Doing nothing is not an option!

A range of great speakers across the 2 days shared the steps that they have boldly taken to engage and retain their mature workforce.

Some pearls from Kate McCormack, Executive Director, People Learning & Culture at Mercy Health included;

We are training our managers that the default answer when it comes to flexible work requests is YES. They have to then find a very good reason why not, if there is one!

The conversations at Mercy Health that we have ignited through our people leader and mature worker programs are changing the mindsets one by one

Juliet Andrews People and Organisation, Ernst & Young provided an overview of the robust Work Ability model, derived from The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and currently being adapted for the Australian workplace. The essence of Work Ability is this – a holistic and self managed approach to wellbeing at work proactively manages productivity, health and safety, culture and engagement, and costs related to absenteeism and claims. Whilst the framework is applicable across ‘all ages all stages’, productivity gains amongst mature workers are evident.

Delegates enjoyed the journey of ‘The Fox’ – a presentation by Michelle Joy, OD Manager with Linfox. A creative and age neutral approach to learning for all employees across the organisation, regardless of role or location gave us all some food for thought.

Rowan Arndt, NAB’s Head of Diversity and Inclusion, opted for a highly interactive discussion with participants, sharing the critical success factors and learnings behind NAB’s award winning MyFuture program. These included;

• developing a sound business case upfront
• engaging executive champions and people leaders
• measuring results which to date includes 27% of mature employees who have participated in MyFuture subsequently moving to a flexible work arrangement (with those working flexibly found to be 30% more engaged) and people leaders putting practical knowledge sharing initiatives in place. NAB has also shifted the average retirement age out from 57 in 2009 to 60 in 2012 – a remarkable achievement over a relatively short timeframe

The MyFuture program forms one part of NAB’s overall diversity strategy which is underpinned by the saying;

I see you for you

IAG’s CEO Mike Wilkins is mentioned in our previous blog post, having resided on the executive panel at last week’s Older Workers and Business Growth forum convened by The Hon. Susan Ryan, Age Discrimination Commissioner. IAG’s Group GM of People & Culture, Steve Rowe, reiterated some of Mike’s passion and key messages regarding engaging and retaining mature talent and cited the importance of not losing critical knowledge and experience when a key person retires. Steve’s focus going forward is on ensuring IAG is a place where ‘diversity of thought’ is embraced and encouraged.

We were even fortunate to hear from a real life ‘sage’ – the wonderful Peter Gillman, a 40-year engineer with Sydney Water. Peter has spent the past few years as a champion of the organisation’s knowledge transfer project,which focusses on their ‘technically influential group’. Peter shared the steps taken as these;

1. find out who wants to know what
2. identify what is tacit and what is explicit
3. make the knowledge easily accessible
4. keep the knowledge accurate and current
5. have a community of practice working on it so that ‘all the eggs are not in one basket’
6. measure the value of the knowledge
7. connect the project with other internal initiative

We loved this quote from Peter;

I know more than I can tell; I can tell more than I can write”

We are all responsible for creating the future workforce that we ourselves will move into. How do we want it to look when we get there? As summarised by Rowan, this means creating a workplace where “people feel safe and respected for who they are. They can pursue a career with us as long as they can  make a contribution no matter where that might be. NAB will be a magnet employer”.

Each delegate went away armed with ideas and practical actions to implement within their own organisation.

A small step can indeed create a giant leap, in the words of the great, late Neil Armstrong.

In all our years of coordinating, attending, chairing and/or presenting at such conferences, it is rare to see such a line up of organisations and case studies on offer as this.

You will hear from ABC, NAB, Nissan, Linfox, IAG, Uniting Care, Mercy Health, Ernst & Young and more…

The conference will offer you the opportunity to:

• EXAMINE age management strategies to increase retention of mature employees
• DEVELOP effective job design to meet the needs of your ageing workforce
• ACHIEVE an age inclusive culture to reduce discrimination and pre-conceptions about age
• IMPROVE the technology capabilities of older workers

And what’s more, Tonkin have generously offered clients and ‘friends’ of Sageco a whopping 20% discount on the registration fee so be sure to mention us when you book.

