Older workers: a wider and deeper talent pool
The engagement and retention of older workers is essential for the future. The Australian Institute of Management explored this issue in a whitepaper released earlier this year.
AIM has identified a change in the Australian workforce with problematic flow-on effects for businesses. The national workforce participation rate is projected to drop from 65 per cent to 61 per cent in 2050.
Alongside a negative impact on the economy, a declining participation rate means increased competition among businesses for quality talent. AIM’s research, Engaging and Retaining Older Workers, as the title suggests, highlightsengagement and retention of older workers as a practical and effective solution that will help businesses future-proof themselves against this change.
AIM’s whitepaper identifies the declining workforce participation rate to be due to two main factors. First is the large cohort of workers expected to retire in the coming decade. The research shows over a third of people over 55 are currently in the workforce, and that “this age group now makes up almost double the proportion of total workforce as during the 1980s” (6). Second is the diminishing pool of younger workers entering the workforce.
What the declining participation rate boils down to is the gloomy forecast of a reduced workforce. The flow-on effect for businesses is increased competition for a smaller supply of employees.
Engaging and Retaining Older Workersidentifies key opportunities provided by older workers for managers and employees, and one of them is their role as a solution to the declining workforce participation rate. AIM claims that, “Older workers […] give an organisation a significant advantage as it opens up a talent pool that is both wider and deeper” (9). Older workers expand the talent pool to include greater numbers of potential workers while enhancing an organisation’s capacity to attract and retain the most talented and experienced people.
Older workers are a vital source of talent and are drivers of increased business productivity. AIM’s research indicates there is no statistically significant difference between the capacities of older and younger worker: both contribute equally although in different ways.
For example AIM cites studies by Monash University and AIM QLD & NT that finds older workers contribute “crystallized intelligence,” i.e. intelligence based on “knowledge acquisition and experience” (9). Another specific advantage of older workers is their perspective and guidance on branding and marketing with regard to the fast-growing ageing population market segment.
AIM’s research recommends several key actions businesses can consider in order to help make the engagement and retention of older workers a practical success (10). Some of them include:
· Consider specific recruitment strategies for older workers.
· Survey the workforce to gain more information about retirement intentions and to identify a timeframe for action.
· Develop age management strategies and retention strategies to ensure critical parts of the business are not affected by retirement.
· Develop mixed-age teams to ensure that the experience of older workers is spread across the organisation rather than consolidated in particular roles.
· Take steps to build older workers’ perspectives into decision making roles, to take advantage of their perspectives.
AIM’s research encourages the business community to actively plan for greater engagement and retention of older workers. Identifying and adapting to a changing workforce is an important aspect of workforce planning and managing well. But also, AIM states, experience built over time is a crucial element of a knowledge-rick workforce. Older workers are a cohort of “potential mentors and coaches that have the capacity to accelerate the development of individuals and enhance the productivity of organisations” (21).
The complete whitepaper Engaging and Retaining Older Workers, is available on the AIM NSW & ACT website.
