Managing your ageing workforce: What’s getting in the way?

In both my research and consulting work I have the opportunity to talk to many organisations regarding their workforce demographics. Of the many conversations I’ve been part of very few have mentioned the age profile of their workforce. So what is getting in the way of organisations acknowledging the inevitable ageing of their workforce? I believe there are three barriers to organisations managing their ageing workforce: no sense of urgency, no support for action, and no engagement with older workers.  

Economic conditions have given organisations a false sense of security when it comes to their ageing workforce. Older workers have delayed retirement, waiting for more favourable economic conditions to draw on their superannuation and new workers have been relatively easy to recruit. Many organisations simply don’t have the data to analyse their workforce demographics. Many organisations can only give a ‘ball park’ percentage of workers who are over 50 or admit they don’t know. It’s impossible to have a sense of urgency about an ageing workforce when you don’t understand what that looks like for your organisation. As a start we need to know: How many? Who are they? What jobs are they doing? What do they want to do in their late career? What organisational knowledge do they hold? Who will replace them when they leave? Organisations need to acknowledge the ageing workforce as a critical issue and analyse their business specific issues.

The barrier I personally find most intriguing is CEO and manager support. There is a very strong and widely discussed business case for older workers however there is a lack of traction in many originations for doing anything about it. While the lack of urgency factors no doubt play a role here I believe there is a deeper issue influencing a lack of support from executives – as a cohort they are predominantly older workers. I have had conversations with managers (including HR) who have; jokingly said that the ageing workforce won’t be their problem because they are retiring soon; been defensive about labelling older workers, or felt it discriminatory to talk to staff about late-career or retirement issues. This aspect of diversity may be too close to home for many key decision makers which is preventing it from being addressed.

Research is consistently showing that older workers are underprepared for their late-career in terms of continuing to work, retirement planning, and life planning in general. Older workers have taken on-board many of the stereotypes which are the source for age discrimination. This is shaping their beliefs about what they can and cannot do in their late career, reinforced by age norms and the public narrative about older people. Organisations need to engage with their older workers to develop and implement an inclusive workforce plan strengthened by positive organisation narratives about older workers. Organisations have an opportunity to create change in how older workers are perceived which can spread into the community.

Now is the time for organisations to take a good look at their employee profile, create a sense of urgency around the specific workforce ageing issues in their business, address the conscious and unconscious biases that may exist about ageing in the workplace, and engage with their older workers to create an inclusive workforce plan.