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Posts Tagged working longer

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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who’s retiring when?

Posted by Catriona in Research on November 25th, 2010

New research from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research and ANU provides more of a breakdown of who’s retiring when – according to the type of workers who remained in the workforce beyond the retirement age of 65 in the past 10 years. As reported in the Australian, there are two distinct groups who are ignoring the retirement age and remaining in the workforce; the most educated and the least educated.

Why the most educated?

  • they enjoy work and the social interaction
  • attractive employment conditions
  • they need to recoup an investment in education

Why the least educated?

  • the financial considerations of cash flow
  • less accumulated wealth
  • limited access to good retirement arrangements with super

We’re with Chris Ryan – author of the research:

I think there are positive things about keeping experienced, capable people working longer. I think there will be more people working at 70 than there are now, but they will have more choices with superannuation and pay more attention to their financial position as they age.

Organisations who actively support their employees in late career will benefit.

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What would influence your decision to work longer?

Posted by Catriona in Research on June 17th, 2010

Ageing workforce specialists SageCo recently asked more than 300 mature employees, “What would influence your decision to work longer?” More than 60 percent said that the opportunity to work the same role but on a more flexible basis would be a reason to stay. In the same vein, over half said that working in a similar role but with reduced hours and less responsibility would see them working beyond the traditional retirement date.

“The trick to the age management puzzle is slowing the rate of retirement” says SageCo MD, Alison Monroe. “Use your workforce planning data to determine the risk of not only how many you are losing, but also who you are losing.”

Extending the working life of our baby boomer generation is a key strategy for ensuring a future workforce. By 2016 we have more people leaving the workforce than entering it;  something has to shift. But how?

The results of this survey suggest that managers and HR professionals need to build a high level of competency in redesigning roles, applying flexible work arrangements and dealing with the more granular tasks of remuneration and superannuation.

While flexible work opportunities were the clear winner here, respondents showed strong support for an organisation’s alumni program to provide contracting opportunities and the means to contribute knowledge to special projects.

“SageCo sees a strong argument for the reinvention of the alumni model.” says Catriona Byrne, SageCo Director and Product Development Lead. “Up till now, most alumni programs simply provide a means for past employees to keep in touch annually.

We are having early discussions with a few progressive organisations who have tapped into the opportunity of using their alumni program as a way to resource the future. The new alumni model is a living, breathing knowledge database and a talent pool of experienced, contingent employees who can hit the ground running.”

None of these interventions will make a difference unless organisations have a baseline of good people management. However, it is clear that new practices must be put in place to influence retiring employees.

“The results also indicate that organisations need to actively support late career employees in their decisions about work and retirement.” suggests Alison Monroe “The mindset shift required by employees and employers alike won’t happen left to chance.”

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