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Posts Tagged working longer

Three reasons why organisations should support retirement planning

Posted by Catriona in Media on December 12th, 2011

Envisage - Create your future

Envisage journal for retirement, redeployment, career management plannign

In HR Daily today, I was asked ‘When should you talk to employees about retirement?’ It’s never too early, but we would recommend that by the time employees turn 50, their performance development review conversations should include the topics of future work intentions and retirement conversations. And organisations should be actively supporting their decision making about the future. Why?

  1. Forward planning allows for enough time to transfer knowledge. There is an opportunity to shape a mature employee’s role to support knowledge sharing activities.
  2. The more support a mature employee has in making work and retirement decisions, the more likely they are to experience a positive and productive career.
  3. By having a timely conversation about future working intentions, you may retain that mature employee for longer. They may work differently, but you can reduce recruitment and training costs and minimise knowledge risk.

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65 ain’t 65 anymore

Posted by Alison in Commentary, Media on September 29th, 2011

Just as 40 is the new 30, 65 ain’t 65 anymore

writes Greg Jericho in The Drum Opinion yesterday.

Last week the Daily Telegraph ran a front page story with the cheery headline “Graveyard Shift“, bemoaning that mature workers are being ‘forced’ to work longer. Not so, says Jericho. The facts support this counter argument, we are living longer healthier lives and mature workers have been steadily ‘working longer’ since 1983. A trend quite removed from the impact of the GFC and stock market fluctuations.

we should not be running front page stories about older people having to work, we should be running front page stories about what governments and employers are doing to encourage and help those over 65 to work

SageCo echoes these sentiments in an article published by Human Capital Online last week, sharing data gained from over 2500 mature workers in the past year on their future working intentions.

It comes down to individual choice (and of course ability) to continue working. For choice to occur, there need to be options available. For options to be available, organisations need to focus on reshaping the way we work and create space for the conversation.

81% stated they would continue to work, if they could work differently. The problem is that the conversation is not taking place, said Monroe

It is integral for leaders to be talking to the mature members of the team, and gauging their future work intentions, not their ‘retirement intentions’, which sends the wrong message to the older workforce.

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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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demographic deficit

Posted by Catriona in Commentary on February 3rd, 2011

In a major speech on economic reform, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard said we need:

“… long-term strategies that address the expectation that Australia’s population over the age of 64 will nearly double to 25 per cent of the population by 2050. That is why this year I will continue to take steps to improve the incentives for such potential workers to rejoin the labour market, while also investing in the intensive support needed to lift their skills and job readiness,”

But it’s not just the workers who need incentives. The crunch comes when employers have not invested in creating a work environment that will attract this demographic. Investing in job redesign and support programs that challenge the traditional model of work is the key. People will work longer if they can work differently.


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