Here are our suggestions for actions and a more thoughtful approach:

• Don’t treat ‘mature age workers’ as an homogeneous group; within this demographic there is a raft of diverse needs and ambitions. Are they long term unemployed? Are they wanting to ‘downsize’ their work responsibilities? Do they want a more flexible role? Do they want a complete career change? Are they seeking a portfolio of a career? Do they need less physical load in their role? Do they simply need more time to address caring responsibilities? Are they experts in their field whom you need to retain for their knowledge?
• As an employer, how can you redesign roles that suit the needs and ambitions of the mature age worker you want to retain or employ?
• As an employer, how are you supporting your current mature age workers to make decisions about their future work and retirement plans? Unless we challenge the assumption of retirement and create options for work beyond the traditional age of retirement, we won’t be successful in increasing workforce participation for this demographic. Take a look at Envisage for instance!
• As a mature age worker, what are you doing to stay connected and current and marketable to future employers? There is plenty of free and low cost help available to help you shape your approach to your career.
• As a manager, what deeply held stereotypes do you adhere to when thinking about employing or retaining a mature worker? What are you doing about shifting those and what will you miss out on if you don’t?

By all means, reward employers who employ mature age workers. But if they haven’t done some of the groundwork as mentioned above, it could be $1000 bucks down the drain.

Here are some of the better articles we’ve read lately – enjoy.

Adage - Mature workers feeling the love in Swan’s budget for battlers (an excellent breakdown of what the government is offering)

The Advertiser – Older workers not the retiring type (a positive article on working longer)

Human Capital Magazine – Mature age workers – added extras at no extra cost! (the argument for employing mature age workers)

Saipan Tribune (US) – Age, appearance and attitude (tackling some elephants in the room)

On-Line Opinion – Hiring older Australians – Lessons from Singapore (a compelling argument for how the money might have been better spent with better returns)

Twilighters, people aged 63 and above, have emerged as the fastest growing workforce segment group according to the May 2012 MyCareer Employment Forecast.

I’m not sure I would ever want to be called a ‘twilighter’ – but we’ll gladly add it to our wonderful list of euphemisms for ‘mature age workers’. What’s interesting about this report is the changing face of the workforce. The number of working people aged 63 and over has doubled in the last 15 years. It would seem that ‘twilighters’ aren’t simply a group of people ‘waiting to retire’ or trapped in a ‘work forever’ cycle. People are choosing to work longer and differently – for all sorts of reasons. This is THE fastest growing workforce segment group – faster than the Gen Ys!

So – five questions for employers might be:

1. What are you doing differently in your workplace to ensure that you employ your fair share of ‘twilighters’?
2. How would you attract a ‘twilighter’ to your workplace?
3. What training ,development and support would you provide a ‘twilighter’?
4. How will you retain your current employees so that they share the ‘twilight’ of their career with your organisation, rather that somewhere else?
5. Is it age or attitude that matters?

Organisations that have planned and invested in mature age workers already will be the ones that benefit from this dynamic workforce segment.

In response to the Final Report of the Advisory Panel on the Economic Potential of Senior Australians (also entitled ‘Turning Grey into Gold’), the Government has pledged $10M over 4 years for new ‘Jobs Bonuses’ to help tackle age discrimination and encourage 10,000 businesses to employ 50+ workers. In return, the business will receive a $1000 bonus if the employees stays on board for a minimum of 3 months.

Which all sounds well and good. In principle. We are keen to read the fine print which will reveal how employers will find out about (and access) funding,  how much paperwork (and time) will be involved, and the criteria for eligibility (any mature worker 50+ or restricted to long term unemployed?)

As Sageco we would not seek financial incentive to hire mature workers. It simply makes good business sense. Why wouldn’t we want experienced, knowledgeable, sometimes quirky people over 50 joining our team and adding to our deep smarts?

So on the topic of hiring mature workers, here are Sageco’s 5 top tips for making sure you can not only find the goodies but also keep them on board:

1. Look in the right places. There are a wealth of fabulous candidates sitting on the databases of some of the niche job boards such as Adage and on the books of boutique recruitment firms like 2discover and 360hr. Mature workers are fed up of being overlooked and ignored by the ‘big guys’ so gravitate towards more mature age friendly employment providers.

2.Review your employer brand. When you take a look at your own careers page on your website, what do you see? Fresh faced young Grads smiling back at you? Or a page that represents a diverse workforce and therefore will also attract a diverse set of applicants? How is the language sitting? Age neutral? Steering clear of ‘fast paced’ and ‘dynamic’ that covertly indicates ‘youth’?