We might see you there! Full details and registration form here.

Bryony Binns, Pam Spencer, Jeff Milne, Deanna Jenkins, Alison Monroe

Over 50 HR leaders gathered for lunch yesterday hosted by Baker & McKenzie with presentations from Sageco, NAB, Sydney Water and Australia Post. It was a rare opportunity to share perspectives from a range of industries such as legal, financial services, public sector, telecommunications, postal and insurance. There was much wisdom in the room.

Our three panellists concurred – the importance of understanding the reasons for the rough seas (the drivers of change) – and being prepared well ahead was a central theme. All three organisations have embedded processes that support individuals through known change eg retirement and unknown change eg downsizing, redeployment and reskilling.

Pam Spencer from NAB’s Diversity and Inclusion group have used Envisage and Navigate as key pieces of their award winning MyFuture program. Over 800 mature workers and 400 people leaders have participated since 2012. The impact of MyFuture can best be measured in actions taken by participants. For example, since participating over 60% of mature age workers have undertaken a health check and scheduled a session with a financial adviser. Over 73% of their people leaders have taken steps to reduce barriers for their mature age team members and over 80% had had a conversation about the future with them. Cameron Clyne, NAB Group CEO is well known for saying that the bank would not have made it through the GFC without the ‘wise heads’ they have.

Perhaps the most poignant anecdote was about a man who had participated in MyFuture and the Envisage program. 12 months later due to restructuring he found himself taking redundancy. But his reaction was positive; he felt he was well prepared and supported for it having taken the time out the year before to plan his future. Had he not participated in MyFuture, he would not have been in the ‘good place he was in’.

Sydney Water’s Jeff Milne is the Manager of Performance Effectiveness. Over his eight years at one of the largest water utilities in the world, Jeff has overseen enormous change – including a reduction of employees from 21 000 to 3000. Sydney Water has a deep culture of support for change; the employees are necessarily change resilient. But it’s not by accident. Jeff and his team have worked hard to balance the demands of a high profile water utility with a duty of care – doing the right thing by people. With a mantra of communication – even if you have nothing to say – and structured programs to support career and retirement decisions like Envisage, there was much admiration for Sydney Water’s approach to change management.

Jeff emphasized the need to cater for individuals. Much of the Sydney Water workforce is from non-English speaking background. One size does not fit all and it’s important to use a range of approaches to support transition.

Deanna Jenkins, Program Manager for FutureSkills blew us away with figures about the effect of the digital age on Australia Post. It is no secret that the traditional way we send and receive mail has changed markedly over the last ten years. The impact on the Australia Post workforce to be able to respond to these changes is something that Deanna and her team are working on intently. Interestingly, amidst changes in strategy, structures and services, there has been a noticeable lift in the staff engagement scores in the most recent surveys. And just as impressive (to those who ever administer staff surveys) Australia Post had an 80% response rate completed online by a largely non-PC based workforce. It is relatively early days for Australia Post with the management of this enormous change to their business – but there is no doubt about their preparation.

So what did the HR leaders in the room take away?

• Doing nothing is not an option. Change is constant and we must consistently and constantly support our people for change.
• Take an individual approach wherever possible.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate – even if you have nothing to say.
• We must support our mature age workforce in particular to navigate inevitable change.
• Embed processes (and bring your employment lawyers in early!) to support transition – well before the impact of change.

Our thanks to Baker & McKenzie for hosting a great meeting of the minds.

Facilitator and coach

This week Sageco facilitator and coach, Michael Hollingworth shares what it’s like facilitating the ‘sages’ in the Sageco Exchange program.

At Sageco, the men and women we call ‘sages’ are the experts and most senior executives in organisations, who have spent a lifetime – or at least a very long time (measured in decades) – learning, leading and applying their knowledge in the specialist areas they direct.

Facilitating them in the process of capturing and transferring their expert knowledge is an unusual and fascinating privilege. Their stories are unique, and in telling them you get some glimpses (often totally unexpected) into the complexities of how our very complex society works.

