For many, the old (no pun intended) adage — Out with the old and in with the new – perfectly summarises the attitude that many employers hold towards their older workers.
Britain, it seems, has an issue when it comes to age. An increase in life expectancy during the last 60 years, has left the UK with an ageing population and, by extension, an ageing workforce.
This has not stopped an apparent culture of institutional ageism in many workplaces.
New research may point to a change this perception. A joint study carried out by the “Institute for Employment Studies” and the “Policy Studies Institute” into the attitudes of management towards older staff members found a large proportion claimed they had no problem with allowing people to continue working past the age of 65.
Some even advocated the abolition of compulsory retirement. Some of the survey’s other key findings were:
- Age management policies and a positive attitude towards recruiting older workers is more common in large organisations, and less common in male-dominated industries and businesses that recruit internally.
- Older workers in sectors with skills shortages are recognised as a valuable resource, and employers are keen to retain them.
- Employers from small or a new businesses are often unsure as to how to handle the issue of age because they have no experience of staff retiring. Larger employers tend to be familiar with the retirement process and more often had policies in place to manage the process.
Report author Helen Barnes, principal research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, spoke to BNET about how an inexperienced manager might approach the subject of age.
Citing the example of one organisation who had an open and honest sit-down discussion with their workers, Barnes suggests tackling age as a group issue to avoid making individuals feel like they’re being singled out for being old:
“They just got them together and simply said ‘you don’t have to leave at 65’. Just by doing that simple thing they had a lot more people staying on after retirement age” explained Barnes.
“Employers must make a greater effort to communicate with staff and highlight that alternative working arrangements are a possibility, and that staff have a degree of choice in the run-up to retirement age.”
(Photo: AlphaTangoBravo/AdamBaker, CC2.0)
