It’s national Men’s Health Week this week. Did you know? We wanted to bring it to your attention, because we meet a lot of men in the pre-retirement zone who attend our Envisage seminars. And the health statistics for men post retirement are significantly worse than those for women; particularly for men who retire early.

A 2005  study found that retiring at age 55 was associated with an almost two-fold greater risk of dying compared with employees who postponed retirement until their 60s.

Gender made a difference. The risk of dying early was 80% greater for men than for women, the researchers said.

The study doesn’t say, but we would hazard a guess that many people who retire early haven’t really planned for their future. They may also be retiring early because of poor health. Does this relate to you? Or someone in your circle of friends, family and colleagues?

In any case, men’s health really matters. Your health, the health of your father, your partner, your son, your brother will have a profound impact on decisions they make about the future. Can you take some time now to focus on men’s health? Here are three links to help you along the way:

1. Man Therapy ( a new site from Beyond Blue) It’s serious fun. No doubt you’ll meet some men in your life on their website.
2. Men’s Health Week - with loads of articles and resources
3. Envisage – free resources for people in career transition or pre-retirement

Happy Men’s Health Week to you!

We are thrilled to welcome the first 14 Corporate Champions who will be working with Sageco over the next 18 months. At its heart, the Corporate Champions program is a catalyst to encourage the recruitment and retention of mature age people. As we take the Corporate Champions journey with these employers (and others) our hope is that it will strengthen positive age-management practices in workplaces throughout Australia. We look forward to sharing some success stories with you!

Congratulations to:

1. Coca Cola Amatil
2. Blackmores
3. National Australia Bank
4. Australian Catholic University
5. BAE Systems Australia
6. Parliament of NSW
7. Amcor Australia
8. KU Children’s Services
9. Mercy Health
10. QBE Insurance
11. Bega Valley Shire Council
12. Telstra
13. Benetas (Anglican Aged Care Services Group)
14. TabCorp

If your organisation would like to participate in the Corporate Champions program and receive $20 000 of goods and services over 18 months towards strategies and pilots for the recruitment and retention of older workers, contact us.

And something quirky to end? Kudos to the Tasmanian Beekeepers Association for their initiative to keep the mastery of apiarists alive. Here’s to a few more generations of honey.

What we particularly love about this report is that it is a framework for action. As Kate McCormack, Mercy Health’s Executive Director of People, Learning  and Culture said on the panel,

“This is a blueprint for your organisation. The hard work is done.”

The research generated a framework for action to assist organisations to attract, engage and retain older female workers, as well as to structure effective transitions into retirement.

The seven key enablers are:

1. Source talent: tap into older femal talent
2. Career and capabilities: Leverage older women’s ambition
3. Cultivate culture: value older female workers
4. Get flexible: Focus on flexibility for older female workers
5. Invest in health and wellbeing: Work with older women’s wellbeing
6. Focus on finances: Support older women’s financial independence
7. Tailor transitions: Enable creative futures for older female workers

You can read an executive summary of the report or if you’re a DCA member, you can download a copy. We will unpack some of these enablers in future blogs.

This report is a call to action, and if you’d like some assistance for the next steps, then you should consider the Corporate Champion’s program. Sageco is a provider of the Corporate Champions program for organisations with 200+ employees. The Federal Government will fund $20 000 over 18 months for the following activities:

 Contact Sageco for an application form.

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.

1 Do you know what a ‘downager’ is?

McCrindle Research’s latest  collation of research around older workers in Australia looks at older workers, downagers, and redefining retirement. It features concise statistical evidence to challenge the notion and perceptions of ‘age’. Age is a relative concept and what was once ‘old’ is maybe not so old in these times.

2 Engaging and retaining older workers

You may have missed this excellent paper from AIM Qld. Very practical and sound research.

3 Success stories from Europe 

We’ve long been fans of the Eurofound website. Dig around for innovative case studies across a wide range of cultures and industries.

It’s one thing to read all about it – but quite another to actually do something. If you are an employer with over 200 employees in Australia, why not apply for the Experience Plus Corporate Champions program and receive up to $20 000 worth of assistance with managing your ageing workforce. Contact Sageco to find out more.

Well – our family is hooked. We’ve been tuning into The Voice over the last few weeks and cheering our favourites on. For the uninitiated, The Voice is a singing competition. What makes is different is four judges/coaches, all noteworthy recording artists, choose teams of contestants through a blind audition process.

In the final battle round this week, a 67 year old Steve Clisby and 44 year old Mitchell Anderson sang ‘Walkin’ in Memphis’. Remember, this is a show dominated by young and youngish performers who are hoping to ‘make it’. Sound like some workplaces you know?