3. Assess your hiring process. Two candidates are on the short list, both with the skills and qualifications you are seeking. Candidate A is 27 and Candidate B is 57. “A” has been with their current employer for 18 months and is seeking a change. They are abreast of current interview techniques and psychometric testing. “B” has recently left their company after 26 years. They haven’t been for an interview in all that time and have never experienced modern testing methods. Who is set up to win? Think about levelling the playing field and adapting your processes accordingly to give everyone a fair shot at the goal.

4. Be flexible. Our research shows that over 2/3 of mature workers would continue working longer, if they could work differently. Funnily enough, ‘differently’ means different things to different people! So have the conversation. Find out what flexibility means to your new hire. It could mean full time hours over a 4 day week or later start/finishing times. Flexibility is a no-brainer. It engages, retains and enhances productivity.

5. Prepare for the future. We love this quote “Plan for the future, because that’s where you are going to spend the rest of your life”. Wise words from Mark Twain. So, it goes without saying that if you support your mature employees to think about, plan, prepare and take action regarding their ‘late career’ and future retirement, then they will give you their loyalty and commitment. And you will benefit from them being ‘fit for work’ health-wise and taking ownership of their work and life decisions.

The full paper detailing the Government response to the EPSA report can be found here

We would love to hear your thoughts…

Beginning not an end

Whatever your religious beliefs or persuasions, it’s well accepted that the egg is a symbol of new life or a new beginning. And eggs are hard to avoid at Easter time. The shops are full of them.

This is our Envisage egg. Envisage is all about creating the future from what otherwise might be considered ‘the end’. We’re adamant that late career, retirement or redundancy is not the end. Envisage provides a framework to turn ‘the end’ into the beginning of something new.

As you indulge in an Easter egg or two, think about the future you want to create and what framework you need for support.

Enjoy the Easter holiday break!

1. Review whether organisational culture (current personnel policies &management style) affects the employment of mature aged workers and therefore may need to be changed.There is value in spreading management activity over the full range of diversity issues in order to lessen the chances of certain groups in theworkforce feeling marginalised.To achieve changes in your workplace you may need to address perceptions of the value of mature aged workers – mature agedworkers should be considered for positions in the context of their individual abilities and capacities – and the challenge of contributing to thepromotion of cultural change in the way that the community perceives mature aged workers.
2. Identify what alternative jobs or flexible arrangements (i.e. shorter hours, different start and finish times, additional unpaidor purchased leave) can be offered to encourage retiring workers to keep working or entice mature aged workers backinto the workforce.
3. Ensure that any changes to the culture of the organisation benefit the business as a whole and do not lead to the loss ofkey younger employees.
4. Communicate to all staff the reasons for and value of the business broadening its approach to employment.
5. Don’t create age clusters, involve other generation groups where necessary to achieve greater harmony between groups.
6. Introduce age-awareness training for HR personnel, managers & other key personnel.
7. Support individuals or groups of staff who want to develop initiatives to combat age barriers.
8. Encourage pre-retirement workers to pass on knowledge and competencies to other employees thus ensuring succession planning and minimising loss of ‘corporate knowledge’.
9. Remove ageist barriers in language, processes and policies that might hinder retaining or recruiting mature aged workers.

If you want to know how you can do the above, contact Sageco.

Here are some of the key points with our ideas for solutions:

• Just under half the respondents said the departure of older workers from their workplace has caused a loss of key knowledge or skills.
• Approximately 20% report that the departure of older workers has caused the organisation to be less competitive.
• More than 80% would like to see steps taken to retain older workers.

(Sageco’s Exchange program provides a strong framework for transferring knowledge between workforce generations and developing older workers as knowledge coaches. It distils the critical knowledge requirements, bolsters natural knowledge sharing and enables the intentional transfer of knowledge before older workers choose to retire. In fact, older workers may choose to continue working albeit differently – with a key component of their role as a knowledge coach.)

• Over two thirds or respondents believe the retention of older workers would benefit productivity.
• More than 75% see retaining older workers as a necessary precaution against the sudden loss of essential knowledge and skills.

(Sageco’s Envisage program is a visible, tangible way to support mature workers making work and retirement decisions. If you seriously want to retain mature workers, you need to support them as they plan for their career, their finances, health and relationships. Help them answer the question, “If not retirement, then what else?” Help your mature workers create a positive and productive future.)

Thank you to AHRI for providing the snapshot about this much discussed issue. This data cannot be ignored. Compare the cost of proactive investment in your current mature employees to the cost of recruiting, replacing, losing knowledge and losing competitiveness. Take action now.