Stories are told in every technical and management realm:

• How to locate an inexplicable leak causing lower pressure in some small corner of a city’s huge water mains network.
• What can be done to ensure safety and balance the clearly conflicting demands of a railway line and its road overpass, built in unavoidably unstable terrain.
• The secret skills of negotiation that keep a large public utility operating and profitable, while avoiding strikes and meeting the increasing pay needs and conditions of its workers.

All those involved in capturing their stories and handing on the skills of the sages learn and grow: the people who will take over their work from the sages, colleagues from other areas linked to their output, administrators who keep the workforce operating. Often the sages themselves learn all over again lessons they had forgotten – or knew by intuition or implicitly.
And perhaps the most satisfying aspect is to see the sages thanked and acknowledged by colleagues who understand, often for the first time, how much they contribute to keeping the wheels turning.

For over seven years the Sageco Exchange program has been used by organisations as a catalyst for knowledge transfer. Contact Sageco to find out more.

We need to create a more fluid working environment where we are encouraged to keep learning at intervals throughout our life cycle – in a workforce that lets us move in and out – at any age, without penalty.

Today at an employer roundtable luncheon convened by The Age Discrimination Unit in conjunction with Sageco, The Commissioner was therefore encouraged and enlightened to hear from organisations doing just this.

Organisations in attendance were at various stages of their age management journey, from  building the business case through to showcasing Award winning strategies. Telstra, National Australia Bank, QBE, Service First, PepsiCo, TabCorp and 2disccover shared their thoughts, their challenges, their initiatives and the positive impact of their strategies with the group and members of The Australian Human Rights Commission team.

Catalysts for taking action were explored. What was it that made these organisations move forward in developing mature age strategies and solutions?

• the data story – including a comparison of the average age of retirement within the organisation to the national average (59)
• health and safety – in roles with a high level of physicality and an ageing workforce
• knowledge loss – key people in the business retiring and taking with them critical know-how
• a wave of premature retirements and the mention by one executive that he ‘didn’t want to drop dead two years from now!’

Attraction and recruitment. Why are more mature workers not breaking through to final offer stage?

• a triple edged sword – successful placement requires a combination of marketable mature workers, age positive recruiters, and enlightened employers
• over qualified – the assumption being made that an experienced worker is not prepared to ‘downsize’ in late career
• ‘language’ – communication used in job ads by agencies and employers screening out mature workers at application stage

Retention. What are some of the triggers for retirement and how can organisations enable working longer, but differently?

• unconscious bias – unearthing myths, assumptions and stereotypes residing amongst people leaders
• conversations – enabling authentic conversations between mature workers and their people leaders
• flexibility – throughout the life course, all ages, all stages
• culture – creating an environment where mature workers feel valued and acknowledged for their experience

…and so much more!

Older workers have always been, and will continue to be, an important part of the Australian workforce. We are on the cusp of a vastly changing demographic, and it is now necessary for older workers to remain in the workforce to support Australia’s society and economy

- The Hon Susan Ryan, Age Discrimination Commissioner

With The Hon. Wayne Swann providing the Opening Address and presentations by Professor Philip Taylor, Susan Ryan, Professor Juhani Ilmarinen, and SageCo’s own Alison Monroe, this conference is bringing together the leading international experts on older workers.

It will be a forum for the exchange of knowledge among policymakers, employers and researchers and others with an interest in workforce ageing.

The Older Workers and Work Ability Conference will be held at the Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, on the 12-13 December 2011. Find out more and register now…

With over 100 attendees and held at Customs House, the agenda explored a wide range of topics under the umbrella of ‘targeting and aligning workforce strategies’.

Peter Duncan, Deputy Director General, Government Coordination and Corporate Administration, provided the opening address, stating some of the key ageing workforce objectives as;

• greater levels of labour force participation
• continual development of mature workers
• managing the transfer of critical knowledge
• implementing talent management systems to fill capability gaps

Geoff Gilfillan from the Productivity Commission in Canberra provided an overview of the Research Paper on Labour Force Participation Rates of Women 45+ with delegates then given an opportunity to work on a hypothetical challenging them to visualise “The Year 2020″ and what it would take to achieve ‘best practice accreditation’ for the employment of mature age women.

