Envisage – create your future

Just over two years ago we embarked on our first ever online course adventure. We wrestled with how to take the half day, high impact, colourful, engaging Envisage seminar for older workers and successfully translate it to an online experience. The reaction from even within our own ranks wasn’t always confident.

• “I think the online participants will lose out.”
• “I’m not sure this is what older workers want.”
• “It just won’t be the same’.

But we are solutions focused. And we had organisations that needed an economic solution for their geographically dispersed workforce. Envisage Online was born in November 2011 and 18 months later we have some compelling data that surprises even the true believers amongst us. Envisage is a catalyst for taking action. It supports participants to take action on their goals for the future. We always run impact surveys between 6 – 12 weeks after the program.  Here’s the data from those surveys:

After completing the Envisage program, I have (planned to or completed)…..

What does this data tell us?

1. Envisage creates results. Many participants take action about their future as a result of participating in a seminar or online.
2. In the focus areas of health, finances and planning the future, there is 8% or less difference between face-to-face and online.
3. Well over two thirds of Envisage participants have conversations about their future with significant others after completing the course.
4. If one of your ageing workforce strategies is to support mature workers to make decisions about work and retirement, then Envisage OnlineEnvisage Online will get you a long way down the track.
5. If you want to increase engagement around flexible working options, knowledge transfer and manager / older worker conversations, then you will also need the Envisage seminar for greater impact.

Book now for your Envisage Online pilot

In the spirit of Envisage, take action now. All you need to do is sign up for an Envisage Online pilot before Thursday 13 June 2013 and you are on your way.

• Up to 50 participants from one organisation
• Each participant gets three months access to Envisage Online via a web browser – at work or home.
• Includes full implementation and communication support for organisation representative and an impact report on completion.

Envisage Online deal = $ 1800 + GST

For as little as $36 per person, you can create a productive and positive impact for your older workers.
Please note that this offer does not include journals, webinars or seminars. It is for participation in Envisage Online only.

Book now!  Or call 1300 72 4343 for this end of financial year offer.

Here’s what recent Envisage participants have  said:

“I think it is a practical wake up call to take things in hand and start some planning for retirement. Sometimes you can be paralysed by thinking you have left things too late but when you start to change things you find that you haven’t. I often read the money section of the Age newspaper but never acted on any advice from that. I have acted on recommendations from Envisage.”

Mercy Health participant

“I found the program to be very encouraging and feel more optimistic about the future as a consequence.”

ABC participant

“I found that I need to think outside the square about my future – not only with work commitments.”

Westpac participant

View this overview of Envisage Online for more information.  We look forward to hearing from you.

I was addressing a men’s group at a dinner last night. They wanted to hear about the Olympics and volunteering and the ‘new retirement’. Bear in mind, most of these men had been ‘retired’ for 15 or more years. They were all active volunteers as airport ambassadors, or deliverers of meals on wheels or running the local op shop and the like.

I ended my speech with the quote and I was suddenly struck with how relevant it was to even this group of men aged in their late seventies upwards.There were plenty of nods around the room. They still had their bucket list and some goals for the future.

We’ve been running some data on the impact of our Envisage seminars and Envisage online. This is something else that’s surprised me this week. As far as we can tell, whether people are spending four hours in a seminar or an hour online, the impact on their personal goal setting is pretty line ball.

As a result of completing Envisage – either in a seminar or online:

• nearly a third of participants commit to a financial planning consultations
• between 33% – 44% get a health check
• nearly 70% hold a conversation about their future with significant people in their lives

I think the data is telling us, that even setting an hour aside to plan for our future can have a profound effect. It’s about being in action and taking steps.

So, whether you are 50 or 80, take an hour or two to plan for your future. Research tells us you’ll be happier if you do.

It’s International Women’s Day on Friday. And we particularly want to raise a toast to mature women. In our experience, Diversity Council Australia bears this out, mature women are a group who are most likely to be undervalued, underemployed, discouraged and departed when it comes to workplaces.

Some years ago, I was working on a major mature workers retention project within the public sector. The project manager – let’s call her Yvonne – was an energetic and insightful senior woman in her early 60s. She had never quite cracked the ‘executive’ level of the public service despite numerous attempts, but she was obviously admired and respected. With surprisingly good humour, Yvonne shared a story of her early working days, when women weren’t invited to the superannuation information sessions. She remembers asking if she should be attending, but was told that given she would be getting married and having a family, she didn’t need to worry about it! Despite the discouragement, she pursued superannuation advice; she missed out on being part of a defined benefits scheme by a matter of weeks. Over the last ten years, she’s watched her male colleagues retire with comparatively lucrative superannuation, indexed for life.

Yvonne loved working, and despite what might look like a really successful career, she found that in her early 60s, she wasn’t considered for new opportunities being “over-qualified”. She’s now departed the workplace and hopes to consult to continue participating in the workforce.

There are tens of thousands of stories like this one.

What do mature women really want? What can employers give them?

Identity: Mature women want to be valued and recognised for their work and non-work roles. The much held assumption of retirement or full-time elder / child care for this co-hort is limiting. Providing support for making decisions about their own future – which could equally include starting a new career or returning to work or developing their role, is something all employers should consider.

Money: Mature women want financial security. Many women have been disadvantaged with retirement savings. Tailored, focussed financial advice for mature women is imperative.

Career: Women aged 55+ form the fastest growing labour pool. Designing roles that particularly attract mature women will stand any employer in good stead in a market where skills shortage is a major challenge. Providing career coaching and development opportunities for mature women will empower them to challenge the assumption of retirement or underemployment.

Health: Mature women spend a lot of time caring for others – often to the detriment of their own health. What programs can employers put in place to particularly support healthy ageing for women?

Relationships: Mature women spend a lot of time caring for others – but who is caring for them? Mature women want happy, healthy relationships. Employers who recognise and acknowledge the relationship demands that mature women juggle and structure work demands accordingly will benefit.

One might argue that these five things are relevant to men and women; and you’re right, they are. But there are points of emphasis in each area that are particular to mature women. Providing a structured framework for women to have conversations and take action will reap benefits. Some organisations we work with have used Envisage as a means of providing this framework to mature women. Some are holding International Women’s Day seminars specifically for mature women; they were oversubscribed in a matter of days!

You can road test the Envisage half day seminar on Thursday 21 March in Sydney. You may like to invite some mature women in your organisation as an International Women’s Day gesture?

We have the opportunity to transform undervalued to valued, underemployed to richly employed, discouraged to empowered and departed to recruited and retained.

More information and links:

Envisage Open seminar. Thursday 21 March 9 am – 1 pm, Sydney. Register now.
Free Envisage resources to support identity, money, career, health and relationships.
Diversity Council Australia news.