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Posts Tagged flexible working arrangements

Budget bonanza for employers of baby boomers – or is it?

Posted by Catriona in Commentary, Musings on May 17th, 2012

The recent Australian Federal Budget decision to reward employers of mature age workers with $1000, generated a bunch of articles in mainstream and industry press about mature workers – the barriers and the opportunities. Given our 10 year focus on the risks and challenges posed to organisations by this demographic shift  in the workforce, we are avid absorbers of all research and commentary. We would love to read something more ground breaking and insightful than a regurgitation of the barriers of discrimination, the inevitability of retirement and the general assumptions about mature workers . That said, anything that keeps mature workers firmly on the agenda is good. But in the words of Elvis, “a little less conversation, a little more action please”.

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)

 

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Finders Keepers

Posted by Alison in Commentary, Musings on April 22nd, 2012

Anything that keeps the ageing workforce issue on the agenda and in the spotlight gets the thumbs up from Sageco. However, the Jury’s still out on the new mature worker bonus incentive package announced this week.

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…

 

 

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Alumni – A nice thing to do for older people?

Posted by Catriona in Commentary, Media on February 23rd, 2012

As mature age workforce specialists, we are often quizzed about alumni programs for organisations. Most of the questions are about how to engage retired ex-employees  into such a program. We don’t really ‘do’ alumni programs, but the solutions we have for mature workers would definitely contribute to an alumni initiative.

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.

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The Big Story: maximising mature-age employees

Posted by Alison in Media on July 8th, 2011

Baby Boomers have challenged each and every life stage they’ve passed through, and the concept of retirement is proving no different. However, with unconscious bias and discrimination still occurring, clearly there’s a lot more that employers need to be doing to maximize the potential of this workforce.

In this HCTV Big Story, we talk to Alison Monroe, managing director, SageCo, about what employers need to be doing to facilitate mature age workers in their workforce. As Catriona Byrne, director, SageCo, points out, often it starts with a conversation between manager and employee. Cindy Grass, HR director, Millward Brown adds that flexibility can work for all employees. As an example of how seriously the mature age challenge is being taken by many organisations, Rowan Arndt, head of diversity & inclusion for the NAB Group, talks about his company’s new mature age strategy.

Watch the video interviews here!

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Talent War turns grey

Posted by Alison in Commentary, What we're up to on July 2nd, 2011

June’s HR Monthly magazine features an opinion piece from Colleen Harris, NAB’s Executive General Manager of Human Capital and advocate for NAB’s MyFuture project.

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

 

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