Output from the facilitated interactive session included tailored health and wellbeing interventions for mature women; equal representation of mature women in senior leadership and executive roles; redesign of the working day and the working week (from Part Time to Part Year?!); training in non traditional roles; carers leave extended to cater for elder and grandchild caregiving; and the debate on gender bias becoming obsolete as it will be a ‘non issue’ by 2020.

Chair Alison Monroe conducted an interview with Professor Philip Taylor of Monash University to gain an international perspective on age management and a ‘judges’ view of the AARP Best Employers Award for 50+ . Philip challenged Australian employers to look again at the opportunity to train, develop and upskill mature workers to enable them to remain employable, marketable and productive.

A lively session followed presented by John Cross, Assistant Executive Director of Workforce Planning at State Services Authority VIC, who challenged some traditional views and shared with delegates his framework for robust age management and workforce planning;

1. Accountability – shared between organisational leaders, frontline managers and HR
2. Appetite – assessing ageing workforce challenges through the risk lens and speak the language of the business
3. Design – job redesign and evolution over time, learning and development models that address future skill gaps
4. Data – the role of HR in collecting, collating and communicating the data story to the business, to which John added;

look at the ripples created by the rock, not just the rock itself as it is thrown into the water!

Case Studies were shared by Hunter Water, Department of Trade and Investment NSW and National Australia Bank – with a common thread seeming to be conversations and culture.

A jam packed agenda and one that resulted in delegates walking away with new knowledge and a variety of next steps. Each continuing on their individual and organisational journey, where one size does not fit all.

There is not one, simple answer (to workforce ageing). Our experience at NAB suggests that it is increasingly about flexibility. People will choose to work longer if they can work differently, whether that is through a new career path or a change of pace or working conditions

In fact, feedback from NAB’s mature workforce last year demonstrated that 91% of participants would continue working longer, if they could work more flexibly.

Read the full article here

250 senior executives and sages from the NSW Public Sector met for the inaugural mature professionals breakfast convened by Department of Premiers and Cabinet, IPAA NSW and SageCo.

Opening the breakfast, Director General of DPC, Chris Eccles said;

You all possess knowledge that has influenced and will continue to influence how we will do things in the Sector going forward. Every day this rich knowledge is harnessed to deliver services. This knowledge is not in policy guidelines and manuals…it goes beyond the ‘what’ to the ‘how’ and the ‘why’…

The Director General went on to encourage a return to the Master and Apprentice model, adding;

When you share knowledge, the very act allows you to gain unique insights and develop new knowledge from others. Share it and it will multiply.

We also heard from Ken, a retiree with 43 years service in the Public Sector. A ‘master’ who, with a colleague, wrote a software system that is now sold in over 100 countries around the World. Ken has worked with his ‘apprentices’ to identify and share his unique knowledge since 2008.

Participants at the breakfast engaged in conversation, created new connections, and identified their areas of specialist ‘mastery‘ – a very tangible first step in igniting a knowledge sharing culture within the Sector.

Hats off to DPC for leading the way in tackling the very real risk of knowledge loss in NSW.

Having bounced back from a brief spell of retirement himself, Brendan O’Reilly DPC’s Director General was the perfect sage to provide an opening address to the 110 delegates present, including representatives from NSW Public Sector agencies, Local Government, and Industry.

Brendan opened the inaugural ageing workforce conference held in 2006 and by his own admission “did not expect to be here 4 years later!” but gave his support and advocacy to the mission stating;

This conference provides an opportunity to share knowledge, discuss the challenges and create strategies to tackle workforce ageing

Delegates heard from a range of speakers on policy development, program implementation and best practise case studies from the transport and health sector.

A few key themes arising from the day;

1. know your data and create the story around it. present a sound business case for action
2. executive support and advocacy is critical in positioning ageing workforce as a priority
3. measure project outcomes and present back to the business
4. continuity and consistency is key. this is not a ‘tick a box’ challenge.

One aim of the conference is to ignite the age management journey for those contemplating the enormity of the task. We look forward to seeing delegates from yesterday up on the speakers podium in years to come sharing their stories and successes.