that older employees can bring to the workforce, it is sensible for employers to ensure that they don’t dissuade these people from applying for jobs when they advertise them. Job applications can often favour younger applicants so employers should look closely at how they word job specifications and approach the hiring process so that they are as inclusive as possible. This is getting a lot easier with new technology.
Efforts should be made by employers to make workplace cultures more age-inclusive. This will entail understanding that many in the older age group need to provide care for family members and that offering flexible working hours, part-time roles and carer’s leave would make work more possible for them.
Having an intergenerational workforce is something that displays a good culture of inclusivity within an organisation. The knowledge that older employees have should be openly acknowledged to have value and can be put to good use via things like mentoring schemes. An example of how this could work would be the younger worker providing tech knowledge, while the older worker would provide business and life experience.
A focus on retention
The ONS also surveyed in September 2022 to find why adults over 50 left the labour market. In the lowest age group (50 – 54), 19% left work due to stress, and 17% because they did not feel supported in their job. So, employers could influence the reasons why 36% of this age group left the workforce by addressing these reasons.
Consider taking positive action
Employers should also use the law to their advantage and consider taking positive action. These provisions can be used to boost the representation of older employees in the workplace.
The provisions apply where people who share a protected characteristic suffer a disadvantage, have particular needs or are disproportionately under-represented. The employer’s aim must be to enable or encourage people who share the protected characteristic to overcome or minimise the disadvantage identified, to meet the needs identified, or to enable or encourage people who share the protected characteristic to participate in the activity in which they are under-represented. Employers have the scope to take any action which is a proportionate means of achieving the aim.
Employers can also take a protected characteristic into consideration when deciding who to recruit or promote where people sharing the protected characteristic are at a disadvantage or are under-represented. Such action is allowed if individuals are as qualified for a position as each other, the employer does not have a policy of treating people who share the protected characteristic more favourably in connection with recruitment or promotion than people who do not share it, and the action is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
Continuing to have staff working into their 50s and 60s should be viewed as a positive option, a way of harnessing experience and expertise and at the moment a valuable labour resource.