Envisage - create your career

Since the eighties, restructures, redundancies, downsizing and outplacement have all been an unfortunate part of business. Maybe after thirty years, it’s time to make managing outplacement a core skill. We’ve all heard about bad outplacement: poor communication, knee-jerk reactions, low quality programs and an HR manager ticking boxes and hoping it will all go away soon. Employer of choice is so important. It drives investment in HR programs. Why, oh why, would you risk it all with a poorly managed outplacement program? Seriously, one disgruntled ex-employee on twitter has the power to undo a tonne of good.

Leon Gettler’s latest article in Business Spectator includes some blunt perspectives. What struck me most is the lack of monitoring of outplacement outcomes by HR managers.

“There is never a monitoring factor. It’s simply hand over the bucks and we feel really good and we can tell our shareholders that we have been good corporate citizens. There is never any follow-up, ever. The HR people are not financially accountable at all. All that money goes out for a feel-good purpose, but they don’t care a rats whether the person has a new job.”

Sageco has been running outplacement and career transition programs for years in addition to our suite of mature age workforce solutions. We believe career transition can be one of the most positive, life changing experiences for employees facing redundancy.

Here’s our tick-a-box approach for easy to implement, worry free outplacement:

• oversight by Sageco MD Alison Monroe who managed the largest single outplacement project for the Sydney 2000 Games
• a dedicated project manager providing guidance, monitoring, reporting and evaluation support for HR
• high quality, holistic resources via individual, group and online solutions
• superb, experienced coaches who’ve seen it all
• options for all budgets, locations and volumes of candidates

The Sageco Envisage program can be tailored, ensures a high duty of care and builds the capability of HR to manage redundancies successfully.

Duty of care. Tick. Employer of choice. Tick. Ex-employees who sing your praises despite experiencing a redundancy. Tick.

Get your outplacement program sorted now.

Here are some of the questions we ask:

• What’s the business imperative for setting up an alumni? Is it a potential talent pool or living, walking knowledge base? (If it’s just about doing a nice thing for older people then it’s dooooooomed.)
• How are you engaging your mature workers now? How do you support their decisions about work and retirement? Maybe you could start with pre-retirees for the alumni. (There’s often quite a pause before people answer that question – if they can.)
• Do you have a transparent and defined process for re-engaging or re-employing  people who have retired? (The answers here are more miss than hit.)

The Washington Post Capital Business recent article on a graying workforce cites some good examples of how organisations are engaging retired workers.

The Agriculture Department is working with the National Older Worker Career Center to encourage people 55 and older — many of them retired federal employees — to come back to work on a specific project or be a temporary or part-time worker.

Joel Reaser, senior vice president at the Arlington-based center, said the program benefits older people who don’t want a full-time job but still have experience and knowledge as well as a government agency that’s facing an impending wave of retirements.

The effort is “not just a nice thing to do for old people,” said Reaser. “It’s absolutely critical that all employers, including the federal government, learn how to … retain [employees] further into their lives, extending their work lives and finding creative ways to bring them back.”

We couldn’t agree more.

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.

“…In the resources sector, we’ve had to be quite creative in actually keeping older people on-board. We see them as a wonderful source of experience and knowledge. The labour demands in our sector are massive – and the skilled talent pool is actually drying up…” Senior HR Director, Resources Sector.

The topic of discrimination is of course very serious. But it intrigues me that over the eight years that Sageco has focussed on mature age workforce solutions, we struggle to find anything new under the sun. Except, of course, the fabulous new Age Discrimination Commissioner, Susan Ryan.

So, I asked myself the question, “What’s my attitude to workers (putting age aside)?”. Here’s my list as someone who has recruited and employed people for my various teams over the last 20 years.

I want ‘workers’ for my team who:

1. Keep themselves current - with skills, news, styles, professional associations and good coffee.
2. Keep themselves connected - team members who connect me with other great people. Is there a better way to network?
3. Keep managing their career - workers who grow their own career, invest in it and keep moving forward. The ones who can’t imagine not having a career in some way, shape or form.
4. Keep curious - I love workers who ask questions, challenge the norm and always want to find a better way.
5. Are confidently competent. Fullstop. I’ve come to believe that the description ‘highly competent’ is one to strive for. The cost of incompetence and a manager’s inability to deal with it is astounding.

Hand on my heart, I can say that I’ve employed 24 year olds and 67 year olds who get big ticks against all five characteristics. If you’re a ‘mature worker’ , this is a gentle nudge to check yourself against this list. How do you fare?

To employers – maybe you need to write your own list. And seriously ask yourself: What does age have to do with it?

PS Want to found out how over 10 000 mature age workers have started to Envisage their own future and move beyond the attitudes they face? Come and try in February and March.