The response was euphoric. And it got me thinking about assumptions we make about older workers.

1 Age is no barrier. How inspirational to see a 67 year old in a singing competition. Steve is a class act with years of experience under his belt. It’s not about his age; it’s about his attitude.

2 You deserve to be heard. Joel, one of the coaches, commented, that he was moved to tears, because he recognised how hard these singers had worked over the years – playing in bars where people weren’t really listening. He said, ” You deserve to be heard a lot earlier than tonight.” Which workers aren’t being heard in your workplace? I guarantee that you have older workers who deserve to be heard.  There was a permeating sense of respect for these two performers and they were definitely ‘heard’.

3 The merits of blind auditions. Competitors make it into this competition through blind auditions. I wonder if Steve and Mitchell would have made it otherwise; they’re not your usual candidates. They were judged on their voice – alone. If we judged our job applicants on results and competency alone, how diverse would our workforce be? There is no room for prejudice and discrimination when your applicants are singing to the back of your chair.

I could go on. Meanwhile, you might be interested in this article by Martha Stewart in a similar vein – It’s never too late to bloom.

And listen up Australian employers. If you want to tap into the rich advantage of older workers, how about becoming a Corporate Champion? A program funded by DEEWR, delivered by Sageco.

Working late: This research project focuses on strategies to enhance productive and healthy environments for the older workforce.For organisations who are serious about becoming corporate champions for their older workers – this site is developing excellent research and resources for:

• improving physical activity
• considering the daily journey to work
• designing workspaces and working healthily
• dealing with discrimination

And closer to home from Monash University, research suggests that there is a greater return on investment in supporting the health and well being of older workers. The labour market is the main area of the economy to be affected by the indirect costs of disease as demonstrated by reduced labour productivity and workforce participation.

The Sageco Envisage program includes health as one of its six key focus areas. Over eight years, our impact data consistently shows us that after participating in a seminar or completing Envisage online, 80% of participants planned to have a health checkup.It stands to reason – healthier workers stay longer, have less days off and are more productive.

Australian employers with over 200 employees now have an opportunity to champion the health and well being of their older workers (as well as many other initiatives) with the support of federal government funding in the Corporate Champions program. Register your interest with Sageco to find out more.

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.

We are keen collectors of statistics and research to support ageing workforce initiatives. If you need a few facts and figures for your business case, you might enjoy watching our latest compilation that we use in our Navigate workshops for managers.

And congratulations to AIM NSW & ACT on their excellent discussion paper on Engaging and Retaining Older Workers researched by Dr Lucy Burgmann. Definitely worth a read.

• Ageism in practice is age discrimination. Full stop.
• Good recruiters recruit the right person for the job and are able to coach employers on the selections they make.
• Attitude and aptitude play a part in job search success; it’s not always about age.
• Mature workers’ experience of taking a more junior role just to get back into work is rarely satisfying and they are misunderstood by the employer.
• There are examples of good practice around and we need to shout them from the rooftops.
• For fear of being accused of age discrimination, employers and recruiters use euphemisms such as ‘over qualified’, ‘too experienced’, ‘won’t be around for long’ (who is we ask?)
• Mature employees need just as much support in career management as younger employees.

I’ve republished here the comment by Robin Price from Queensland University Technology with her permission. Robin’s comments provide one of the best explanations I’ve seen on why focusing on age is futile and why the prevalence of ageism goes in cycles.

“Just throwing this observation in as I have been doing some work on younger and older workers and their experiences in the labour market – and this whole area really fascinates me. Age is a very fluid construct: an older worker is someone 45 years and up (job seekers, UN and Australian Bureau of Statistics). You are ‘old’ at 60 (United Nations) and in ‘old age’ at 65 (Australian Bureau of Statistics and OECD).

At the other end, youth is 15-24 (ABS, UN) and 15-29 (EU, OECD), so that leaves us roughly 15 years in the workforce to be neither younger, nor older workers.

Age, at both ends of the spectrum, is experienced differently by each individual based on a variety of individual characteristics.

‘Old’ age is also a matter of other people’s perceptions. This from a report by National Seniors Australia (2010): younger workers (aged under 45) routinely consider colleagues ‘old’ at 50, whereas most workers aged 45 or over consider colleagues ‘old’ only at 65.

Another key issue in relation to how easily employers are able to discriminate against any age group is the state of the labour market. Higher levels of unemployment deliver a larger pool of applicants to choose from, so you can exercise whatever prejudice you have more easily.”

Young. Old. Just words. (George Burns)

PS Want to discover just one simple positive and productive intervention that over 10 000 mature workers have experienced? Come to the Open Envisage seminar in Sydney Thursday 21 May. Book here.